WMYF (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)

Seacoast Broadcasting Corporation was granted a construction permit for a new station on 1380 kHz in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on June 15, 1960, and was assigned the call sign WBBX on June 27.[3] WBBX went on the air December 5, 1960.[1] The station affiliated with ABC Radio in April 1963;[4] in January 1965, WBBX became part of the New Hampshire State Network, which also included WKBK in Keene, WEMJ in Laconia, and WFEA in Manchester.[5]

Sportscaster Curt Gowdy bought WBBX for $316,000 in 1969, adding it to a broadcast group that already included WCCM AM-FM in Lawrence, Massachusetts; KOWB in Laramie, Wyoming; and a minority interest in KFBC AM-TV in Cheyenne, Wyoming, KSTF in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and KTVS in Sterling, Colorado.[6] Under Gowdy, the station programmed contemporary music, with national news supplied by ABC's Information network.[7] Gowdy sold WBBX to J. Harrison Holman's Kressman Broadcasting for $590,000 in 1977;[8] Kressman, in turn, sold it to Earl and Lois Goldstein's Seacoast Broadcasting Company three years later in a $550,000 deal.[9] By 1983, WBBX had moved to an adult contemporary format, with news now being supplied by ABC's Contemporary network.[10]

The Goldsteins sold WBBX to Portsmouth Broadcasting Corporation for $485,000 in 1985; principals David and Robert Sassler owned WARE in Ware, Massachusetts.[11] The new owners changed the call sign to WAVI on May 17, 1985,[12] and moved the station to an oldies format; its network affiliation shifted to the ABC Direction Network.[13]

WAVI was silent by 1987, when Ware Communications—by this point owned by Richard L. Sadowsky, who also held a stake in the Precht Communications television station group—sold the station to Windward Communications for $325,000; principal Richard Walsh owned WQMI in York Center, Maine; WQZN and WABK-FM in Gardiner, Maine; and WPNH AM-FM in Plymouth.[14][15] Windward changed the call sign to WQMI on July 23, 1987,[12] again programming an oldies format.[16] WQMI and WQMI-FM were sold to Sunshine Group Broadcasting, owner of WGAN and WMGX in Portland, Maine; WFEA and WZID in Manchester; and WIXY and WAQY in Springfield, Massachusetts, for $3.1 million in 1989;[16] Sunshine renamed the station WCQL on March 13, 1989,[12] with oldies being supplemented with NBC Talknet programming.[17] Talk programming was dropped in October 1991 in favor of a full-time simulcast of WCQL-FM's oldies programming;[18] in January 1992, the station broke from this simulcast to become a sports radio station.[19] That November, WCQL and WCQL-FM turned their ad sales over to WZNN and WWEM, effectively becoming part of a five-station group in the Portsmouth market that also included the newly-launched WXBB.[20]

WMYF's logo under "The Greatest Music Ever Made" branding

Sunshine Group Broadcasting sold WCQL and WCQL-FM to Knight Quality Stations for $16 million in 1994; the deal added the stations to an eight-station group that included WHEB in Portsmouth.[21] Knight changed WCQL's call sign to WTMN on February 19, 1995.[12] Knight Quality Stations announced the sale of its eight New England radio stations, including WTMN, to Capstar Broadcasting Partners in April 1997;[22] upon assuming control in January 1998, the stations were operated by Capstar's Atlantic Star Communications subsidiary.[23] Capstar replaced WTMN's One-on-One Sports programming with Christmas music in December 1998, as part of a transition to the adult standards programming that had recently been dropped by WMYF (1540 AM);[24] the WMYF call sign, for "Music of Your Life", moved to this station on December 1.[12][25]

Capstar and Chancellor Media announced in August 1998 that they would merge (Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst was a major shareholder in both companies);[26] upon the merger's completion in July 1999, the combined company was named AMFM Inc.[27] AMFM was in turn acquired by Clear Channel Communications (forerunner to iHeartMedia) in a deal announced on October 4, 1999,[28] and completed in August 2000.[29]

On November 22, 2010, WMYF changed its format from adult standards to sports, branded as "The Sports Animal" and featuring ESPN Radio programming.[30] WMYF's lineup also included Portland Sea Dogs baseball games.[31] As of October 1, 2013, WMYF had returned to a standards format, with sports programming continuing on sister station WPKX (the former WZNN);[32] by 2015, the station was playing classic country music.[33]

WMYF went silent on December 9, 2015,[34] after losing its transmitter site.[35] The station's programming continued to be available online at its website.[33]

The call sign was changed to WMGE on September 16, 2016,[12] taking on the former call sign of an iHeart station in Miami,[36] and to WPLA on December 14, 2016,[12] swapping with a sister station in Georgia.[37] On May 17, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission informed WPLA that it was in the process of cancelling the station's license for not returning to the air within a year of going silent;[38] the license was canceled on June 29, 2017.[39] The closure of the station, following the 1991 shutdown of WHEB (750 AM), left the city of Portsmouth without any AM radio stations.[33]

• FCC Station Search Details: DWPLA (Facility ID: 35217)
• FCC History Cards for WPLA (covering 1958-1980 as WBBX)