WGMS (defunct)
| City |
1946-1992: Rockville 1948-2006: Washington 2006-2007: Braddock Heights/Waldorf |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Washington, D.C. |
| Frequency |
1946-1992: 570 kHz 1948-2006: 103.5 MHz 2006-2007: 103.9 MHz/104.1 MHz |
| First air date | December 29, 1946 |
| Format | Classical Music |
| Callsign meaning | Washington's Good Music Station |
| Owner | Bonneville International |
WGMS was a radio station in Washington, D.C. that maintained a classical music format from 1946 to 2007. Last owned by Bonneville International, it was known on air for many years as Classical 103.5. It last broadcast on 104.1 MHz from a transmitter in Waldorf, Maryland, with a repeater signal broadcast from Braddock Heights, Maryland, on 103.9 MHz under the call sign of WGYS.
The WGMS call letters are today in use by public radio station WETA-FM's repeater in Hagerstown, Maryland, having been donated by Bonneville as part of an agreement between both stations made public the same day WGMS signed off.
The station went on air on December 29, 1946, under the call sign of WQQW at 570 kHz on the AM band. It added an FM signal, at 103.5 MHz, on September 18, 1948. It changed its call letters in 1951 to WGMS, which stood for "Washington's Good Music Station" (that slogan had been used on the station several years before). According to the station's website, WGMS "was the first FM signal in the marketplace and holds the record for the longest consecutive broadcast in the same format."
WGMS was at one time owned by RKO General Radio, which also owned top 40 stations in New York City (WXLO-FM), Boston (WRKO), Los Angeles (KHJ), Memphis (WHBQ), and Detroit (CKLW). In the 1970s, to comply with new FCC regulations limiting simulcasting, RKO prepared to change the format of WGMS-AM to top 40. A public outcry in support of the classical format forestalled the change, and the United States Congress authorized the stations to simulcast their programming full-time, as an exemption from Federal Communications Commission regulations mandating separate programming on AM and FM outlets owned by a single entity.
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