WPGC-FM

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Template:Infobox Radio Station WPGC 95.5 is the most popular of Washington, D.C.'s urban format radio stations and has been ranked as of its top radio stations according to the Arbitron ratings (thus the reasoning behind their slogan DC's#1, Blazin' At Least 18 Jamz in A Row). It has a city of license of Morningside (its studios are located in Lanham) at the 95.5 MHz frequency on the FM dial. Its tower operates at an effective radiated power of 50 kilowatts (kW) is located in Morningside. It also shares the WPGC calls with sister station "Heaven 1580", which plays Urban gospel music. In 2005, WPGC began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity.

WPGC-FM is the station home to several personalities including:

  • Donnie Simpson — a DC morning show veteran with over 20 years of on-air experience. Simpson also hosted BET's Video Soul.
  • Big Tigger — another BET personality who started as an intern for Albie Dee. He worked his way up to become DC's#1 night-time DJ, and now host of a syndicated weekend radio show through CBS Radio.

Contents

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History

The station that later becomes WPGC-FM signed on as on January 18, 1948, on the 96.7 frequency with the WBUZ call letters. WBUZ was owned by Arthur Baldwin Curtis, president of Chesapeake Broadcasting Company, Incorporated, and was located in Bradbury Heights. WBUZ-FM was broadcasting at 420 watts effective radiated power. The call letters was a play on the word "bus," as WBUZ broadcast background music for a Prince George's County, Maryland based bus company.

WBUZ-FM raises power to 6.3 kilowatts and its city of license is changed to Oakland, Maryland in May 1953. Then on June 8, 1953, the FCC grants a permit to the station to raise power from 6.3 to 18 kilowatts. WBUZ-FM changes frequency from 96.7 to 95.5 megahertz and power is reduced to 16.5 kilowatts from a new transmitter & tower site on Walker Mill Road in Oakland (near District Heights). The calls were changed to WRNC on March 30, 1956. By the end of the year, WRNC was simulcasting the WPGC-AM programming. The ERP was reduced to 15.7 kilowatts while the power increase authorized for the WPGC-AM in 1955 to 10,000 watts daytime only.

WPGC-AM, Inc., purchased WRNC in 1956. The calls were changed to WPGC-FM in March 1958. WPGC-FM temporarily goes silent until February 1959 as new studios were being constructed for the top 40 format. The call letters stands for We're Prince Georges County, the county in which the station is actually located, but at one time, it stood for "Where People Get Cash".

WPGC-FM maintained some form of the top 40 format (skewed from rock 'n' roll-based to big bands) until 1984, when it flipped to easy listening/adult contemporary WCLY, "Classy 95."

The format failed and First Media decided to sell all of its properties for $177 million to a minority interest in early 1987. New owners, Cook Inlet Media, a group of Alaskan Native Americans, promptly rebuilt the station as a Rhythmic and reclaimed the legendary call letters, WPGC on May 30, 1987. The station flipped to a successful music format with the brandname "WPGC, 95 Jams".

WPGC-FM also has been a debated topic amongst radio experts about its format classification as a Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio station even though it really operates musically as an Mainstream Urban. The evidence is obvious with the vast majority of its listening audience being African American as well as nearly all of its on-air personalities. In 1987, when the current format on WPGC was introduced it was actually a mix of R&B, hip-hop, dance and pop titles, similar to what many other Rhythmic Hit stations around the country were doing, but somewhere between then and the late 1990's the station changed to virtually all R&B and hip-hop while retaining its classification. The station defends its format classification by arguing that its target audience is African American and Hispanic females and males within the 18-34 demographic. (Other functionally Urban stations like KPWR Los Angeles and WQHT-FM New York make the same argument.) Many critics say the ability to attract more mainstream advertisers as Rhythmic, rather than Urban, is the real reason.

Infinity Broadcasting acquired the station and sister station WPGC-AM in from Cook Inlet in June 1994 for $60 million. The stations move to new studios and offices at 4200 Parliament Place, Suite 300 in Lanham, Maryland in the Summer of 2000. Also in the early 2000's, the branding reverted to simply "WPGC 95.5" dropping the "Jams" moniker from the brand although it still visibly remains on the station's logo.

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Station Lineup

Monday-Thursday

  • The Donnie Simpson Morning Show with Chris Paul, DJ Simpson, Huggy Lowdown, & news with Guy Lambert - 6-10AM
  • Michel Wright - 10AM-2PM (DJ Storm in the Lunchtime Free Mix @ 12-12:30PM)
  • Adimu - 2-6PM (DJ Rico with "The 5 O'Clock Traffic Jam" @ 5-5:30PM)
  • The HomeTeam featuring Rane & DJ Flexx - 6-10PM (The 9 O'Clock Mix with DJ Flexx @ 9:00-9:30PM & GoGo 95 @ 9:30-10PM)
  • Lovetalk and Slow Jams with Justine Love & Todd B - 10PM-12AM
  • The Coolout with Todd B - 12-2AM (slow jams)
  • Various Personalities - 2-6AM

Fridays

  • The Donnie Simpson Morning Show with Chris Paul, DJ Simpson, Huggy Lowdown, & news with Guy Lambert - 6-10AM
  • Michel Wright - 10AM-2PM (DJ Storm in the Lunchtime Free Mix @ 12-12:30PM)
  • Adimu - 2-6PM (DJ Rico with "The 5 O'Clock Traffic Jam" @ 5-5:30PM)
  • The HomeTeam featuring Rane & DJ Flexx - 6-9PM
  • Club 95 with DJ Quicksilva - 9PM-3AM

Saturdays

  • Various Personalities - 3-6AM
  • Todd B - 6-8AM
  • Live in the Den with Big Tigger - 8AM-Noon
  • Various Personalities - Noon-3PM
  • Herkules - 3-6PM
  • DJ Quicksilva - 6-8PM
  • Club 95 with DJ Storm, DJ Quicksilva - 8PM-3AM

Sundays

  • Various Personalities - 3-6:30AM
  • Greater Washington On Track with Wadiah Cooper - 6:30AM-7AM
  • Community Focus with Justine Love - 7-8AM
  • Various Personalities - 8AM-6PM
  • DJ Rico - 6-10PM (GoGo 95 @ 9:30-10PM)
  • Lovetalk and Slow Jams with Justine Love & Todd B - 10PM-12AM
  • The Coolout with Todd B - 12-2AM (slow jams)
  • Various Personalities - 2-6AM
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Swing Shift Personalities

  • Supamodel Raasan (overnights & weekends)
  • Mocha (overnights & weekends)
  • Freaky Ty (overnights & weekends)
  • Lisa Gonzalez (overnights & weekends)
  • Big Pheezy
  • Herkules (Friday Nights, overnights & weekends)
  • Tahara
  • DJ Heat

Occasionally on Weekends

  • Adimu
  • Michelle Wright
  • DJ Flexx
  • Rane
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Station Management

  • Vice President of Programming/Station Manager/Operations Manager/Program Director Jay Stevens
  • Assistant Program Director/Production Director Bob Holmcrans
  • Promotions Director Karen Dugan
  • Music Director Brown Hornhit
  • Public Affairs Director Justine Love
  • News Director Guy Lambert
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External links

Template:Washington FM Template:CBS

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