WJBQ

WJBQ

City of license	Portland, Maine
Broadcast area	Cumberland County, Maine
Slogan	Q 97.9
Frequency	97.9 MHz
Format	Contemporary hit radio
ERP	16,000 watts
HAAT	271 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	3134
Former callsigns	WCSO (1990-1997)[1] WDCS (1974-1980) WLOB-FM (1971-1974)
Owner	Cumulus Media
Sister stations	WBLM, WCYY, WHOM
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	http://www.wjbq.com

WJBQ (FM 97.9; on air slogan Q97.9) is a radio station in Portland, Maine, United States, which airs a contemporary hit radio format.

Programming

The station provides around the clock top 40 hit music played by either its own staff of disc jockeys and supplemented with some syndicated programming.

Weekday mornings feature the "Q Morning Show" with Meredith Manning, Jeff Parsons, and Lori Voornas. The morning show features music as well as news every half hour and is supplemented with talk and recurring features such as "movie montage/mash-ups," "Pen of the Day," weekly calls to Movie Mom, and "Open Mic Wednesdays" which allows callers to call in and say mostly anything on the air (with exceptions) for ten seconds.

Afternoons feature the Q late lunch with Teddy McKay who plays listener requests from 1:00pm to 2:00pm.

Weeknights feature Rob "Steelzy" Steele with the exception of Wednesday nights in the summertime when he hosts a ladies night at the OOB pier.

Nights and Weekends also feature a mix of on-air staff and nationally syndicated programs such as Open House Party and American Top 40

History

WJBQ started as a 3,000 watt Top 40 station at 106.3 FM (Scarborough) and 1440 AM (Westbrook) in April 1974. Its main competition was then Top 40 AM Station WLOB, which was nationally recognized as having some of the highest ratings (on a percentage basis) in the country. In its first Arbitron ratings, WJBQ edged WLOB by about three points which was the beginning of the end for WLOB.

WLOB's demise took a while, probably because it had the backing of legendary consultant Paul Drew protege Ron Foster and others. Meanwhile, WJBQ was staffed by Wally Brian doing mornings (now WROR/Boston), Joe McMillan in middays (who went on to WHDH (now WEEI) and KABL in San Francisco), and Jeff Ryder in the afternoon slot (also the station's program director, who went on to WBBF Rochester, NY and WOKY Milwaukee). By 1977, WLOB had changed formats to an older-targeted Adult Contemporary format.

In September 1980, WJBQ's owner John Bride swapped frequencies and formats with Portland classical station WDCS on 97.9. This would make WJBQ a full-power 50,000 watt facility. The move proved to be profitable for the station. High-profile names like Andy Carey, Brian Phoenix, and Harry Nelson took turns as the station's programming directors, and brought it continued high ratings.

In August 1986, Bride sold WJBQ in order to launch independent UHF TV station WPXT. The new owner was former WJTO/WIGY owner Turner Porter, who launched an ambitious full-service adult contemporary format featuring Joe McMillan in morning drive and NBC Talknet at night and new call letters: WWGT, or "The Great 98". Jack O'Brien was imported from sister station WERZ as program director. This "AM on FM" approach didn't garner the success that was hoped for, and the station changed format again in November 1987. The A/C format was replaced with CHR as "G-98" with Jon Holiday who is now a programming consultant at the helm. Under Holiday's guidance the station achieved big ratings success and remained CHR as G-98 into the early 90's. Later the station changed on air slogans several times (as Ocean, Coast, etc.) with the WCSO calls as an AC for several years before returning to its Top 40 roots for a 3rd time and original WJBQ call letters in 1996 under the ownership of Fuller-Jeffrey Radio who later sold to Citadel Broadcasting. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.

External links

• WJBQ Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WJBQ
• Radio-Locator information on WJBQ
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WJBQ