City | Greensboro, North Carolina |
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Broadcast area | Greensboro/Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
Branding | 97.1 WQMG (or sometimes 97.1 QMG) |
Slogan | The Best R&B and Old School |
Frequency | 97.1 MHz |
First air date | 1947 (as WFMY at 97.3) |
Format | Urban Adult Contemporary |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 327 meters |
Class | C0 |
Facility ID | 47078 |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°56′42″N 79°51′45″W / 35.94500°N 79.86250°W |
Callsign meaning | Where Quality Music Lives In Greensboro |
Former callsigns | WFMY (1947-1952) |
Former frequencies | 97.3 MHz (1947-1950) |
Owner |
Entercom (Entercom License, LLC) |
Sister stations | WJMH, WPAW, WSMW |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | wqmg.com |
WQMG is an Urban Adult Contemporary station licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina and serves the Piedmont Triad region, which also includes High Point and Winston-Salem. The Entercom outlet broadcasts at 97.1 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW. The station's studios are located near the Piedmont Triad International Airport, and a transmitter site is in unincorporated south Guilford County.
The earliest roots of this station date to 1947 and a station with the call letters WFMY on 97.3 MHz, owned by the Greensboro News Company, publishers of the Greensboro Daily News and Daily Record (now merged as the Greensboro News & Record). Two years after its founding as an FM station, its owners constructed WFMY-TV, the first television station in Greensboro and the second in North Carolina.
By 1950, the station was moved to its current 97.1 MHz, but the station was taken off the air in 1952 as the company devoted more of its resources to television. The station returned to air under new ownership by 1962 with the call letters WQMG, which stood for "Where Quality Music lives in Greensboro." In the early 1970s, WQMG aired an adult contemporary format known as "Stereo Island."
WQMG was very successful in the 1970s and 1980s as an Urban Contemporary format under the name "The New Power 97 FM". But by 1996 they would move to their current format "Classic Soul... Smooth R&B", after becoming the sister station to WJMH and beating that station in the ratings, as well as WTQR with the 18-54 audience. Following the format change of competitor WMKS, WQMG is now the sole Adult R&B station in the market. From March 1997 to 2015, WQMG was the Triad's home of the syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show. Shilynne Cole and Busta Brown now host a local morning show, and Renee Vaughn, who was a local host during Joyner's show, moved to middays. The Steve Harvey Morning Show replaced Tom Joyner on November 9, 2015.