WBGG-FM

For the AM radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, see WBGG (AM).

WBGG-FM

City	Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Broadcast area	South Florida
Branding	Big 105.9
Slogan	South Florida's Classic Rock
Frequency	105.9 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	July 1960 (as WFLM)
Format	Classic rock HD2: News/Talk (WIOD simulcast)
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	314 meters (1030 feet)
Class	C0
Facility ID	11965
Callsign meaning	W BiG G
Former callsigns	WFLM (1960-1970) WIXX-FM (1970-1971) WAXY (1971-1983) WAXY-FM (1983-1994)
Affiliations	None
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc. (Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations	WHYI-FM, WINZ, WIOD, WMIA-FM, WMIB, WZTU
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.big1059.com

WBGG-FM, branded as Big 105.9, is a commercial radio station licensed to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and serving the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale media market. Owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., the station airs a classic rock radio format. WBGG is licensed for HD Radio and carries the talk radio format of sister station WIOD 610 AM on its HD2 channel.^[1] WBGG's studios are located on Rivera Boulevard in Miramar and the transmitter site is off Fifth Street in Pembroke Park.^[2]

History

The station first signed on the air in July of 1960.^[3] Its call sign was WFLM, Broward County's first all-stereo station, with an easy listening format. It was sold to the owners of AM 1520 WIXX (today WEXY), continuing the easy format with the new call letters WIXX-FM, while the AM was country music. The station switched to the call letters WAXY just before RKO General's purchase. The combo was WEXY-WAXY after the AM switched to a contemporary format. When the stations were sold to RKO General, the AM switched to gospel music.

In the early 1970s, the station had an album rock format, but flipped to automated oldies in 1975.^[4]^[5] In 1990, RKO sold WAXY-FM to Ackerley Communications, an outdoor advertising company, which later sold the station to Clear Channel Communications after the Federal Communications Commission relaxed its rules against one company owning numerous stations in the same market. On January 17, 1992, WAXY-FM dropped its then-Adult contemporary format and began stunting with a loop of various versions of "Louie, Louie". On January 20, at 6 a.m., the station flipped to oldies as simply "WAXY 106."^[6]^[7]

Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) acquired Metroplex in March 1996^[8] and the call sign was changed from WAXY-FM to WBGG-FM on September 1.^[9] The final quarter-hour of music was delivered by DJ Miguel Lombana and consisted of "It's the Same Old Song" by the Four Tops, "The End" by The Doors and "The Long and Winding Road" by The Beatles (which was an inside gag and reference to Stuart Elliott and his signing off of 96X (WPOW) years earlier). The station went dark for 1 minute and signed back on the air at 12:01 as The New Big 106. (The WAXY call sign is now used by an unrelated AM station in the Miami market at 790 kHz.)

Initially, BIG 106 started out as a 1970s hits station. By mid-1995, it was calling itself a Classic Hits station while still playing mostly 70s music. But by mid-1996, it evolved to the current classic rock format, later using the syndicated Howard Stern Show for mornings.

In April 2004, the Federal Communications Commission fined Clear Channel Communications $495,000 for broadcasting allegedly indecent material on the Stern show. Subsequently, Clear Channel dropped Stern from WBGG and five other stations.^[10]

To fill the morning talk slot, in May 2004, Clear Channel moved Paul & Young Ron from WZTA.^[11] (Lex and Terry took over the morning show at WZTA, but lost that outlet for their syndicated program when it abruptly switched formats to Hispanic Urban in February 2005, changing its call sign to WMGE.) Since the switch, Paul and Young Ron continue to be a popular program in South Florida.

In 2005 the station changed its branding from "BIG 106" to BIG 105.9"

Format and market share

former logo

By April 2006, South Florida had only two major rock radio stations, WBGG and WHDR (the latter of which had a mainstream rock format). WBGG-FM ranked 14 in market share.^[12] The top four stations had either a Spanish, urban or urban AC format. As WHDR flipped to Soft AC and became WFEZ, WBGG-FM is the only rock station in the Miami market.

