KWAM

KWAM
City Memphis, Tennessee
Broadcast area Memphis metropolitan area
Branding KWAM The Voice
Slogan "Talk Radio for the Mid-South"
Frequency 990 kHz
Translator(s) 107.9 W300DE (Memphis)
First air date 1946 (1946) (as KWEM West Memphis)
Format Talk
Power 10,000 watts day
450 watts night
Class B
Facility ID 35873
Transmitter coordinates 35°8′4.00″N 90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W / 35.1344444; -90.0938889Coordinates: 35°8′4.00″N 90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W / 35.1344444; -90.0938889
Former callsigns KWAM (1946–1959)
Owner Legacy Media
(Legacy Media - Memphis, LLC)
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.kwamthevoice.com

KWAM (990 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. The station airs a talk radio format and is owned by Legacy Media.[1][2] The studios and offices are on Murray Road in Memphis. The transmitter is located off Bridgeport Road in Marion, Arkansas.[3]

By day, KWAM broadcasts at 10,000 watts. But because AM 990 is a Canadian clear-channel frequency, the station must reduce power at night to 450 watts. To allow listeners in Memphis to hear the station on FM, KWAM is simulcast on translator station W300DE at 107.9 MHz.[4]

KWAM has a colorful history, helping "break" artists such as Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Ike Turner and Howlin' Wolf in the 1950s and 60s.

Programming

KWAM has a schedule of both local and nationally syndicated talk shows. On weekdays, local hosts include Marybeth Conley at noon and Earle Farrel at 3 p.m. Syndicated shows include America in The Morning, Doug Stephan, Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, Todd Schnitt, Norman Goldman and Red Eye Radio. Local weekend shows include Today's Homeowner with Danny Lipford, Big Billy Kinder Outdoors, Catholic Cafe, Talk Money, Wake Up Memphis, Voices of Treatment & Recovery The Unleashed Voice, Gun Talk and The Paul Parent Garden Show. Some hours are paid brokered programming. Most hours begin with national news from CBS Radio News.

History

Early years

In 1946, the station first signed on as KWEM in West Memphis, Arkansas.[5] The call sign referred to the original city of license, WEst Memphis. KWEM was a daytimer, owned by West Memphis Broadcasting, powered at 1,000 watts and required to sign-off at sunset each day.

Because West Memphis is located west of the Mississippi River, the station's call letters began with a "K," while call letters in Memphis mostly begin with a "W." Even when it relocated to Memphis, east of the Mississippi, it kept its "K" call sign.[6]

The Memphis Sound

In 1954, the station was bought by E. D. Rivers, Jr.[7] Rivers got the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow KWEM to move across the river into Memphis. He started the "Dee" Rivers Stations Group, which later owned WEAS-FM in Springfield/Savannah, Georgia, and WGOV (now WGUN) in Valdosta, Georgia, as well as other stations in Georgia and Florida. In 1959, Rivers changed the call letters of AM 990 to KWAM.[8]

In the 1960s, the station got FCC permission to boost its power to 10,000 watts, using a directional antenna, but it still could not broadcast after sunset. In the 1950s and 60s, the "Mighty 990" gained fame for playing "The Memphis Sound," including locally recorded soul music, R&B, country music and rockabilly. Its website history page says "KWAM helped launch the careers of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Ike Turner and many Sun Studios stars such as Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash."[9]

Gospel and religion

Around 1980, as music listening moved over to FM radio, KWAM began airing religion shows, selling blocks of time to preachers and playing black gospel music.[10] In 1981, Dee Rivers Stations acquired FM station 101.1 KLYX, which was renamed KWAM-FM. At first, it also aired a gospel and religious format like its AM counterpart. But in 1983, the call letters were changed to KRNB, with the station switching to a rhythmic contemporary and disco format, while 990 KWAM continued its gospel sound.[11]

In 1986, KWAM got nighttime authorization. It was allowed to stay on the air after sunset, but at 450 watts.[12]

Change in ownership

In 1998, KWAM and its FM station, now known as KJMS, were sold to Clear Channel Communications. Clear Channel had previously acquired AM 1070 WDIA, which airs a full service black format, and KJMS's chief urban rival, 97.1 WHRK.[13]

Clear Channel sold KWAM to Concord Media for $1 million in 2000.[14] Concord switched KWAM to a talk radio format, which competes with iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) talk station AM 600 WREC. Several years later, KWAM changed hands again, this time bought by the Legacy Media, which also owns WEKS, an FM country music station in Zebulon, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. In 2017, Legacy Media added a 250 watt FM translator station to simulcast KWAM, 107.9 W300DE.

References

  1. ↑ "KWAM Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ "KWAM Station Information Profile". Arbitron.
  3. ↑ Radio-Locator.com/KWAM
  4. ↑ Radio-Locator.com/W300DE
  5. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1948 page 78
  6. ↑ OldRadio.com/KWtrivia
  7. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1954 page 79
  8. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1959 page B-232
  9. ↑ KWAMtheVoice.com/archive
  10. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1980 page C-213
  11. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1984 page B-239
  12. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1990 page B-289
  13. ↑ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999 page D-414
  14. ↑ Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2005 page D-480


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