WKGC (1480 AM) was 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 ...

licensed to Southport, Florida, United States. The station served the

Panama City, Florida Panama City is a city in and the county seat of Bay County, Florida, United States. Located along U.S. Route 98 in Florida, U.S. Highway 98 (US 98), it is the largest city between Tallahassee, Florida, Tallahassee and Pensacola, Florida, Pe ...

area. The station was last owned by Ron Hale, through licensee Omni Broadcasting LLC.

History

WKGC began broadcasting in 1957 as WTHR, a popular music and weather station, and operated until 1962, when it went

dark Darkness is the condition resulting from a lack of illumination, or an absence of visible light. Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low luminance because the hue-sensitive photoreceptor cells on the retina are ...

. This lasted for three years, until Don McCoy (later founder of Magic Broadcasting) helped launch WGNE (branded as ''Genie Radio'') once again as a popular music station, starting on 25 June 1965. Due to newfound success, in 1971,

WGNE-FM WGNE-FM (99.9 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Middleburg, Florida, and serving the Jacksonville metropolitan area. It is owned by Renda Media and airs a country music radio format as "99.9 ...

went on the air, which proved more successful for the station than the AM signal previously had. Both stations were soon sold to Janus Broadcasting in the 1970s, but still aired the same pop music format. In 1981, Janus Broadcasting donated the radio station to

Gulf Coast State College Gulf Coast State College is a public college in Panama City, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and offers the Associate of Arts degree, Associate of Science degree, certificates, and as of 2011, bachelor's degrees. History The ...

to supplement WKGC-FM, and its callsigns were changed accordingly. This sale led to the WKGC cluster being the first college radio station available in both AM and FM. Due to the extensive damage of

Hurricane Michael Hurricane Michael was a powerful and destructive tropical cyclone that became the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992. It was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make ...

, the station had been silent since October 10, 2018. In March 2019, Omni Broadcasting (based out of

Destin, Florida Destin is a city located in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. It is a principal city of the Crestview–Fort Walton Beach–Destin, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,931 at the 2020 census, up from 12,305 at th ...

) filed a $5,000 deal to buy the station. At the time, Omni owned

WTKP WTKP (93.5 FM) was a commercial radio station located in Port St. Joe, Florida, broadcasting in the Panama City, Florida, Panama City area on 93.5 FM. History WPBH was formerly licensed to Mexico Beach, Florida, at 99.3 FM. On May 3, 2007, the ...

, another station in the Panama City market. The purchase was consummated on September 27, 2019. The station's license was cancelled by 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 ...

on April 1, 2021, due to WKGC having been silent for more than a year.

References

External links

Facility details for Facility ID 25564 (WKGC)
in the FCC Licensing and Management System
FCC History Cards for WKGC
(covering 1956-1981 as WTHR / WGNE / WKGC) KGC Jazz radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1957 1957 establishments in Florida Radio stations disestablished in 2021 NPR member stations Defunct radio stations in the United States KGC 2021 disestablishments in Florida {{Florida-radio-station-stub