WPEG - History

History

The 97.9 frequency came on the air in Concord, North Carolina in 1961 as WEGO-FM, and simulcast the programming of its sister AM station until 1967. That year, the station became a beautiful music station with the call letters WPEG. The station was owned by the Suburban Radio Group from Belmont, North Carolina. The call letters were chosen by then-station manager Jim Keel to honor his wife, Peggy Keel. During these years, the station was the feeder station for the Tobacco Radio Network (now the North Carolina News Network) for the western half of North Carolina. The station began broadcasting in stereo in 1973.

In 1970, the station's format changed to country music, and gained a devoted following in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and Stanly County, North Carolina. Popular announcers during its years as a Country station included Gene Hinson, Charlie Hicks, Ken Kennedy and Jay Driggers.

WPEG switched to a gold-based adult contemporary format in July 1975, with the Drake-Chenault Solid Gold automation format. Popular announcers during its years in this format were Larry Thomas, Terry Setzer and Shane Atwell.

Drake-Chenault Company introduced its Super Soul syndicated format in 1978, and WPEG was one of the first stations to switch to the format early in that year. The station also experimented with club-style DJ mixes on weekends.

A local nightclub DJ, Mitchell Eaves, quickly became popular as Disco Mitch. His Saturday night broadcast featured live club-style mixing of the latest disco hits, dj interviews from discos across the country and wild impromptu contest. Eaves was granted full programming and content discretion and took complete advantage, a move that station management was soon to regret. Eaves and programming assistant Paul Allen launched a shoot-the-moon contest in which listeners were asked to drive past the station and show their assets. Throngs of listeners responded, clogging local traffic for hours. Several auto accidents were reported, law enforcement was dispatched and local businesses complained. Eaves and Allen were quickly dismissed by then station manager Charlie Hicks. The incident made headlines worldwide in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Asian press, even gaining a chuckle from Walter Cronkite on the CBS Evening News.

The Disco programming was a short-lived experiment, and by late 1979 the format had evolved into an Urban Contemporary format. WPEG is now considered as Charlotte, North Carolina's heritage urban radio station since 1982, when the Suburban Radio Group purchased 1600AM WGIV and gradually moved their format to the FM station. Popular announcers of its days in this format have included Fred Wellington Graham, Skip Murphy, Michael Saunders, Les Norman, BJ Murphy, George "Apollo" Fetherbay, Helen Little, Barbara Taylor, Todd Haygood, Nate Quick, Darryl McClinton, Sheila Stewart, Janine Davis, Anthony Tone-X Belser, Eddie Owens, Consuella Williams and Bob Harris.

The station was branded WPEG 98 FM for years until 1988 when it adopted its current name Power 98. When WPEG's owners bought out Rhythmic-formatted WCKZ, they ended that format by moving WBAV-FM's Urban AC programming from the AM dial to the 101.9 FM position, thus tilting WPEG's Urban format over to Mainstream at the same time. The station continues to thrive in the market with its sister station WBAV-FM V-101.9 as the main competitor.

The station studios are located at 1520 South Boulevard, Ste 300 Charlotte, North Carolina 28203.

WPEG is one of two urban contemporary radio stations owned by CBS Radio, the other being WVEE in Atlanta.

Charlotte is the only market where CBS Radio operates two full service urban stations. (WPEG & WBAV-FM)