WBAG HISTORY

By Gailes Stuckey 
with special thanks to Bill Diffee

Sunday afternoon February 24, 1947 at 2 P.M. “1150 Radio” signed on the air under the ownership of the Burlington and Graham Broadcasting Company with the assigned call letters of WFNS. It was a group of six Alamance County Businessmen that formed the Burlington and Graham Broadcasting Company. They were Lawrence Neese Sr., Bowman Sanders, Bill Coble, Homer Andrews, Rufus Blanchard and Everette Quails.

The original studios and offices were located on Andrews Street at Main Street in Downtown Burlington (next to the State Theatre). The studios and offices have moved four times since signing on the air. In 1951, the station moved to the upstairs of the Patterson Building located at the corner of Maple Avenue and Broad Street in Burlington. In 1964, the call letter identification was changed to WBAG, which stood for We’re Burlington And Graham. Another big change came at this time with a new “Top 40” music format. In 1970, we moved to a newly constructed building at 939 South Main Street in Burlington.

In 1983, the Burlington and Graham Broadcasting Company was sold to The Village Companies. The new owners moved the FM Station to Raleigh. WBAG AM remained in Burlington under the Ownership of Falcon Communications, Inc., which operated WBAG 1150 from 1983 until 1993. Offices and studios were located in Burlington Executive Plaza at 236 North Mebane Street, Burlington. The Station went through two more ownership changes in the 1990’s. Gray Broadcasting, LLC. Acquired the Station in 2000 and constructed studios and offices at 1745 Burch Bridge Road, which is and always has been our transmitter and tower location. All through the various ownerships, WBAG has maintained a strong commitment to local service for Alamance County Listeners. Joe Gray, President of Gray Broadcasting LLC. has not only maintained our local service tradition but has enhanced it even beyond what the Station’s owners have done in the past.

We have maintained relationships with various organizations that are now in their sixth decade. We have carried the live broadcast of the Sunday Morning Worship Service of the First Baptist Church on Broad Street, Burlington, from the very beginning of 1150 AM. Over the years, we have broadcast play-by-play sports involving Alamance County’s favorite Collegiate and High School teams. Our relationship with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels go back to the late 1940’s and the days of All American, Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice. Ray Reeves was the play-by-play announcer and his color commentator was Bill Currie. Bill later took over as the Tar Heel's play-by-play man. He became known as “The Mouth of the South”, the title of a feature article in Sports Illustrated Magazine. After Bill retired a young TV Sports Announcer, Woody Durham, became “The Voice of the Tar Heels”. We are now in our sixth decade of Tar Heel Sports coverage. We don’t know of any other radio station that has had a longer broadcast relationship with the University of North Carolina than 1150 AM in Burlington.

WBAG’s basic programming has stayed about the same through our six decades of service. Our music format has changed from time to time but our community service programs, news and sports along with a commitment to be live and local has maintained our image as Alamance County’s “Hometown Radio Station”. We are proud of having won the “Time-News Readers Choice Award” as best Radio Station for six consecutive years all under the local ownership of Joe Gray and Gray Broadcasting, LLC.