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WBQH
WBQH (1050 AM) is a radio broadcasting station in the Washington, D.C. region, licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland. It broadcasts the freeform music format, known as "The Gamut", originating at WSHE. It is owned and operated by Hubbard Broadcasting. WBQH programming is heard on FM translator W228DI (93.5), also in Silver Spring.
WBQH by day broadcasts with power of 2,000 watts from the WFED transmitter site in Wheaton, Maryland. Because 1050 AM is a Mexican clear channel frequency reserved for XEG in Monterrey, WBQH reduces power to 41 watts at night to prevent interference. It also possesses pre-sunrise authorization for 500 watts from 6:00 a.m. to sunrise.
The station signed on December 7, 1946, as WGAY, airing a beautiful music format. The meaning of the call sign is unclear; one often-repeated claim is that WGAY was named for one-time owner Connie B. Gay, though Gay did not purchase the station until 1959. A second story purports that the station initially broadcast government job openings as part of its programming, and that WGAY stood for "Government And You". A third explanation is simply that "beautiful music" connoted a "bright and gay" happy sound.
The original owners and operators, Ed Winton and Bob Chandler, are credited with creating the beautiful music format, which was mostly instrumental music, with orchestral covers of showtunes, soundtrack excerpts, and standard popular songs. Chandler was known to arrange for recording of music that he did not have in the station's library. In addition, on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 p.m., Matinee at One played a complete Broadway show soundtrack with an explanation of the plot.
Despite its sobriquet of "elevator music", WGAY was popular, and was soon sold to Connie B. Gay. On February 1, 1960, the WGAY calls were moved to the FM band at 99.5 MHz, while the AM station became WQMR, for "Washington's Quality Music Radio". WGAY initially operated as an experimental country music station (Gay was a country and western music promoter) but started simulcasting WQMR full-time around 1961.
These simulcasts would usually end nightly at sunset when WQMR had to sign off as required by the FCC, and WGAY was rarely mentioned on the air or in advertisements. WQMR soon increased in power from 1000 watts on the AM band, while WGAY would upgrade from 20 kW to a 50 kW stereo signal. Both WQMR and WGAY moved to the World Building, located on Georgia Avenue, just north of the intersection of Maryland Route 410 (East-West-Highway) in Silver Spring, in 1966.
This simulcast arrangement continued well into the 1980s, as WQMR reverted to WGAY. Winton and Chandler sold the station on September 1, 1984, to Greater Media, which in turn ended the simulcast and changed the call letters to WNTR. (The WGAY calls and format afterward were maintained on the FM band on 99.5 MHz, which is now WIHT). Greater Media subsequently bought WRC (now WTEM) from NBC Radio and sold WNTR to TM Productions.
Later, WNTR was sold to Pat Robertson, the televangelist and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, who used WNTR as the anchor of a conservative talk radio network dubbed "The News Talk Radio Network". WNTR was also the first station to carry Rush Limbaugh in Washington, before he moved to WMAL (now WSBN). This ended when the World Building studios caught on fire. However, Robertson's company continued to run the station from another building in Silver Spring for a time, initially as part of his network and later in a brokered-program format. In March 1993, it became one of two Washington, DC area affiliates of the Radio AAHS network for children.
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WBQH
WBQH (1050 AM) is a radio broadcasting station in the Washington, D.C. region, licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland. It broadcasts the freeform music format, known as "The Gamut", originating at WSHE. It is owned and operated by Hubbard Broadcasting. WBQH programming is heard on FM translator W228DI (93.5), also in Silver Spring.
WBQH by day broadcasts with power of 2,000 watts from the WFED transmitter site in Wheaton, Maryland. Because 1050 AM is a Mexican clear channel frequency reserved for XEG in Monterrey, WBQH reduces power to 41 watts at night to prevent interference. It also possesses pre-sunrise authorization for 500 watts from 6:00 a.m. to sunrise.
The station signed on December 7, 1946, as WGAY, airing a beautiful music format. The meaning of the call sign is unclear; one often-repeated claim is that WGAY was named for one-time owner Connie B. Gay, though Gay did not purchase the station until 1959. A second story purports that the station initially broadcast government job openings as part of its programming, and that WGAY stood for "Government And You". A third explanation is simply that "beautiful music" connoted a "bright and gay" happy sound.
The original owners and operators, Ed Winton and Bob Chandler, are credited with creating the beautiful music format, which was mostly instrumental music, with orchestral covers of showtunes, soundtrack excerpts, and standard popular songs. Chandler was known to arrange for recording of music that he did not have in the station's library. In addition, on Sunday afternoons at 1:00 p.m., Matinee at One played a complete Broadway show soundtrack with an explanation of the plot.
Despite its sobriquet of "elevator music", WGAY was popular, and was soon sold to Connie B. Gay. On February 1, 1960, the WGAY calls were moved to the FM band at 99.5 MHz, while the AM station became WQMR, for "Washington's Quality Music Radio". WGAY initially operated as an experimental country music station (Gay was a country and western music promoter) but started simulcasting WQMR full-time around 1961.
These simulcasts would usually end nightly at sunset when WQMR had to sign off as required by the FCC, and WGAY was rarely mentioned on the air or in advertisements. WQMR soon increased in power from 1000 watts on the AM band, while WGAY would upgrade from 20 kW to a 50 kW stereo signal. Both WQMR and WGAY moved to the World Building, located on Georgia Avenue, just north of the intersection of Maryland Route 410 (East-West-Highway) in Silver Spring, in 1966.
This simulcast arrangement continued well into the 1980s, as WQMR reverted to WGAY. Winton and Chandler sold the station on September 1, 1984, to Greater Media, which in turn ended the simulcast and changed the call letters to WNTR. (The WGAY calls and format afterward were maintained on the FM band on 99.5 MHz, which is now WIHT). Greater Media subsequently bought WRC (now WTEM) from NBC Radio and sold WNTR to TM Productions.
Later, WNTR was sold to Pat Robertson, the televangelist and founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, who used WNTR as the anchor of a conservative talk radio network dubbed "The News Talk Radio Network". WNTR was also the first station to carry Rush Limbaugh in Washington, before he moved to WMAL (now WSBN). This ended when the World Building studios caught on fire. However, Robertson's company continued to run the station from another building in Silver Spring for a time, initially as part of his network and later in a brokered-program format. In March 1993, it became one of two Washington, DC area affiliates of the Radio AAHS network for children.