WMGN (98.1 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 ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

, known as "Magic 98". It is owned by

Mid-West Family Broadcasting Mid-West Family Broadcasting is an independently owned broadcasting company based in Madison, Wisconsin. The company owns and manages radio stations in Madison, Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Mich ...

and 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, ...

. Notable programming includes a "Five at Five" feature on weekday evenings with five songs in the same theme, and the syndicated call-in and request show ''

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 ...

''. Weekend programming includes "Saturday at the 70s", "Sunday at The 80s", and the "Magic Sunday Morning" program. WMGN 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 36,000

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

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 ...

is off County Highway MM, near U.S. Route 14 in Fitchburg. The

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s and offices are on Rayovac Drive in Madison.

History

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 September 1948 as WISC-FM. It was mostly

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

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 ...

WISC 1480 AM (now

WLMV WLMV (1480 AM), branded as "La Movida 94.5 & 1480", is a radio station serving the Madison, Wisconsin area. Owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting, the station airs local Spanish language music and talk programming, along with national news br ...

). WISC-AM-FM were owned by Radio Wisconsin, Inc., with offices in the Commercial State Bank Building. WISC-FM was the second commercial FM station in Madison, going on the air a year after 101.5

WIBA-FM WIBA-FM (101.5 MHz) is a radio station licensed to Sauk City, Wisconsin, United States, serving Madison and south central Wisconsin. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel Communications) and broadcasts a ...

. WISC-AM-FM slightly changed their

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 ...

s to WISM-AM-FM in 1959. They were

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

s of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

. By the late 1960s, WISM-FM had a separate

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

format, that was largely

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 ...

. By the 1980s, the easy listening format was attracting mostly older listeners. To gain a younger audience, WISM-FM flipped to

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 ...

as "Movin' Easy 98 FM". On December 1, 1983, the station changed its call letters to WMGN with the moniker "Magic 98". The format switched to

soft 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 ...

music. Over time, the tempo picked up and WMGN became a Mainstream AC station.

Christmas Music

WMGN is one of the few AC stations in the U.S. that does not switch to all-

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 most of November and December. The all-holiday music format in Madison is heard on

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 ...

’s 92.1

WXXM WXXM (92.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and serving the Madison, Wisconsin, metropolitan statistical area, Madison metropolitan area. The station is ...

Audacy Audacy, previously known as Radio.com, is a free broadcast and Internet radio Computing platform, platform developed by the namesake company Audacy, Inc. (formerly known as Entercom). The Audacy platform functions as a Recommender system, mus ...

’s 105.1

WMHX WMHX (105.1 FM broadcasting, FM "Mix 105.1") is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Waunakee, Wisconsin and serving the Madison, Wisconsin, metropolitan statistical area, Madison metropolitan area. The st ...

and non-commercial

Christian Contemporary Contemporary Christian music (CCM), also known as Christian pop, and occasionally inspirational music, is a genre of modern popular music, and an aspect of Christian media, which is lyrically focused on matters related to the Christian faith an ...

station 102.5 WNWC-FM, owned by the

University of Northwestern – St. Paul The University of Northwestern – St. Paul (UNWSP) is a Private university, private Evangelical Christianity, evangelical Christian university in Roseville, Minnesota, United States. History The predecessor to the current university was fir ...

. WMGN only switches to all-Christmas music a few days before December 25, calling it "The 98 Hours of Christmas", tying in its dial position.

References

External links

WMGN official website
* {{Coord, 42.963, N, 89.380, W, type:landmark_region:US-WI_source:FCC, display=title MGN Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1948 1948 establishments in Wisconsin