WMGS (92.9 FM, "Magic 93") is a commercial radio station in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It is owned by Cumulus Media, through licensee Radio License Holding CBC, LLC. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for part of November and December. The studios and offices are on Baltimore Drive in Wilkes-Barre.
The station signed on the air in 1946 as the first FM station in Northeast Pennsylvania.[4] (WKRZ, then WBRE-FM, got its start in 1947 and WGGY, then WGBI-FM, in 1948.) The original call sign on 92.9 was WIZZ, but those call letters switched to WYZZ a short time later. It was owned by Dick Evans, Sr., with the license held by the Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Pittston Broadcasting Company. The studios were at 225 South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.
WYZZ was the sixth FM station in the United States to broadcast in FM stereo. During the 1960s it was also one of the first stations to broadcast live stereo remotes, the Wyoming Valley Oratorio Society and the Northeast Pennsylvania Philharmonic. If the station did not broadcast the local classical organizations live, they recorded them and played them back at a future date. WYZZ was an experimental testing ground for several developments in the art of FM radio. WYZZ was put on the air with the assistance of Major Edwin Armstrong, a pioneer in developing FM radio. The station was part of his FM network. One of the first vertically polarized antennas was installed there along with a transit radio service and multiplex subcarriers. In later years, the stations experimented with Dolby noise reduction and quadraphonic stereo broadcasting. During its classical programming, it turned off all processing, instead using competent board operators to ride gain.
In 1972, during Hurricane Agnes, WYZZ was the only Northeast Pennsylvania radio station to remain on the air and deliver vital information to the public, thanks to having its own generators and microwave STL, with both its studio and transmitter located high out of the flood area.
WMGS
The station was sold to Susquehanna Broadcasting the spring of 1985. The sale only included the transmitter and license. The building, music library, and licensing rights to the "Whiz Radio" unit were retained by Dick Evans Sr. The station went silent at 11:59 p.m. on March 12, 1985, as the ownership changed.
In 1997, WMGS, and sister stationWARM were sold to Citadel Broadcasting. Magic 93's AC format continued, though the station updated its playlist to titles from 1980 to the current day, with an occasional 1970s hit. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.[5]
