WGEM signed on January 1, 1948; its debut was hampered by an ice storm that forced the station off the air just twenty minutes into its first broadcast. The station was owned by Quincy Broadcasting Company, which was purchased by a partnership of transmitter manufacturer Parker Gates and
Quincy Newspapers a few months later. Gates had previously attempted to enter station ownership by applying for a new station, WFAR, which was never built; it would eventually become a simulcast of WGEM.) The station became an affiliate of the
ABC Radio Network on October 1, 1948. By 1976, when WGEM-FM broke away from its simulcast and became a
country music station, WGEM had a
middle-of-the-road format; that year, the station became one of the first
AM stereo stations. It shifted to
adult contemporary in 1980; in the early 1990s, the station again changed formats, this time to
talk radio. During the
Great Flood of 1993, WGEM provided comprehensive coverage, temporarily suspending its normal programming to provide updates on bridge closures, flood stages, and levee status. it had carried ESPN Radio at night under the previous format. However, much of WGEM-FM's primarily news-oriented local programming, as well as
Paul Harvey and
NBC Nightly News, continued to be simulcast on the AM station for several years thereafter; this was finally largely phased out in 2005. WGEM's schedule was primarily sourced from ESPN Radio; it did air a local morning program,
WGEM SportsCenter. Other local programming, generally relating to local sports (including coach's shows for
Quincy University and
Quincy Senior High School basketball) was carried during their seasons. WGEM also carried
Chicago Cubs baseball and
Chicago Bulls basketball. On February 1, 2021,
Gray Television announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire all Quincy Media television and radio properties for $925 million in a cash transaction. This included WGEM and WGEM-FM, as well as WGEM-TV. At the time of the acquisition, Gray's only other radio property was
KTXC in
Lamesa, Texas, which was in the process of being divested in an unrelated concurrent deal; by 2023, the WGEM radio stations were the only radio stations in Gray's holdings. The AM 1440 facility went off the air June 24, 2022, after equipment failures, On February 16, 2023, Gray Television announced that WGEM and the translator would be shut down entirely effective March 1; the sports format moved to WGEM-FM, replacing its news/talk programming. ==Notes==