WMPS (1210 AM) – branded as Sunny 1210 & 103.1 – 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 ...

Bartlett, Tennessee Bartlett is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 57,786 at the 2020 U.S. Census. History Bartlett, originally called "Union Depot", first served as the last major Tennessean depot along the westward stagecoach ...

, and serving the

Memphis metropolitan area The Memphis–Clarksdale–Forrest City Combined Statistical Area, TN–MS–AR (CSA) is the commercial and cultural hub of the Mid-South or Ark-Miss-Tenn. The census-defined combined statistical area covers eleven counties in three states, Tenne ...

. Owned by Flinn Broadcasting, it airs 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 ...

and soft

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 ...

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, ...

. 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 are on Mount Moriah Road Extension at Ridgeway Road in Memphis. By day, WMPS is powered at 10,000

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. Because

1210 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1210 kHz: 1210 AM is a United States clear-channel frequency. WPHT Philadelphia is the dominant Class A station on 1210 AM. In Argentina * Del Promesero in José C Paz, Buenos Aires * LRI ...

is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A

WPHT WPHT (1210 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts a talk radio radio format, format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. Its studios are in Audacy's corporate headquarters on Market Stree ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, WMPS greatly reduces power at night to 250 watts to avoid interference. It uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

with a four-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

. 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 on Rockyford Road at Walker Farms in Bartlett. It also

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) ...

s over 250-watt

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 ...

W276BH at 103.1

MHz 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 u ...

in Memphis and streams online.

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 on . The 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 WGSF. Its

city of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

was

Arlington, Tennessee Arlington is a town in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of the seven municipalities in Shelby County. The town was officially incorporated as Haysville in 1878 and again as Arlington in 1900. The population was 2,569 at the 2000 census, 1 ...

. WGSF was owned by the Arlington Broadcasting Company. In the 1980s, Fred Flinn became the general manager of the station and would later acquire the station as part of his Flinn Broadcasting Corporation. In the late 1980s, WGSF's city of license was switched to

, and its call letters changed to WMPS. WMPS originally carried the "

Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and Ca ...

" syndicated

format. It later switching to

adult contemporary music 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, sou ...

. Under Flinn Broadcasting ownership, the station returned to a standards format mixed with soft oldies, primarily from the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It is programmed in-house.

FM translator

References

External links

* * {{Memphis Radio MPS Bartlett, Tennessee