WDCG-FM 105.1 History
WDCG began its life in February of 1948 as WDNC-FM, the sister station of The Durham Morning Herald/Durham Sun's WDNC. The sign-on of the 36,000-watt FM station coincided with the AM station's power increase and frequency shift from 1490 to 620. For the next 26 years, WDNC-FM 105.1 simulcast the AM programming from an antenna located atop one of AM 620's three towers on Shocoree Drive in western Durham. (The old 105.1 FM antenna is still visible on the tower nearest downtown.) In 1974, WDNC-FM became country station WDCG (Durham's Country Giant) FM Stereo 105. In 1977, WDCG dropped the country format for Top 40, adopting the now-legendary handle "G-105". In 1983, the station boosted their power to 100,000 watts and moved to a taller tower at the Chatham County Antenna Farm at Terrel's Mountain. WDCG operated from the Herald-Sun building at 138 East Chapel Hill Street in Downtown Durham from its 1948 sign-on until 1992, when the station, along with sister station WDNC, moved to new, more spacious studios at Park Forty Plaza, located off NC 55 and Interstate 40 in southern Durham. The Herald-Sun sold WDCG in 1993 to Prizm Broadcasting, which had also purchased Vilcom's WZZU 93.9 (now WKSL), which moved from its Raleigh studios to Park Forty Plaza as well. WDCG now shares studio space with fellow Clear Channel properties WKSL, WRDU and WRVA on the seventh floor of North Raleigh's Smoketree Tower. Through a series of mergers, WDCG and its three sister stations are now part of Clear Channel Worldwide. In 2004, the station's FM class was slightly downgraded from a class "C" to a class "C-0", allowing a sister Clear Channel Worldwide station in Roanoke, Virginia, WZBL, 104.9 FM, to make an upgrade to its signal. No changes were necessary to WDCG's actual facilites to allow for this change. However, WDCG will be making some changes to its facilities in the near future. In March 2005, the FCC approved the station's moving their antenna from Terrel's Mountain to the WLFL-TV tower in Apex, a change involving a drop in power from 100,000 watts to 78,000 watts and another downgrade in class, this time to a class "C-1". The station made the move in April 2008, and signed on their HD radio signal in June of that same year.
WDCG-FM 105.1 Gallery
- A 1975 logo for WDCG when they played country music.
- One of the earliest G-105 logos, used until the mid-1980s. This one is from a 1983 advertisement.
- G-105 used this logo in the late 1980s.
- A 1995 WDCG audio clip from Bostonradio.org, 0:12.
- A 1997 WDCG audio clip from Bostonradio.org, 0:20.
- Smoketree Tower, where WDCG's studios are located.
- A photograph of the Chatham County Antenna Farm at Terrel's Mountain. The WDCG antenna is at right.
