WCOG
Encyclopedia
WCOG is a radio station
broadcasting a sports radio
format. Licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina
, USA, the station serves the Piedmont Triad
area. The station is currently owned by Curtis Media Group
and features programming from ESPN Radio
.
, Otis Redding
, The Drifters
and Janis Joplin
.
Rick Dees
worked for WCOG, WTOB
and WKIX when the stations were owned by Southern Broadcasting.
By 1981, WCOG was a country music
station. In 1985, the station changed its call sign to WGLD, and its format to beautiful music
. A few years later, WGLD changed to satellite-delivered oldies
; in 1989, this gave way to an adult standards
format provided by the AM Only
service. In 1994, the call letters changed to WWWB, and the format to talk radio
; WWWB later simulcast WMFR
. In 1996 the station changed again to WTCK, "The Ticket", and a sports talk
format. The WMFR simulcast returned two years later, after WKEW
dropped its talk format for Radio Disney
.
In 1999, Truth Broadcasting changed the station to Christian talk and returned the WCOG letters. The new format included Billy Graham
, Franklin Graham
, Charles Stanley
and James Dobson
. WTOB aired the same programming.
On October 2, 2000, WCOG began telling listeners to switch to WTRU
. Late in 2000, the announcement came that Truth Broadcasting would move the Radio Disney affiliation from WKEW to WCOG.
The Walt Disney Company
bought WCOG in 2005, which meant more community involvement and visibility for the station. Disney subsequently decided to sell its smaller-market Radio Disney stations, and took WCOG and five other stations off the air on January 22, 2010. A sale to Curtis Media Group
was announced on March 9; upon taking over, Curtis relaunched the station July 15 with a return to sports talk.
(including Mike and Mike in the Morning
, as well as its nighttime and weekend programs) and the regionally-syndicated showThe David Glenn Show (simulcast from WCMC-FM
in Raleigh), and The Drive with Taylor Zarzour and Marc James (simulcast from WFNZ
in Charlotte
). It also carries Appalachian State Mountaineers
football and basketball and High Point University
Panthers basketball, as well as select additional local sports coverage.
Most of WCOG's programming is simulcast with WSML
and WMFR; all three stations break away to carry certain programming as necessary.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
broadcasting a sports radio
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
format. Licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
, USA, the station serves the Piedmont Triad
Piedmont Triad
The Piedmont Triad, or Triad, is a north-central region of the U.S. state of North Carolina that consists of the area within and surrounding the three major cities of Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point. This close group or "triad" of cities lies in the Piedmont geographical region of the...
area. The station is currently owned by Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group is a broadcast media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. The company owns and operates several North Carolina radio stations and four radio networks.-AM:*WPTF 680 AM *WQDR 570 AM...
and features programming from ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
.
History
WCOG went on the air in 1947. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the station had a top 40 format. Dusty Dunn and other DJs played a mix of music that might have included Led ZeppelinLed Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
, The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
.
Rick Dees
Rick Dees
Rigdon Osmond "Rick" Dees III is an American comedic performer, entertainer, and radio personality, best known for his internationally syndicated radio show The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown and for the novelty song "Disco Duck." He is a People's Choice Award recipient, a Grammy-nominated...
worked for WCOG, WTOB
WTOB
WTOB, at 1380 AM, is one of several Spanish-language radio stations in the Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem area. WWBG, at 1470 AM, airs the same programming...
and WKIX when the stations were owned by Southern Broadcasting.
By 1981, WCOG was a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
station. In 1985, the station changed its call sign to WGLD, and its format to beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
. A few years later, WGLD changed to satellite-delivered oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
; in 1989, this gave way to an adult standards
Adult standards
Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
format provided by the AM Only
America's Best Music
America's Best Music is the on-air branding of an adult standards 24-hour radio network, known internally as Adult Standards and formerly known as AM Only, currently owned by Dial Global. It was one of the original Westwood One's Transtar networks...
service. In 1994, the call letters changed to WWWB, and the format to talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
; WWWB later simulcast WMFR
WMFR
WMFR is a radio station broadcasting a sports radio format. Licensed to High Point, North Carolina, USA, the station serves the Piedmont Triad area. The station is currently owned by Curtis Media Group and features programing from ESPN Radio.-History:WMFR signed on October 15, 1935 by the Lambeth...
