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| Broadcast area | SouthernNew Hampshire |
| Frequency | 610kHz |
| Branding | News Radio 610 WGIR |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WGIR-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | October 2,1941 |
Former call signs | WMUR (1941–1956) |
Call sign meaning | Girolimon family (former owner) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 35237 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 43°0′57.3″N71°28′46.24″W / 43.015917°N 71.4795111°W /43.015917; -71.4795111 (WGIR) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wgiram |
WGIR (610kHz "News Radio 610") is acommercialAM radio station inManchester, New Hampshire, with anews/talkradio format. The station is owned byiHeartMedia, Inc. WGIR's studios and offices are on Foundry Street in Manchester. Much of the programming and news, but not the commercials, can be heard on co-ownedWQSO 96.7 MHz inRochester, serving theNew Hampshire Seacoast.
Thetransmitter is on Stark Lane in Manchester, nearInterstate 293 Exit 7.[2] WGIR is powered at 5,000 watts by day; to avoid interfering with other stations onAM 610, it reduces power at night to 1,000 watts. It uses adirectional antenna at all times.
Weekdays begin with a local news and interview show, "New Hampshire Today", hosted by Chris Ryan, also heard on several other stations in the state.[3] The rest of the schedule consists ofnationally syndicated shows, includingThe Glenn Beck Program,The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Sean Hannity Show,The Dave Ramsey Show,Ground Zero Radio withClyde Lewis,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory andThis Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.
Weekend feature programs on money, health, law, technology and thePaul Parent Garden Club, as well as best-of editions of weekday programming. Some weekend shows are paidbrokered programming. Syndicated weekend shows includeThe Tech Guy withLeo Laporte,Sunday Night Live withBill Cunningham andSomewhere in Time withArt Bell. Most hours begin with world and national news fromFox News Radio, followed by New Hampshire news from local reporters.
WGIR is theflagship station of theNew Hampshire Fisher Catsminor league baseball team. Additionally, WGIR is co-flagship of theWildcat Sports Network along withsister stations 930WPKX and 96.7WQSO. The network airscollege football,hockey and basketball from theUniversity of New Hampshire.
The stationsigned on the air on October 2, 1941, as WMUR, owned by formerNew Hampshire GovernorFrancis P. Murphy.[4] WMUR was anNBC Blue Networkaffiliate.[5] WMUR carried the Blue Network line up of dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio". The Blue Network later becameABC Radio.[6]
AnFM sister station on 95.7MHz was added on December 21, 1947, which largelysimulcast the AM station. Plans for an FM station had been in place for seven years. However, few people owned FM radios at the time and management doubted the FM station would ever be profitable. WMUR-FM was shut down December 27, 1950. The frequency is now occupied byWZID.[4][7]
A few years later, Murphy decided to apply for a television station on Channel 9. Murphy had to compete against applications fromWFEA, WKBR (nowWGAM), and theManchester Union-Leader, the local daily newspaper headed byWilliam Loeb III. Murphy won theconstruction permit, andWMUR-TV signed on March 28, 1954.[4][8]
Because WMUR radio was an ABC affiliate, WMUR-TV picked up programming from theABC Television Network. WMUR and WMUR-TV broadcast from a Victorian-style house on Elm Street in Manchester.
Murphy decided to sell the WMUR stations in the mid-1950s,[8] with Madeleine M. Girolimon acquiring WMUR radio for $150,000 in 1956[9] and changing thecall sign to the current WGIR. (The WMUR call letters remain on channel 9, which stayed under Murphy's ownership until a few months after his death in 1958.)[8] Girolimon dropped the ABC affiliation soon after taking over.[10] WGIR picked upCBS Radio programming in 1957.[11]
Girolimon sold WGIR to Knight Quality Stations in 1961.[12] Around the same time, the station switched its network affiliation toNBC Radio.[13] Under Knight, the station decided to reenter FM broadcasting, andWGIR-FM at 101.1 MHz signed on June 5, 1963.[14] It largely simulcast the AM station in its early years.[15] In 1977, the simulcast ended as WGIR-FM switched to asoft rock format.[16]
Through the 1960s and 1970s, WGIR had afull service,middle of the road (MOR) format, mixed with some talk andsports programming.[17][14] By the early 1980s, the station evolved its music programming toadult contemporary, while adding more talk shows.[18] On December 31, 1984, WGIR ended all remaining music programming to become a full-time news/talk station.[19][20][21] In 1990, the station swapped affiliations with WFEA and returned to ABC News Radio.[22]
Knight Quality Stations announced the sale of its eight New England radio stations, including WGIR, to Capstar Broadcasting Partners in April 1997;[23][24] upon assuming control in January 1998, the stations were operated by Capstar's Atlantic Star Communications subsidiary.[25] That September, Capstar rebranded the station as the "Action News Network".[26] In addition to broadcasting on AM 610, WGIR supplied programming toSeacoast radio stations 930 WZNN (renamed WGIN) and 1540 WMYF (renamed WGIP).[27][28] WGIR switched networks again, this time dropping ABC and returning to NBC Radio.[26] NBC radio news was subsequently phased out byWestwood One in favor ofCNN Radio.
Capstar and Chancellor Media announced in August 1998 that they would merge (Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst was a major shareholder in both companies);[29] upon the merger's completion in July 1999, the combined company was named AMFM Inc.[30][31] AMFM was in turn acquired by Clear Channel Communications (forerunner to iHeartMedia) in a deal announced on October 4, 1999,[32][33] and completed in August 2000.[34] For a time, Clear Channel added WGIR programming to a fourth station,WTSL 1400 AM inHanover.[35] WGIR picked up Fox News Radio for its news network in the mid-2000s after Clear Channel signed a larger agreement with the service.[36]
WGIP left the network in 2009, after it was placed in theAloha Station Trust and sold off due to the privatization of Clear Channel; it becameclassic hits-formatted WXEX,[37] and is nowK-Love stationWPKC. WGIN also stopped carrying WGIR programming in April 2011, switching to sports programming. It became WPKX in February 2012.[38] Most of WGIR's programming and news remains available on the Seacoast through sister station WQSO (96.7 FM).
...WGIR-AM, a news-talk radio station...
On January first it [WFEA] switched from ABC to NBC, allowing cross-town rival WGIR to sign with ABC News.
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