Frequency 1490 kHz (AM) Format News, talk, sports | First air date 1947 | |
City Meadville, Pennsylvania Branding The Allegheny News-Talk Sports Network Repeater(s) WTIV 1230 Titusville
WFRA 1450 Franklin | ||
WMGW is an American radio station, licensed to Meadville, Pennsylvania, the seat of government for Crawford County. WMGW operates at the assigned frequency of 1490 kHz with a full-time power of 1,000 watts. WMGW is also the flagship station of the Allegheny News-Talk Sports Network, also owned by its licensee, Forever Broadcasting, LLC.
Contents
History
WMGW first went on the air back in 1947, as the very first radio station in all of Crawford County, founded by Meadville physician Dr. Harry C. Winslow. Dr. Winslow chose his daughter's initials (Mary Gene Winslow) for the station's call letters. Like many small-town radio stations of its time, WMGW broadcast for many years a format of local, world and national news, local and Pittsburgh sports, and adult contemporary music. WMGW was also complimented with an FM station bearing the same call letters for many years. World and national news was provided by ABC and the AP audio network.
In the early 1970s, the stations were purchased by the Regional Broadcasters Group headquartered in Kingston, New York. The FM station's call letters were changed to WZPR as a tribute to Meadville's Talon Corporation which, nearly a century earlier, had become America's first manufacturer of "hookless fasteners" or zippers. While WMGW's format remained the same, WZPR changed to Beautiful Music, and in 1978 changed to its current format: country.
WMGW was purchased by Great Circle Broadcasting in 1983, a division of the now-defunct Music Broadcasting Group. Approximately 5 years prior the purchase, the studios and offices of both stations had moved from their second floor location on Park Avenue to the Downtown Mall on Water Street in Meadville, allowing shoppers to see a glimpse of the stations at work. The station remains in this location today.
Sale to Forever Broadcasting
In 1999, Music Broadcasting began negotiations to sell WMGW and its FM sister, by this time called WZPR, to Altoona, Pennsylvania-based Forever Broadcasting, which had been looking to gain a foothold in Northwest Pennsylvania. Forever Broadcasting acquired both stations the following year for an undisclosed price.
WMGW Today
WMGW switched to a format of all news, talk, and sports, and through a cooperative effort with three other acquired stations, formed the Allegheny News Talk Sports Network. The network consists of a "trimulcast" outside of morning drive, with all four stations sharing the same programming, which includes Pirates baseball, and the NFL on Westwood One (prior to December 2009, WOYL in Oil City had also been a part of this network, in effect making it a quadcast; WOYL permanently ceased operations in July 2010). However, in morning drive, the trimulcast is broken down into a simulcast, with WMGW and WTIV airing a morning show independent of WFRA, which airs its own separate live morning show program with programming matter exclusive to its immediate local market. The full-time operations of the network and its respective stations originate out of the Downtown Mall location, but WFRA maintains a separate office and studio in WFRA's city of license in Franklin, Pennsylvania.
Keith Allen Austin hosts the morning show for WMGW and WTIV.
Allegheny News Talk Sports Network Affiliate Stations
All stations are owned by Forever Broadcasting, LLC