| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Memphis metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 990kHz |
| Branding | The Mighty 990 |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Conservative talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
First air date | February 9, 1947 (78 years ago) (1947-02-09) |
Former call signs | KWEM (1947–1959) |
Call sign meaning | Rhymes with "wham"[1] |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35873 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 35°8′4.00″N90°5′38.00″W / 35.1344444°N 90.0938889°W /35.1344444; -90.0938889 |
| Translator | 107.9 W300DE (Memphis) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | mighty990 |
KWAM (990AM) is acommercialradio station inMemphis, Tennessee, featuring aconservative talkradio format known as "The Mighty 990". Owned byTodd Starnes via Starnes Media Group, LLC, the stations serves theMemphis metropolitan area.[3][4] KWAM's studios are located in Memphis, while the transmitter is inMarion, Arkansas. KWAM was founded in 1947 inWest Memphis, Arkansas, as KWEM, helping "break" artists such asElvis Presley,B.B. King,Johnny Cash,Ike Turner andHowlin' Wolf in the late 1940s and 1950s.
By day, KWAM is powered at 10,000watts. But because990 AM is a Canadianclear channel frequency, KWAM must reduce power at night to only 450 watts to avoid interference. It uses adirectional antenna at all times.[5] Programming is also heard in Memphis and adjacent communities on low-powerFM translatorW300DE (107.9FM) and is available online.
The owners of Little Rock-area radio stationKXLR sought to build a statewide network of stations to carryArkansas Razorbacks football, and they felt that the Memphis area would provide important coverage and exposure for the football program.[6] On May 24, 1946, the West Memphis Broadcasting Company obtained aconstruction permit to build a newdaytime-only station on 990 kHz in West Memphis, Arkansas.[7] After delays, KWEM (990 AM) began operating on February 9, 1947, utilizing studios in the Merchants and Planters Bank Building.[8][9]: 317 The official opening was two weeks later on February 23.[10]
West Memphis was described as the "Las Vegas of the South" in this era, and its programming drew from musicians playing in clubs.[6]Howlin' Wolf had a show on the station from 1949 to 1952, andSam Phillips heard him and signed him to a contract withSun Records;[11] his program aired after music by rockabilly guitaristPaul Burlison;[12]B.B. King was first heard over the station, getting his break on a show helmed bySonny Boy Williamson II;[13]Stax Records founderJim Stewart started at KWEM, as didJames Cotton andHubert Sumlin;[14]Johnny Cash's first radio broadcast was on KWEM in 1953.[6][15] The station allowed aspiring performers to pay for 15-minute blocks of air time.[16]Elvis Presley made his first radio appearance on KWEM in 1953, which did not go well because he lacked a band and moved around too much;[11]George Klein worked there as a DJ after its move to Memphis;[17] so didEddie Bond.[18]
KWEM was purchased by Dee Rivers in 1951.[19] In March 1952, Rivers applied to have the station moved across the Mississippi River to Memphis, Tennessee, which was approved in January 1954; the transmitter site remained in Arkansas.[7] He started the "Dee" Rivers Stations Group, which later ownedWEAS-FM inSpringfield/Savannah, Georgia, and WGOV (nowWGUN) inValdosta, Georgia, as well as other stations in Georgia and Florida. KWEM held a construction permit to build a channel 48 television station in Memphis, KWEM-TV, but abandoned it in August 1953 because it could not find an adequate site that could house both AM and TV studios and the TV station's transmitter site and did not want this situation to hinder improvements to the radio station.[20] It continued to be an influential hotbed of talent; the transmitter remained on the Arkansas side of the river.[7] This lasted through the end of the decade, when KWEM became KWAM.[7]
On March 31, 1959, Rivers changed the call letters to KWAM[7] as part of a presentation overhaul that did little to change the station's format.[1] The next year, it stopped playing live music.[16] In 1963, the station got FCC permission to boost its power to 10,000 watts, using adirectional antenna, but it still could not broadcast after sunset.[7] The transmitter, however, failed and was destroyed in a fire the next year; competitor WLOK loaned equipment to help KWAM return to the air.[21]
The KWEM call letters were later revived forKWEM-LP, a low-power FM station in West Memphis owned byArkansas State University Mid-South, which serves as a tribute to the KWEM of the late 1940s and 1950s and began broadcasting on FM in 2015 (an earlier version had been established in 2009). The project was led by Dale Franklin, who died in 2017.[22]
In 1968, KWAM began airingChristian talk and teaching shows.[23] It also sold blocks of time to preachers and playedblack gospel music. The station already had a history of religious radio programming. In 1952, aDoctor of Divinity, William Riley, hosted a religious music program on KWEM.[24] In 1981, Dee Rivers Stations acquired FM station KLYX, which was renamed KWAM-FM. At first, it also aired a gospel and religious format like its AM counterpart. In 1983, the call letters were changed to KRNB, with the station switching to arhythmic contemporary anddisco format, while KWAM continued its gospel sound.[25]
In 1986, KWAM got nighttime authorization. It was allowed to stay on the air after sunset, but at only 450 watts.[26]
In February 1996, U.S. Radio announced it would purchase KWAM and the FM station,KJMS, from Rivers. This united the two stations with their principal competitors,WDIA (1070 AM) andWHRK (97.1 FM). One month later, U.S. Radio was purchased byClear Channel Communications for $140 million.[27]
Clear Channel sold KWAM to Concord Media for $1 million in 2000.[28] Concord switched KWAM to atalk radio format competing directly againstWREC, which Clear Channel (renamed iHeartMedia in 2014) retained. Several years later, KWAM changed hands again, this time bought by Legacy Media, which also ownsWEKS, an FMcountry music station inZebulon, Georgia, just outsideAtlanta. In 2017, Legacy Media added a 250-watttranslator for KWAM, W300DE (107.9FM); the next year, Legacy would change the station's branding to "KWAM The Voice - Talk Radio for the Midsouth."
Legacy Media sold KWAM as well as its translator for $685,000 to the upstart Starnes Media Group, LLC, owned by Memphis nativeTodd Starnes. A conservative American columnist, commentator, author and radio host, Starnes previously worked forBaptist Press andFox News/Fox News Radio,[29] having departed the latter in October 2019.[30] Upon the close of the purchase on March 31, 2020, Starnes Media Group changed the station's branding to reflect the history of the station, renaming it "The Mighty 990."[31]
After Tim Van Horn left for station WKIM in late October 2022, Ben Deeter now hosts the station's morningdrive time news and interview show,Wake Up Memphis.[32] The majority of the station's lineup consists ofnationally syndicated talk shows and is regarded as theflagship station for ownerTodd Starnes's weekday afternoon program.[31]
Other syndicated hosts includeArmstrong & Getty,Lars Larson,Sebastian Gorka,Rita Cosby,Bill O'Reilly,Charlie Kirk and "Red Eye Radio." Weekends feature shows on money, health, guns, gardening, home repair and the outdoors. Some weekend shows are paidbrokered programming. Most hours begin with an update fromTownhall News.