WMGG AM & FM - A History
(Updated January 28, 2010)
WMGG-AM 820 Largo & WMGG-FM 96.1 Dade City – Mega Communications acquired Clear Channel’s 820 The Team WZTM in 2000, changed the calls to WMGG, and switched to a Spanish format, branded La Mega 820. The 50 kilowatt (1 kw at night) powerhouse, also known as Mega Clasica 820 and La Preciosa 820, programmed to Tampa Bay’s 25-54 Mexican and Central American demographic with a Mexican adult hits format. It was a sister station to Brandon’s WLCC-AM (La Ley 760).
On September 29, 2008, it was sold it to Genesis Communications which dropped the Spanish format and moved WWBA’s news/talk programming from AM-1040 to AM-820. WMGG relocated to AM-1470, added ABC Radio’s Timeless Music programming, and became the new Mega Memories AM-1470, featuring music from the likes of Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, The Carpenters, and Simon & Garfunkel. The format flipped again on June 4, 2009 when Genesis launched Bay Biz Radio 1470, an all business news format.
In August 2009, WMGG-AM, which operated non-directional 5kw day/.5kw night from its tower on CR95 in Palm Harbor just off US 19, was granted a CP to move its transmitter site to two sites in Hillsborough county, enabling it to go directional daytime with 3.6kw from the WQBN site, and nighttime directional at .8kw from the WTMP site. The moves also required WMGG’s city of license to change from Dunedin to Egypt Lake.
WMGG-FM (La Mega 96.1) was launched in 1999 when Mega bought a facility licensed to Dade City. It was sold to Tama Broadcasting two years later, and, in early 2002, became urban contemporary WTMP-FM.
Some names from WMGG history include Adam Lindemann (chairman, president, and CEO of Mega Communications), Michelle Kalanja (director of sales), and Ricardo Villalona (general manager).
(Please contact us if you have additional information about WMGG AM & FM.)
Station History
2000 - 2010 Other Tampa Bay Area Stations (History)
|
