WGOK
![]() | |
Broadcast area | Mobile metropolitan area |
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Frequency | 900kHz |
Branding | WGOK Gospel 900 |
Programming | |
Format | Gospel music |
Ownership | |
Owner |
|
WABD,WBLX-FM,WDLT-FM,WXQW | |
History | |
First air date | 1959 |
Call signmeaning | OK Group (original owners) |
Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 56716 |
Class | B |
Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 30°42′31″N88°03′53″W/ 30.70861°N 88.06472°W |
Repeater(s) | 104.1WDLT-FM HD2(Saraland) |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | gospel900.com |
WGOK(900AM,"Gospel 900" ) is aradio stationserving theMobile, Alabama,area with agospel musicformat. The station is under ownership ofCumulus Media.Its studios are on Dauphin Avenue in Midtown Mobile, and its transmitter is northwest of downtown.
History
[edit]The radio station in the early 1960s was located at 900 Gum Street right in the middle of a swamp. The station was part of the largest chain ofblackradio stations in the country called The OK Group. All of the stations in the OK Group had an OK at the end of their call letters, including WGOK in Mobile, KYOK in Houston, and WBOK in New Orleans. There were other OK stations in the cities ofMemphis, Tennessee,andBaton Rouge, Louisiana,among others. There was one White station inAlice, Texas,with the OK reversed, KOPY.
Starting around 1959, WGOK was managed by Robert Irwin Grimes, Jr. He had been a radioman in the Navy, had served at Pearl Harbor on theUSSEnterpriseand was there in Hawaii on the dayPearl Harbor was attacked.
In the early 1960s disc jockeys had names like Topsy Turvey, Miss Mandy, and the Reverend A. J. Crawford. The station was very popular and playedrhythm and bluesrecords as well as gospel records.
Currently, it plays gospel music.
Ownership
[edit]In 1999, the station was acquired byCitadel Communications Corp.(Lawrence R. Wilson, chairman) fromFuller-Jeffrey Broadcasting Co. Inc.(Robert Fuller, president) along with sister stationWYOKfor a reported sale price of $6 million.[2]
References
[edit]- ^"Facility Technical Data for WGOK".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.
- ^"Big Deals of 1999".Broadcasting & Cable.2000-02-14.
External links
[edit]- Gospel 900 official website
- Facility details for Facility ID 56716 (WGOK)in theFCCLicensing and Management System
- WGOKinNielsen Audio's AM station database
- FCC History Cards for WGOK