WGMF (750

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

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 ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Olyphant, Pennsylvania Olyphant is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is northeast of downtown Scranton, on the Lackawanna River in the heart of the anthracite region of the state. Its main source of employment was the mining and shipping ...

, and serving the

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( , alternatively or ) is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. ...

Scranton Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...

radio market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

. Known as "Gem 99 and 100", it airs a classic hits

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

and is owned by Kevin Fitzgerald and Benjamin Smith, through licensee Geos Communications, LLC. WGMF is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

with co-owned 1460

WGMM WGMM (1460 AM) is a radio station licensed to the city of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania and is part of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre radio market. It broadcasts with 5,000 watts daytime, and 1,000 watts nighttime power with a directional signal. The s ...

in Tunkhannock, 1490 WGMA in Hazleton and 103.9 WGMF-FM in Dushore. WGMF is a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

radio station. By day, it is powered at 1,600

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s using a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle to the axis (elevation angle), declining t ...

. But

750 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 750 kHz: 750 AM is classified as a United States and Canadian clear-channel frequency by the Federal Communications Commission. WSB (AM), WSB Atlanta, KFQD ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A WSB in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. So at night, WGMF must go off the air to avoid interference. Programming is heard around the clock on multiple

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

s around Northeast Pennsylvania: 93.9 FM in The Abingtons, 98.9 FM in Scranton, 99.9 FM in Wilkes-Barre, 100.1 FM in Hazleton and 100.9 FM in Tunkhannock.

History

WRGE and WWAX

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

, . Its original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was WRGE, owned by Ernke Media Enterprises. It aired a middle of the road format of popular adult music. It was powered at 400 watts, a quarter of its current output. The call letters changed to WWAX in 1987. James Emmel, a former voice at

WGBI WGBI may refer to: *An A.M. radio station on 910 kHz at Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, which held the callsign WGBI from 1925 until 2005. *An F.M. radio station on 101.3 MHz at Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States, which held the callsign ...

910, took the reins of WWAX "Live 75". Broadcasting an unusual

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

of songs, WWAX had its home on Lackawanna Avenue in Olyphant.

Mixed Up Music

In 1993, Carmen Nordone (C.V. Nordone Broadcasting) purchased 750 AM. He changed the call sign to WMXH, using the slogan "Our Music Is All Mixed Up". WMXH operated under a multiple genre format that included

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. Th ...

s, classic country,

big band music A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

, 1950s and 1960s

sock hop A sock hop or sox hop, often also called a record hop or just a hop, was an informal (but officially organized) dance event for teenagers in mid-20th-century North America, featuring popular music. The term sock hop came about because dancers wer ...

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

and even some Southern Gospel favorites. Five years later, in 1998, WMXH was purchased by Kevin Fennessy's Fennessy Broadcasting Stations Corporation to become WAAT. It was initially a leased-time ethnic station. In 2001, Fennessy changed format with the addition of the

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

advice show ''Dr. Laura'' with

Laura Schlessinger Laura Catherine Schlessinger (born January 16, 1947), commonly known as Dr. Laura, is an American talk radio host and author. ''The Dr. Laura Program'', heard weekdays for three hours on Sirius XM Radio, consists mainly of her responses to call ...

along with the music of

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

in the mornings. Earlier in his career, Fennessy had worked at WAAT (1300 AM) in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

Catholic programming

The call letters were switched to WQOR on June 17, 2003. It was the third station acquired by

Buffalo Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

-based

Holy Family Communications The Station of the Cross is a network of Catholic radio stations owned and operated by Holy Family Communications. It is an affiliate of the EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which ...

, a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

broadcasting organization. WQOR joined ''

The Station of the Cross The Station of the Cross is a network of Catholic radio stations owned and operated by Holy Family Communications. It is an affiliate of the EWTN Global Catholic Radio network. Current stations Former stations Notes External links Th ...

'' network. Named for "The Queen of the Rosary", WQOR began broadcasting Catholic programming provided primarily by the

EWTN The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic programming. It is the largest Catholic television network in America, and is purported to be "the world's larges ...

Radio Network. On April 1, 2008, Holy Family Communications sold WQOR to J.M.J. Radio, a Scranton/Wilkes-Barre based non-profit broadcaster. On December 1, 2010, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

issued a Notice of Apparent Liability against J.M.J. Radio, Inc., in the amount of $10,000 for failing to maintain a management and staff presence at the site of WQOR's main studio.

Classic Hits

On February 12, 2023, WQOR announced it would end its Catholic religious shows. The "JMJ" Catholic programming would move to

W283BE (104.5), which had previously been part of the "Gem" network, and the HD4

subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

of 106.9 WEZX.Gem Moves in Scranton
Radioinsight - February 12, 2023 Effective May 31, 2023, Geos Communications acquired WQOR, along with sister station WAZL and translator W261DQ, from J.M.J. Radio in exchange for W283BE 104.5 FM. On November 5, 2023, the station changed its call sign to WGMF. The format flipped to classic hits, branded as "Gem 99 & 100". The station

s with several AM stations and a network of

s in Northeast Pennsylvania.

References

External links

* * * {{Daytime-only radio stations in Pennsylvania GMF (AM) Radio stations established in 1984 1984 establishments in Pennsylvania GMF Classic hits radio stations in the United States