The Second Thursday Corporation received the
construction permit for a new AM radio station in
Nashville in 1962. Originally assigned the call letters WSTH, WLVN signed on April 1, 1963, as "The Nashville Sound", focusing entirely on recordings made in the city. WLVN relaunched as full-service WWGM on September 25, 1964. The station broadcast with 10,000 watts during the daytime only, with a three tower directional pattern. Originally, the WWGM call sign stood for the "Wonderful World of Good Music". Later on after a format change, the call sign stood for the "Wonderful World of Gospel Music". After nearly four years of operation as WWGM, the station filed for bankruptcy in 1968. Crawford Broadcasting bought the station at auction for $105,000 later that year—though it did not become the licensee until 1970—and said that if the equipment manufacturers that WWGM owed money would not make arrangements with it, the group would build a new facility. Second Thursday also held a construction permit for an FM station on 92.9 MHz, sold separately, that was finally built in 1976 as WZEZ, now
WJXA. In September 1986, Dean A. Crawford Broadcasting Co. reached an agreement to sell WWGM to Lindsey Christian Broadcasting Company, consisting of Faye and her husband Rudy Lindsey. The deal was approved by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on November 25, 1986, and the transaction was consummated on December 16, 1986. In April 1993, Lindsey Christian Broadcasting Company reached an agreement to sell WWGM's license to Classic Broadcasting, Inc. The contract agreement to transfer the WWGM License was signed by Lindsey Christian Broadcasting's vice president, Faye Lindsey and Classic Broadcasting's President, William E. "Bill" Bailey. The deal was approved by the FCC on October 25, 1993, and the transaction was consummated on October 28, 1993. the Illinois station now operates as
WBIG. On Saturday, February 19, 1994, WMRO signed on at 8a.m. and began playing an
oldies music format. Part-owner Scott Bailey signed on the station, and was the first DJ to hit the air that morning. All three were owners of WMRO. Former
WQQK program director Jay Dubard gave WMRO its branding, Magic 1560. On April 1, 2006, the station flipped to a hot adult contemporary music format because of the area's changing demographics as a Nashville
bedroom community and another station in the county switching to an oldies format. The last oldies song played was "
Wooly Bully" from
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. The first song played with WMRO's new hot adult contemporary format was "
Let Love In" by the
Goo Goo Dolls. Scott Bailey made the format change that day at 5p.m. Despite the format change, WMRO retained the Magic 1560 branding, but adding a new slogan, "Today's Best Hits". In December 2006, majority control of Classic Broadcasting was transferred from William E. "Bill" Bailey to Timothy Scott Bailey. On February 7, 2007, William E. "Bill" Bailey died. However, with Scott Bailey as president and general manager, Leslie Bailey, (Scott's wife) as vice president, and Sandra Bailey as secretary, the three pushed on to keep WMRO on the air, and the station gained popularity in Gallatin and Sumner County with a new audience. Scott Bailey was quoted by saying they were playing a music format that was not normally heard on AM radio. A few area broadcasters who liked the previous oldies format mocked Scott Bailey for the format change, but other broadcasters in the area praised Scott, Leslie, and Sandra Bailey for the change. Jack Williams, former owner of competitor
WHIN, was very supportive of the format change; Williams is a family relative to Scott, Leslie, and Sandra Bailey. In 2007, WMRO also aired a weekly program called "Music Business Radio", produced at the studios of
WRLT in Nashville, that promotes local bands, artist and writers. Lightning 100 DJ Dan Buckley worked with Scott Bailey to air Music Business Radio on WMRO to a reach a larger audience. On September 12, 2014, at 10a.m., the station changed format from hot adult contemporary to mainstream adult contemporary, with no change in branding. The first song played on the new format was "
I Love Rock 'n' Roll" by
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts. Before buying WMRO, Scott Bailey was an air personality known as "Scott the Rock" at Nashville's
WVOL and WQQK, During the last two hours WMRO was on, Scott Bailey dropped the adult contemporary format, and went live playing
classic rock and classic
R&B of the 1970s and 1980s. The last song played on WMRO according to Scott Bailey was "
Slow Ride" by
Foghat. After the song ended, he shut the transmitter off. ==References==