WGIR (AM)
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| City | Manchester, New Hampshire |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Southern New Hampshire |
| Branding | AM 610 WGIR |
| Slogan | New Hampshire's NewsRadio |
| Frequency | 610 kHz |
| First air date | October 2, 1941 |
| Format | News/talk |
| Power | 5,000 watts (daytime) 1,000 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 35237 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°00′57.0″N 71°28′48.0″W / 43.015833°N 71.480000°W |
| Callsign meaning | GIRolimon family (former owner) |
| Former callsigns | WMUR (1941-1956) |
| Affiliations | Fox News Radio |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (Capstar TX LLC) |
| Sister stations | WGIR-FM |
| Webcast | Listen Live (via iHeartRadio) |
| Website | www.nhnewsnetwork610.com |
WGIR (610 AM) is a radio station in Manchester, New Hampshire with a news/talk format. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc..
WGIR signed on October 2, 1941 as WMUR, owned by former New Hampshire governor Francis P. Murphy and affiliated with the Blue Network and its successor, ABC Radio. An FM sister station on 95.7 MHz was added on December 21, 1947 (plans for an FM station had been in place for seven years); however, FM had a limited audience at the time, and WMUR-FM was shut down December 27, 1950 (the frequency is now occupied by WZID). A few years later, Murphy decided to apply for a television station on channel 9, and after competing against applications from WFEA, WKBR (now WGAM), and the Manchester Union-Leader, WMUR-TV signed on March 28, 1954.
Murphy decided to sell the WMUR stations in the mid-1950s, with the Girolimon family acquiring the station in 1956 and changing the call letters to the current WGIR (the WMUR call letters remain on channel 9, which stayed under Murphy's ownership until a few months after his death in 1958). The Girolimons dropped the ABC affiliation soon after taking over, but picked up CBS Radio in 1957. The Girolimons sold the station to Knight Quality Stations in 1961; around the same time, the station switched to NBC Radio. Under Knight, the station decided to reenter FM broadcasting, and WGIR-FM (101.1 FM) signed on June 5, 1963, largely simulcasting the AM station from then until 1977. By 1973, WGIR had a middle-of-the-road format, mixed with some talk and sports programming, a format it would retain through the decade; the station later evolved its music programming to adult contemporary, and on December 31, 1984, WGIR ended all remaining music programming to become a full-time news/talk station. In 1990, the station swapped affiliations with WFEA and returned to ABC News Radio.
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