WXGM (AM)

WDDY went on the air on January 20, 1957, becoming the first radio station in the Middle Peninsula.[2] The station was owned by S. L. Goodman, the owner of a publishing firm in Richmond,[3] 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.[3] 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.[4] The station's full-service format included 12 hours a week each of African American and country programming in 1967.[5]

Lazarow owned WDDY for 23 years until he sold it in 1981 for $90,000[6] to a new WDDY, Inc., owned by William Eure and Thomas Robinson of Petersburg, where they owned WSSV AM and WPLZ-FM.[7] Despite not planning many changes at the outset,[7] 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.[8] Eure and Robinson laid the groundwork for another change in the 80s by announcing their intention in 1984 to apply for an FM frequency.[9]

Comprehensive changes came to 1420 AM on September 1, 1988[10] when the station was relaunched as WXGM with an oldies format.[11] The overhaul also included $40,000 in equipment upgrades.[10] 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".[12] That same year, the AM station reduced its daytime power to 740 watts.[13] 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.[14]

Robinson later sold a stake in WXGM-AM-FM to Walt Wurfel, who had previously headed the communications department of the National Association of Broadcasters for a decade; Wurfel died in 2018.[15]