WMT (AM)

Infobox Radio Station
name = WMT (AM)


city = Cedar Rapids, Iowa
branding = 600 WMT
slogan =
airdate = July 30, 1922 (as WJAM)
frequency = 600 (kHz) HD Radio
format = News/talk
power = 5,000 watts
erp =
class = B
callsign_meaning = Waterloo Morning Tribune (now-defunct newspaper that once owned the station)
owner = Clear Channel Communications
website = [http://www.wmtradio.com/ www.wmtradio.com]

WMT (600 AM) is a news/talk radio station broadcasting in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in the United States. It is owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station's signal reaches most of Iowa and portions of neighboring states during daylight hours. [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WMT&service=AM&status=L&hours=D]

History

WMT was founded by Douglas "Tex" Perham as WJAM on July 30, 1922. In 1928, Harry Shaw purchased WJAM and moved the station from Cedar Rapids to Waterloo, renaming it WMT (for the now-defunct "Waterloo Morning Tribune" newspaper that he owned). Shaw sold the station to the Cowles family, owners of the "Des Moines Register", in October 1934. WMT moved back to Cedar Rapids the next year, occupying the studios of the defunct KWCR radio after KWCR's frequency was taken over by KSO in Des Moines, another Cowles station. (WMT continued to operate a secondary studio in Waterloo until 1947.) The Cowleses sold WMT to Delaware-based American Broadcasting Stations in 1944.

WMT-TV, the first television station in Cedar Rapids, signed on at channel 2 on September 30, 1953. On February 27, 1963, WMT-FM debuted at 96.5 MHz with the same song, "Don't Send Me Posies When It's Shoesies That I Need," that was played on the AM station's inaugural broadcast 41 years earlier.

Ownership of the WMT stations was passed on to Orion Broadcasting of Louisville, Kentucky, in 1968. In 1981, Cosmos Broadcasting of Greenville, South Carolina, purchased WMT-AM and FM; they had also planned to purchase WMT-TV, but the television station was sold to Guy Gannett Communications (who renamed it KGAN) because of ownership restrictions at the time. (WMT and KGAN continue to broadcast from the same building on Collins Road, known as "Broadcast Park"; however, WMT now gets its weather reports from KWWL-TV.)

An ownership group that included former Iowa governor Robert D. Ray and sportscaster Forrest "Frosty" Mitchell purchased WMT on October 1, 1986. On January 1, 1996, Palmer Communications (owners of WHO radio in Des Moines) acquired WMT; WHO and WMT were later sold to Jacor Broadcasting, which was eventually acquired by current owner Clear Channel Communications.

Personalities and programming

Current local talk shows on WMT (as of late 2007) include "Andy Petersen", "The Expert Hour", "What's Happening", and "The Bob Bruce Radio Experience". A long-running weekend show is "The Open Line", where listeners have shared recipes since 1963. WMT also simulcasts "The Big Show" with Ken Root and Mark Pearson with sister station WHO. Syndicated talk show hosts include Rush Limbaugh, Dave Ramsey, Jim Bohannon, and George Noory's "Coast to Coast AM".

WMT has also been a longtime home for Iowa Hawkeyes football and basketball games. Play-by-play announcers over the years included Lawson "Tait" Cummins (a former sportswriter with "The Gazette"), Ron Gonder, Frosty Mitchell, and Gary Dolphin, who has handled the play-by-play duties since Learfield Communications was granted the exclusive broadcast rights to Hawkeye sports in 1997. WMT also has a proud tradition of broadcasting Friday night high school football and basketball games from throughout Eastern Iowa.

References

* (Retrieved on 2006-08-01 via Newsbank.)
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External links

* [http://www.wmtradio.com WMT radio's official website]
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