WDDY went on the air on January 20, 1957, becoming the first radio station in the Middle Peninsula.[3] The station was owned by S. L. Goodman, the owner of a publishing firm in Richmond,[4] though the station was almost immediately sold to WDDY, Inc.—owned by station manager Charles E. Springer—upon signing on the air. It broadcast during the daytime only with 1,000 watts.[4] In 1958, Arthur Lazarow, a former announcer at WWJ radio in Detroit, acquired WDDY in 1958 by way of his company Cape Radio; minority investors in Cape included John R. Daniels and Arthur Shimmin.[5] The station's full-service format included 12 hours a week each of African American and country programming in 1967.[6]
Lazarow owned WDDY for 23 years until he sold it in 1981 for $90,000[7] to a new WDDY, Inc., owned by William Eure and Thomas Robinson of Petersburg, where they owned WSSV AM and WPLZ-FM.[8] Despite not planning many changes at the outset,[8] changes did come to WDDY: that summer, it relaunched with a country format and picked up coverage of Virginia Cavaliers football and the Washington Redskins.[9] Eure and Robinson laid the groundwork for another change in the 80s by announcing their intention in 1984 to apply for an FM frequency.[10] Eure's stake was subsequently purchased by a new corporation, WXGM, Inc., founded by Robinson and Walter Wurfel, an experienced radio executive who was then vice president of communications for the National Association of Broadcasters. [11]
WXGM
Comprehensive changes came to 1420 AM on September 1, 1988[12] when the station was relaunched as WXGM with an oldies format.[13] The overhaul also included $40,000 in equipment upgrades.[12] Even more changes came on July 29, 1991, when WXGM-FM 99.1 launched; the FM and AM stations initially simulcast as adult contemporary "Xtra 99.1 FM".[14] That same year, the AM station reduced its daytime power to 740 watts.[15] Its sports coverage gained a regional appeal the next year when the station began what would be a 9-year relationship with the William & Mary Tribe; WXGM ended the deal abruptly in 2001 when it signed a more favorable deal to carry the athletic events of Christopher Newport University, in which CNU paid the station and offered to help sell advertising.[16]
After Wurfel died in 2018 and Robinson died in 2020, ownership of the station passed to their widows, Sara Fitzgerald and Marva Paige Robinson.
