WAME (550 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

broadcasting a classic country format. Licensed to

Statesville, North Carolina Statesville is a city in Iredell County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The population was 28,419 at the time of the 2020 census. Statesville was established in 1789 by an act of the North Carolina Legislature. It is part ...

, United States. The station is owned by Statesville Family Radio Corporation. WAME's programming can also be heard on FM on 92.9 MHz over translator W225BD, which transmits with 19 watts. The programming is currently a mix of locally produced programming and

Dial Global Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The c ...

's Classic Hit Country format.

History

Duke Family

The station on 550 AM in Statesville, North Carolina began in 1955 as WDBM, and operated only during daytime hours with licensed power of 500 watts. WDBM was founded by Walter A. Duke. In 1967, the Duke family started WDBM-FM at 96.9 FM, now known as WKKT, which initially was simulcast with WDBM. WDBM-FM continued to broadcast easy-listening music in the evenings after WDBM signed off.

Ferguson Family

In 1973, the Duke family sold the both stations to the Ferguson Family. The new owners separated the operations of the AM and FM, and the AM began broadcasting a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format. The FM was given the calls WOOO and on-air was called "Triple-O 97".

Metrolina Communications

In 1980, both WDBM and WOOO were sold to Metrolina Communications of

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

.Mark Wolf, "Raleigh-Based Chain Enters Charlotte Market By Buying WLVV-FM," ''The Charlotte Observer'', April 9, 1982, p. 5D. WDBM became WDRV and switched to an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format.

GHB Broadcasting

WDRV was sold to Statesville Family Communications, a subsidiary of GHB Broadcasting. The format was changed to Southern gospel music and religious teaching. In 1990, the callsign became WAME. In 1994, the callsign changed to WHYM. In 1996, the station became WIST with the tagline "Station of the Stars". It was an affiliate of the

Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and Ca ...

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

network. In 1997, GHB Broadcasting created a regional talk network called Total Radio to compete in the

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

market against heritage station WBT. As part that effort, the callsign changed to WTLI when it joined the Total Radio simulcast. The attempt to compete against 50,000-watt WBT was not successful. By 1998 the WIST call letters were back to Statesville, with the Real Country format on the station, and the station became WAME again in October 2000. In the early 2000s, long-time radio personality J. D. Benfield began doing the morning show on the station, and the remainder of the day's programming was the Stardust satellite format from

ABC Radio Networks ABC Radio may refer to: Australia * History of ABC Radio (Australia), the division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) responsible for: ** ABC Classic, a classical music radio station ** ABC Classic 2, an un-presented streaming-only ...

. In February 2008, WAME became "Country Legends 550." Benfield left the station in August 2008. On October 1, 2008, country radio personality John Glenn joined WAME as Operations Manager and Morning Show Host. "Big Country Mornings with John Glenn" began airing on Monday, January 12, 2009.

References

External links

* * * {{Charlotte Radio

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Classic country radio stations in the United States Iredell County, North Carolina