. In 1996 the station changed again to WTCK, "The Ticket", and a sports talk
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
format. The WMFR simulcast returned two years later, after WKEW
WKEW
WKEW is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel music format. Licensed to Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, the station is currently owned by Truth Broadcasting Corporation.-History:...
dropped its talk format for Radio Disney
Radio Disney
Radio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
.
In 1999, Truth Broadcasting changed the station to Christian talk and returned the WCOG letters. The new format included Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
, Franklin Graham
Franklin Graham
William Franklin Graham III , known publicly as Franklin Graham, is an American Christian evangelist and missionary. He is the president and CEO of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan's Purse.He currently lives in Boone,...
, Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley
Charles Stanley , is a US preacher, Pastor of First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.Charles Stanley may also refer to:*Charles H...
and James Dobson
James Dobson
James Clayton "Jim" Dobson, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family , which he led until 2003. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesman for conservative social positions in American public life...
. WTOB aired the same programming.
On October 2, 2000, WCOG began telling listeners to switch to WTRU
WTRU
WTRU is a radio station licensed to Kernersville, North Carolina. It operates on 830 AM, with broadcasting power of 50 kilowatts during the day and at 10 kilowatts during the night...
. Late in 2000, the announcement came that Truth Broadcasting would move the Radio Disney affiliation from WKEW to WCOG.
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
bought WCOG in 2005, which meant more community involvement and visibility for the station. Disney subsequently decided to sell its smaller-market Radio Disney stations, and took WCOG and five other stations off the air on January 22, 2010. A sale to Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group
Curtis Media Group is a broadcast media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. The company owns and operates several North Carolina radio stations and four radio networks.-AM:*WPTF 680 AM *WQDR 570 AM...
was announced on March 9; upon taking over, Curtis relaunched the station July 15 with a return to sports talk.
Programming
WCOG primarily airs syndicated programming, both national programming from ESPN RadioESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
(including Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, Sportscenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's...
, as well as its nighttime and weekend programs) and the regionally-syndicated showThe David Glenn Show (simulcast from WCMC-FM
WCMC-FM
WCMC-FM is a Sports Talk radio station based in Raleigh, North Carolina and licensed to nearby Holly Springs. Its studios are located in downtown Raleigh along with WRAL-FM, an adult contemporary music station...
in Raleigh), and The Drive with Taylor Zarzour and Marc James (simulcast from WFNZ
WFNZ
WFNZ "610 AM The Fan" is a Sports Talk format radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina.-History:WFNZ signed on in 1941 as WAYS . For much of the 1960s through early 1980s, it was Charlotte's top-rated Top 40 station under the moniker "61 Big Ways." The morning show was aired on both WAYS and...
in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...
). It also carries Appalachian State Mountaineers
Appalachian State Mountaineers
The Appalachian State Mountaineers are the athletic teams that represent Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, United States. The Mountaineers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and have been a member of the Southern Conference since 1972....
football and basketball and High Point University
High Point University
High Point University is a private liberal arts university in High Point, North Carolina, USA, affiliated with the United Methodist Church.- Beginnings :...
Panthers basketball, as well as select additional local sports coverage.
Most of WCOG's programming is simulcast with WSML
WSML
WSML is located in Graham, North Carolina and broadcasts at 1200 AM. The station is part of a sports trimulcast with WCOG from Greensboro and WMFR from High Point. The station is owned by Curtis Media Group. Studios are located in downtown Graham.-History:...
and WMFR; all three stations break away to carry certain programming as necessary.