Radio station in Portland, Maine
WLOB (1310 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Portland, Maine. The station is owned by Atlantic Coast Radio and airs a Talk radio format. The studios and transmitter are on Warren Avenue in Portland. WLOB transmits with 5,000 watts using a directional antenna to protect other stations on its frequency.[2]
Programming on WLOB is also heard on FM translators W263BZ on 100.5 MHz in Portland and W252EI on 98.3 MHz in Brunswick.
Programming
Weekdays begin a local news and interview show, hosted by Ray Richardson, which is also carried on several other AM stations in Maine. The weekday schedule continues with nationally syndicated hosts including Mike Gallagher, Sean Hannity, Joe Pags, Jim Bohannon, Chris Plante and America in The Morning. Sports programming includes University of Maine Black Bears college football and hockey.[3]
A portion of The Ray Richardson Show was simulcast on Portland's MyNetworkTV affiliate, WPME, from September 2009 to June 2013. Until March 2009, the entire program (as The Fox Morning News) was simulcast on Portland's Fox affiliate, WPFO.[4]
Most hours begin with national news from Fox News Radio.
History
WLOB first signed on the air on February 2, 1957.[5] During the late 1960s and early 1970s, WLOB was a popular Top 40 music station, competing with 1440 WJBQ in nearby Westbrook. During this time, McGavern/Guild Media NYC owned WLOB AM 1310 as Atlantic States Industries, which also owned WTSA (Brattleboro, Vermont), WNVY (Pensacola, Florida) and WRYT (Boston).
By about 1979 or 1980, as Top 40 listening began shifting to FM, WLOB switched to a brokered Christian talk and teaching format. In the late 1990s, it added a simulcast on 96.3 FM in Rumford, WLOB-FM. This was the third incarnation of WLOB-FM; previous versions included 102.9 (now occupied by WBLM) in the 1960s and an AOR-formatted 100.9 (now occupied by WYNZ) from 1978 to 1980.
In 2000, WLOB and WLOB-FM were sold to Atlantic Coast Radio by Carter Broadcasting. The stations subsequently dropped their religious programming and picked up the news-talk format heard today. In 2006, WLOB-FM relocated its transmitter from western Maine to South Paris to provide a clearer signal to the Portland area. Following the transmitter move, in 2008, WLOB-FM changed its city of license from Rumford to Gray.
On August 25, 2008, WLOB-FM was converted to a simulcast of WJJB (which WJAE had become by that time), resulting in WLOB's programming being heard only on the AM signal. This was part of a shuffle of Atlantic Coast Radio's FM stations as a result of the conversion of two of its stations, including WJJB-FM, on September 1, 2008 to simulcasts of WEEI.[6] Shortly after the completion of these format changes, 95.5's call letters were changed to WGEI (it had initially planned to use the WTEI call sign,[7] and for a week in September 2008 used the WUEI call letters[8]).
On April 1, 2009, 95.5 WGEI converted to a simulcast of WLOB; it became WLOB-FM a few days later.[8] In August 2011, WLOB-FM once again began airing programming from WEEI leaving the talk programming only on the AM signal.
In March 2016, WLOB's programming could once again be heard on the FM dial in the Portland area, this time on an FM translator, 100.5 W263BZ.
