WGH (AM)

• 1. Introduction

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  WGH at 1310 AM is a radio station licensed to Newport News, Virginia, with a history stretching back to the earliest years of American broadcasting. On the 6th of December 1926, a station called WPAB first received a license to operate on 940 kHz. Few radio stations anywhere in Virginia can claim roots that deep. That longevity has earned WGH a distinction that no other Virginia station holds: it is the only one in the state still carrying a three-letter call sign.

  The name WGH is not arbitrary. It stands for "World's Greatest Harbor," a slogan tied to the Hampton Roads and Tidewater region of Virginia. That area has long been home to shipbuilding, commercial ports, and military installations. The call letters apply to both the AM station and its sister station, 97.3 WGH-FM. What makes WGH unusual is not just how old it is, but how many times it has reinvented itself across nearly a century on the air.

• 2. Frequencies and Transmitters

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  The station that became WGH did not stay put on the dial. Starting life as WPAB on 940 kHz in 1926, it was reassigned the WGH call letters and moved to 1310 kHz in 1928. Then international radio policy intervened. The implementation of the NARBA treaty pushed WGH off 1310 kHz and onto 1340 kHz in 1941. Seven years later, in 1948, the station returned to 1310 kHz, where it has remained.

  Today the transmitter sits off Mary Ann Drive in Hampton, just across the boundary from Newport News. Programming also reaches listeners through a low-power FM translator, W265EF, broadcasting at 100.9 MHz in Newport News. That FM signal allows the station to brand itself as both "Fox Sports 1310 and 100.9," extending its reach beyond the AM band. Studios and offices are located on Greenwich Road in Virginia Beach.

• 3. Call Sign and Identity

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  Three-letter call signs on American radio are rare survivals from the medium's first decade. WGH is the only station in Virginia still holding one, though its history includes two periods under different identities. At various points the station operated as WNSY and as WCMS before reverting to WGH. The fact that it returned to its original call letters each time speaks to the brand value built into those three letters and the slogan they carry.

  For much of the 1960s and 1970s, WGH built that brand as a popular top 40 station in the Hampton Roads market. That era gave the station wide audience recognition. The decision to keep the WGH name through subsequent format changes suggests ownership recognized that recognition as an asset worth preserving.

• 4. A Century of Format Shifts

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  On the 5th of October 2009, WGH swapped formats with WXEZ at 94.1 FM and became an urban gospel station, branding itself as "Star 1310." That arrangement held for nearly eight years. On the 28th of July 2017, the station pivoted again, this time to 1950s-60s oldies music.

  On the 28th of February 2019, the oldies format gave way to urban talk and urban oldies, under the brand "1310 The Power." Less than a year and a half later, on the 15th of June 2020, WGH shifted again to business talk, operating as "Money Talk." On the 6th of January 2023, the station made its most recent move, dropping business talk for sports programming branded as "Fox Sports 1310." It now carries shows primarily from Fox Sports Radio and is owned and operated by Max Media.