WMAG (99.5 FM) 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 ...

High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...

, and serving the

Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and ...

, including

Greensboro Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina, af ...

and

Winston-Salem Winston-Salem is a city in Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the fifth-most populous city in North Carolina and the 91st-most populous city in the Uni ...

. It is owned by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

and it broadcasts 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 ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

for much of November and December. In the evening, WMAG carries 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 ...

Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ; ) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved by Samson, a Nazirite who possesses great strength and serves as t ...

'' call-in and dedication show. The studios and offices are on Pai Park in Greensboro. WMAG is a Class C station. It has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 100,000

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, the maximum for most stations. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

is off Davis County Road in Randleman.Radio-Locator.com/WMAG
/REF> The signal provides at least secondary coverage as far east as

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

, as far north as Martinsville and as far south as the Charlotte suburbs.

History

WMFR-FM

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 in 1946 as WMFR-FM. It broadcast at 97.7 MHz as a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WMFR WMFR (1230 AM, "Rebel 104.5") is a radio station airing a country music format. Licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, the station serves the Piedmont Triad area. The station is owned by Triad Media Partners. History WMFR signe ...

1230 AM. In 1947, WMFR-FM moved to 99.5 MHz; by the 1960s, it had increased its power to 8,000 watts. The two stations

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) ...

their programming until the late 1960s. By that time, 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 ...

was encouraging FM stations in larger communities to offer separate programming from their co-owned AM counterparts. WMFR-FM switched to beautiful music. It played

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

quarter-hour sweeps of instrumental music. The

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. ...

was mostly soft

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular adult songs, along with

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 ...

WMAG

In 1982, WMFR-FM was purchased by Voyager Communications. The facilities were upgraded and the station became WMAG "Magic 99.5" with an adult contemporary format. During the 1980s and early 90s the station's competitors in the adult contemporary format were WWWB and

WMQX WLMZ-FM (102.3 MHz, "La Mega 102.3") is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Pittston, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Audacy, Inc., through licensee Audacy License, LLC, and airs a Spanish tropical format branded as "La Mega 102. ...

. In later years, "Magic 99.5" began describing its music as "

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

" and dropped the "Magic" handle in favor of just the

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 ...

. Voyager Broadcasting sold WMAG in the early 1990s to what would become AMFM Broadcasting. In 1999,

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

-based

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

acquired AMFM Broadcasting, including WMAG. Its original transmitter site, still used by 1230 WMFR, is visible atop The Radio Building on Main St. in downtown High Point.

Changes in staff

At the end of 2009, Bill Flynn ended a 26-year career as WMAG morning host when he moved to 94.5

WPTI WPTI (94.5 FM) is a commercial radio station, owned by iHeartMedia, licensed to Eden, North Carolina, and serving the Piedmont Triad, including the Greensboro–Winston-Salem– High Point media market. The station broadcasts a talk radio form ...

. After the local classic hits station

WTHZ WWLV (94.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Lexington, North Carolina, and serving the Piedmont Triad metropolitan area. The station is an affiliate of K-LOVE. History 94.1 began in the early 1940s as WBUY-FM by Davidson County Broadcasting ...

"Majic 94.1" switched to a

contemporary Christian Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

format, WMAG added more 1970s and 1980s music in effort to gain some of the former WTHZ listeners. Another local radio personality, Rod Davis, lost his job as the co-host on WMAG's morning show, on Wednesday October 26, 2011. As a cost-cutting move, Clear Channel Communications announced that it had dismissed some on-air and off-air staff, within that same week, throughout the United States. On December 18, 2020, WMAG rebranded as "Mix 99.5". In November and December, Mix 99.5 calls itself "The Triad's Christmas Station" playing all Christmas music through

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Chri ...

References

External links

Radio Building website
* {{IHeartMedia

MAG Mag, MAG, Mags or mags may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''MAG'' (video game), released in 2010 * ''Mág'' (film), a 1988 Czech film * ''Mag'' (Slovenian magazine), published from 1995 to 2010 * '' The Mag'', a British music magazin ...

Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1946 1946 establishments in North Carolina IHeartMedia radio stations High Point, North Carolina