WLOB first
signed on the air on February 2, 1957. 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 as Atlantic States Industries, which also owned
WTSA in
Brattleboro, Vermont;
WNVY in
Pensacola, Florida; and
WRYT in
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 97.9 (now occupied by
WJBQ) 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 (the former WJBQ AM), 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. 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, and for a week in September 2008 used the WUEI call letters). On April 1, 2009, 95.5 WGEI converted to a simulcast of WLOB; it became WLOB-FM a few days later. 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. ==Translators==