WMSP

WMSP (740 AM, "Sports Radio 740") is a radio station licensed to serve Montgomery, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and the broadcast license is held by Cumulus Licensing LLC. Originally licensed in 1953 as WBAM, the station broadcast contemporary and country music before turning to sports talk under the WMSP callsign in 1995. The WMSP studios are located on the 3rd floor of The Colonial Financial Center in downtown Montgomery, and the transmitter tower is in Montgomery's northeast side.

Programming

WMSP broadcasts a sports-talk format. The station is an affiliate of CBS Sports Radio. In addition to sports talk programming, WMSP airs Atlanta Braves baseball, both Alabama Crimson Tide football games and Auburn Tigers football games as well as select daytime baseball games of the Southern League's Montgomery Biscuits.

History

WBAM, The Big BAM

This station first began licensed operations in 1953 as a daytime-only 50,000-watt AM station broadcasting on 740 kHz as WBAM. Owned and operated by the Deep South Broadcasting Company, WBAM broadcast area covered most of Alabama and parts of Georgia and Florida. "The Big BAM" aired a variety of music formats over the years, including Top 40 during the late-1960s and early-1970s, but by 1973 had settled on a country music format. As a daytimer, WBAM had to cease broadcasting each night at sunset and the station played "Dixie" as a sign-off.

WBAM became known as "The Big BAM" or "The Voice of the Deep South", and is legendary. Disc jockeys associated with WBAM's Top 40 heyday include Bill J. Moody, now the sales manager for WDJR in Dothan, Bobby Brennan, Dan Brennan (Dan's Dusty Discs), Coby Shubert and Joe Cook. Big BAM Shows of the late 1960s and early 1970s featured all the biggest artists of the day, including Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, Iron Butterfly, The Carpenters, The Monkees (as a group and individually), Tommy Joyce and Bobby Heart, The Grass Roots, and many more. Ticket prices were never more expensive than $4.00.

Mornings were dedicated to farm and gospel music programming, with country and popular music played during the day.

In 1973, WBAM adopted a country music format. WBAM was sold to Colonial Broadcasting in 1985, and an era ended when the call letters changed to WMSP for sports radio programming.

On September 15, 2009 the building the original WBAM studios were located in was demolished.

Former programming and personalities

In the mid-1950s, the station was home to the "WBAM Deep South Jamboree" featuring live country and bluegrass acts such as Shorty Sullivan and his Green Valley Boys, Rebe Gosdin and his Sunny Valley Gang, Judy Jenkins, Jack Turner, and other rotating regulars.

Radio personality Johnny Gilbert began his broadcasting career at WBAM. Gilbert was killed in a helicopter accident while working as an airborne traffic reporter at KULF in Houston, Texas, on March 15, 1974. He was posthumously awarded the Steve Pieringer Award by the Texas Association of Broadcasters in 1974.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the station sponsored a series of pop/rock concerts known as "Big BAM Shows" featuring acts ranging from Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, and The Beach Boys to comedian Pat Paulsen.

Other notable former personalities included Bill J. Moody, Paul Simpkins, Mark Robbins, Gene Hocutt and Joe Cook.

Awards and honors

Paul Simpkins, an original WBAM on-air personality from the time of the station's launch in 1953 until the sale in 1984, received a number of honors during his more than three decades with the station. These include being named ''Sterling Magazine'' Personality of the Month and ''TV Radio Mirror'' Personality of the Month in 1967, 1968 and 1972. Simpkins was inducted into the Country Music DJ Hall of Fame in 1998.

Cyril Brennan, the general manager and program director of WBAM, was named the 1976 "Program Director of the Year for Country Music" by ''Billboard'' magazine's International Radio Programming Forum.

Former programming and personalities

In the mid-1950s, the station was home to the "WBAM Deep South Jamboree" featuring live country and bluegrass acts such as Shorty Sullivan and his Green Valley Boys, Rebe Gosdin and his Sunny Valley Gang, Judy Jenkins, Jack Turner, and other rotating regulars.

Radio personality Johnny Gilbert began his broadcasting career at WBAM. Gilbert was killed in a helicopter accident while working as an airborne traffic reporter at KULF in Houston, Texas, on March 15, 1974. He was posthumously awarded the Steve Pieringer Award by the Texas Association of Broadcasters in 1974.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the station sponsored a series of pop/rock concerts known as " Big BAM Shows" featuring acts ranging from Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, and The Beach Boys to comedian Pat Paulsen.