WMFG (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an

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 ...

format. Licensed to

Hibbing, Minnesota Hibbing is a city in St. Louis County, Minnesota, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 16,214 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The city was built on mining the rich iron ore of the Mesabi Iron Range an ...

, United States, the station serves the

Iron Range The Iron Range is collectively or individually a number of elongated iron-ore mining districts around Lake Superior in the United States and Canada. Much of the ore-bearing region lies alongside the range of granite hills formed by the Giants ...

area. The station is owned by

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications, Inc. is a Wausau, Wisconsin–based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Il ...

and features programming from

Westwood One 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 co ...

. Midwest owns five radio stations on the

; KQDX, WMFG,

WNMT WNMT (650 AM) is a talk radio station in Hibbing, Minnesota. WNMT is owned by Midwest Communications. Midwest owns five radio stations on the Iron Range; KQDX, WMFG, WNMT, WTBX, and WUSZ. All five stations share the same studio location at 80 ...

WTBX WTBX (93.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a U.S. radio station in Hibbing, Minnesota, serving the Iron Range region. The station is owned by Midwest Communications and airs a hybrid format of hot adult contemporary and modern adult contemporary. WTBX b ...

, and

WUSZ WUSZ (99.9 Hertz, MHz "Radio USA") is a commercial radio, commercial FM radio station city of license, licensed to Virginia, Minnesota, and serving the Iron Range region. It is owned by Midwest Communications and it airs a country music, country ...

. All five stations share the same studio location at 807 W. 37th Street, Hibbing.

History

WMFG signed on the air on October 12, 1935, with studios in the Androy Hotel in downtown Hibbing, Minnesota. The station became affiliated with the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

in September 1937. As a CBS affiliate it carried the famous October 30, 1938, War of the Worlds broadcast. In June 1942, WMFG dropped CBS and joined the

NBC Radio Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (also known as the NBC Red Network from 1927 to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in continuous operation from 1926 through 1999. Along with the NBC Blue Network, it wa ...

. It remained with NBC until the early 1960s. By 1962, it was an independent station. WMFG was one of the original affiliates of the Minnesota Twins Radio Network in 1961. The station joined

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in 1968 and remained with ABC until the mid-1980s. Station management decided to pick up the call signs of Duluth beautiful music station WGGR in 1983. Those call signs were dropped when the format changed at the Duluth outlet. The station applied for and was granted the call signs WGGR on November 1, 1983. On August 5, 1987, the station changed its call sign back to the original WMFG.

References

External links

Radio stations in Minnesota Adult standards radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1935 1935 establishments in Minnesota Midwest Communications radio stations Hibbing, Minnesota {{Minnesota-radio-station-stub