Airstaffed by Paulie Castronovo & Ronald Brewer mornings, Aly 10-2, Doc Reno afternoons and Big Rig evenings. Big Rig and Doc are voice tracked during other times. The station has started tweaking the format to include recent classic rock acts, from artists such as Green Day, Three Doors Down and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

References

External links

Query the FCC's FM station database for WBGG

Radio-Locator information on WBGG

Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WBGG

Radio stations in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood, Florida market

By AM frequency	560 610 670 710 790 830 880 940 980 990 1020 1080 1140 1170 1210 1260 1320 1360 1400 1430 1450 1470 1490 1520 1550 1580 1700

By SW frequency	9.955

By FM frequency	87.7¹ 88.1 88.3 88.5 88.9 89.7 90.3 90.5 90.9 91.3 92.3 93.1 93.5 93.9 94.9 95.3 95.7 96.5 96.9 97.3 97.9 98.3 99.1 99.9 100.7 101.5 102.7 103.5 104.3 104.7 105.1 105.9 106.7 107.1 107.5 ¹ Audio for TV channel 6 (WEYS-LP/Rel)

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.425 162.500 162.550

By callsign	KHB34 W228BV/W228BY/W284CS WACC WAMR-FM WAQI WAVS WAXY WBGG-FM WCMQ-FM WDNA WEDR WEXY WFEZ WFLC WFLL WGNK WHIM WHSR WHYI-FM WINZ WIOD WJCC WKAT WKIS WKPX WLFE WLQY WLRN-FM WLVJ WLYF WMBM WMIA-FM WMIB (HD2) WMLV WMXJ WMYM WNG663 WNMA WOCN WOIR WPOW WQAM WQBA WRGP WRHC WRMA WRMF WRMI WRTO-FM WSFS WSRF WSUA WURN-FM WVUM WWFE WWNN WXDJ WYBP WZAB WZTU WZ2531

Satellite radio local traffic/weather XM Channel 230 Sirius Channel 153 Florida radio markets Daytona Beach Fort Myers–Naples–Marco Island Ft. Pierce–Stuart–Vero Beach Ft. Walton Beach Gainesville–Ocala Jacksonville Lakeland-Winter Haven Melbourne–Titusville–Cocoa Miami–Ft. Lauderdale Orlando Panama City Pensacola Sarasota–Bradenton Tallahassee Tampa–St.Petersburg–Clearwater West Palm Beach–Boca Raton Other Florida radio regions Florida Keys Lake City Sebring See also List of radio stations in Florida

Classic rock radio stations in the state of Florida

By frequency	92.1 92.5 94.5 95.5 95.7 95.9 95.9 98.7 99.5 100.7-2 102.5-2 103.1 104.7 105.9 105.9 107.9 1340

By callsign	WAIL WARO WBGG-FM WFKZ WHOG-FM WHPT-HD2 WKGR WMTX-HD2 WNDD WNDN WNDT WNFK WRBA WROD WROK-FM WTZB

By city	Alachua Chiefland Daytona Beach Englewood Fort Lauderdale Fort Pierce Key West Naples Ormond-By-The-Sea Perry Plantation Key Sarasota Sebastian Silver Springs Springfield Tampa

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Florida See also active rock classic rock mainstream rock modern rock

iHeartMedia

Corporate officers	Bob Pittman (Chairman/CEO)

Board of directors	Lowry Mays Irving Azoff B. J. "Red" McCombs J. C. Watts John H. Williams

Radio stations	List of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia

Radio networks	Fox News Radio Fox Sports Radio NBC News Radio Premiere Networks Premium Choice Total Traffic and Weather Network

Miscellaneous	Clear Channel Outdoor Clear Channel UK iHeartRadio List of programming syndicated by iHeartMedia Mediabase Radio Computing Services

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.