WYPZ (AM)
WYPZ (900 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an urban gospel format. Licensed to Macon, Georgia, US, the station serves the Macon area. Originally licensed to 1240 kc. on the AM dial, WYPZ signed on the mid-1940s as WBML. During the 1950s and 1960s, WBML established itself as the station to turn to for breaking news. Station management placed mobile units on the streets of Macon throughout most of the day and night. The air staff included Bob Saggese, a Connecticut native who was also Macon's first television producer and announcer, Gordon Price, Don King, Ken Wickham, Lee Mathis, Oscar Leverette, Sid Ingraham and later Bill Elder in the 1970s. In 1976, Prairieland Broadcasters of Decatur, Illinois sold the station to Jack Tyken, who changed the format from pop to country. That format change lasted only a few months before the station was sold again and moved from its signature "Peek-A-Blue" building on Macon's Riverside Drive to a location in east Macon. Jim Lee, a Macon city police officer and later a member of the City Council, was the station's News Director throughout much of the 1960s. The air staff included two of the city's most popular announcers, Bob Saggese and Don King. After years as a Christian station, WBML was sold to Sun Broadcasting in June 2011 and began programming a Classic/Mainstream Country Format in July 2011.
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City | Macon, Georgia |
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Broadcast area | Macon area |
Frequency | 900 kHz |
Branding | Praise 99.5 |
Programming | |
Format | Urban gospel |
Ownership | |
Owner | Christopher Murray (Georgia Radio Alliance, LLC.) |
WRWR (FM) | |
History | |
First air date | 1957 |
Former call signs | WBML (1957-2015) |
Technical information | |
Facility ID | 71216 |
Class | D |
Power | 2,000 watts day 145 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 32°50′58″N 83°36′6″W |
Translator(s) | 99.5 W258AP (Macon) 105.1 W286CE (Fort Valley) |
Links | |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | www |
For a short period of time in 2015, WBML simulcasted WRWR/W286CE's R&B format before moving WYPZ 1350's callsign and Urban Gospel format to 900 AM later that year to make way for Classic Hits formatted "Fox FM" on 1350 AM. With this change, the now historic WBML callsign was moved to 1350 AM, where it resides to this day.
External links
- WYPZ in the FCC AM station database
- WYPZ on Radio-Locator
- WYPZ in Nielsen Audio's AM station database