Today, FM 95 WAAG turns 50 years old.For five decades the Galesburg station has been playing today’s hits and classic country music.
WGIL General Manager in 1966 Roger Coleman explains that at the time FM radio in general was just getting on its feet.
Galesburg had a Class A license for an FM station but along the Mississippi River were Class C licenses that broadcast at 50,000 kilowatts.
Coleman had the foresight to petition to move a Class C station to Galesburg from Fort Madison, Iowa and WAAG was born.
“An individual who didn’t own a station could have applied for it and got it over us,” Coleman says. “But that didn’t happen and we were able to get the FM station.”
And what exactly is the deal with the call letters WAAG?
Coleman explains that Galesburg was named an All-American city by Look Magazine in the 1960’s.
From that he got the idea to call WAAG, or “All-American Galesburg.”
Perhaps one of the most lauded alums of FM 95 is a man who can still be heard on their airwaves.
Lon Helton can be heard on Country Countdown USA in syndication but over 40 years ago he spun tunes on THE Country Station for about a year.
“The funny thing, it wasn’t long at all and yet in so many ways it shaped who I became and who I was as a broadcaster,” Helton says.
Before FM 95 Helton was also a DJ on WVPC in Monmouth.
