WNTM

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Coordinates: 30°43′13″N 88°3′34″W / 30.72028°N 88.05944°W / 30.72028; -88.05944
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WNTM
iHeartMedia, Inc.
  • (iHM Licenses, LLC)
    • WKSJ-FM, WMXC, WRGV, WRKH, WTKX-FM
    History
    First air date
    		September 26, 1946 (as WKRG)
    Former call signs
    		WKRG (1946–1994)
    WNTM (1994–2004)
    WPMI (2004–2007)[1]
    Call sign meaning
    		News Talk of Mobile[2][3]
    Technical information
    Facility ID8695
    ClassB
    Power1,000 watts
    Transmitter coordinates
    		30°43′13″N 88°3′34″W / 30.72028°N 88.05944°W / 30.72028; -88.05944
    Repeater(s)99.9 WMXC-HD3 (Mobile)
    Links
    WebcastListen Live
    Websitenewsradio710.iheart.com

    WNTM (710

    radio station based in Mobile, Alabama. The station calls itself "News Radio 710." WNTM is owned by San Antonio-based iHeartMedia and the broadcast license is held by iHM Licenses, LLC. Its studios are located in the same building as Channel 5 WKRG-TV on Broadcast Drive in Mobile, and the transmitter is just north of downtown. (Both stations had been co-owned at one time.) WKRG-TV supplies local news and weather, while Fox News Radio
    supplies national newscasts.

    Programming

    WNTM has a local wake-up show hosted by tongue-in-cheek commentator "Uncle Henry," formerly of WABB, followed by nationally syndicated shows from Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. The station's lineup includes Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, America Now with Meghan McCain, Clyde Lewis, and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. Weekends feature paid brokered programming in the morning and repeats of weekday shows. Sunday nights include syndicated shows from Bill Handel and Bill Cunningham.

    History

    The station was originally owned by movie theater owner, architect, and broadcasting pioneer

    AM) on the air on September 26, 1946. It became a CBS affiliate on December 15, 1947. At that time it operated with 1 KW power during the day and 250 W at night.[4]

    The station would have an

    WKRG-TV on September 5, 1955. Like competitor WABB-FM, WKRG-FM was a simulcast of the AM station before finding its own format of beautiful music in 1965. In March 1970, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforced new rules preventing future radio and television
    ownership combinations in the same market, which allowed the stations of WKRG-TV, Inc. to remain standing, or "grandfathered".

    For much of its history, the former

    talk shows. Such talk shows included an afternoon program hosted by future WKRG-TV sports director Randy Patrick
    , but the talk radio format would soon dominate the schedule later in the 1980s as FM reigned with its superior sound. The next change for WKRG Radio in the 1980s was a new location, as WKRG-TV, Inc. moved from its long-time home on downtown Mobile's St. Louis Street to its current facility close to the city's two malls, Springdale Mall and Bel Air Mall. WKRG Radio, including both 710 AM and 99.9 FM were sold off in late 1994. A new journey awaits these two legendary stations.

    On October 12, 1994, WKRG became known as WNTM,

    Clear Channel Communications would take ownership of 710 AM and 99.9 FM in 1997. Interesting enough, Clear Channel also owns what would become WKRG-TV's biggest rival in decades, the new NBC affiliate WPMI
    . After WPMI started its news operation in January 1996, the resources of this new addition to the Mobile-Pensacola news media would be put to good use for WNTM in the years to come.

    Expanded Band assignment

    On March 17, 1997, the FCC announced that eighty-eight stations had been given permission to move to newly available "Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with WNTM authorized to move from 710 to 1660 kHz.[5] However, the station never procured the Construction Permit needed to implement the authorization, so the expanded band station was never built.

    Later history

    Logo as "Fox NewsRadio 710 WNTM"

    On August 12, 2004, WNTM received another change in call letters, this time to WPMI,

    NBC News Radio, WPMI radio became affiliated with Fox News. Ironically, WPMI-TV was affiliated with the Fox television network before joining NBC in 1996. On June 28, 2007, the call sign reverted to WNTM. On August 1, 2007, the station entered into a strategic partnership with WKRG-TV, similar to its previous relationship with WPMI-TV, gaining access to its former sister station's news and weather resources. However, the radio/tv news partnership has now been re-established with WPMI NBC 15.[3]

    Notable personalities

    Numerous radio personalities have been heard over Mobile's 710 AM, including a few voices from the WKRG Radio years still around today. Until November 2007, former WKRG-FM disc jockey Scott O'Brien hosted "Mobile's First News" and "Ask the Expert" in the morning.[3] Michael P. Sloan was a newsbreak reader and Daniel Shane McBryde hosted his own afternoon program during the first WNTM era; both are WABB veterans. Alex Mathis later joined McBryde as producer and fill-in host. Long time radio personality Yvonne Morrison hosted "The Garden Show" alongside reporter Charlie Moss on Saturday mornings.[6]

    Overnight, the station broadcasts the syndicated Coast to Coast AM hosted by George Noory.[7] The station also broadcasts the syndicated Saturday night program Somewhere In Time hosted by Art Bell.[7]

    References

    1. ^ a b "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
    2. ^ Nelson, Bob (October 18, 2008). "Call Letter Origins". The Broadcast Archive. Retrieved October 31, 2008.
    3. ^
      Mobile Press-Register
      . Mobile, Alabama. Retrieved 2008-01-03. Listeners of Mobile news-talk radio station WNTM-AM 710 have noted the absence from the airwaves of two familiar voices during recent days. Former WNTM news director Michael P. Sloan and former WNTM program director and announcer Scott O'Brien lost their jobs at the Clear Channel radio group in Mobile last week, according to Sloan, O'Brien and Clear Channel management. [...] O'Brien, who was host of WNTM's weekday "Mobile's First News" and "Ask the Expert" programs and sister station WKSJ's "Solid Gold" program each weekend, [...] had been with the station group in Mobile since 1986. The group was acquired by Clear Channel in 1997. From 2004 until this year, WNTM was known as WPMI-AM. A 36-year veteran of local radio in Mobile, Sloan had been with WNTM since 1980, when the station still identified itself by its original WKRG-AM call letters. It was first known as WNTM in 1994. The station -- whose call letters in 1994 were said to refer to its identity as "News Talk Mobile" -- will now rely on the news department at WKRG-TV to generate radio news reports, Sloan said.
    4. ^ "Four New Affiliates Make CBS Total 171" (PDF). Broadcasting. November 17, 1947. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
    5. ^ "FCC Public Notice: Mass Media Bureau Announces Revised AM Expanded Band Allotment Plan and Filing Window for Eligible Stations" (FCC DA 97-537), March 17, 1997.
    6. ^ Holbert, Rob (June 1, 2009). "Media Frenzy". Lagniappe Mobile.
    7. ^ a b "Alabama Affiliates". Coast to Coast AM. Retrieved December 31, 2011.

    External links

    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WNTM&oldid=1218310776"
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