WYMY-FM 96.9 History

In 1947, East Carolina Broadcasting Company, owner of Goldsboro's WGBR, 1400 AM, signed on WGBR-FM 99.7 as the first FM broadcaster east of Raleigh and one of the first five FM stations in North Carolina. By the next year, WGBR-FM was operating at 93.3 FM with 35,000 watts. WGBR-FM was one of the founding stations of the Dixie Farm Network, which would later evolve into the Tobacco Radio Network and today's North Carolina News Network. By the late 1950s, WGBR-FM became WEQR, moving to 96.9 FM. The station was a popular Top 40 station in the '80s known as "Q 96". In 1989, Don Curtis' Curtis Media Group bought WEQR and WGBR. In 1990, Curtis cut a corporate deal with Osborne Communications, which had recently bought Tarboro-based country station WKTC, 104.3 FM. The deal involved WEQR assuming WKTC's call letters and format, becoming WKTC "Katie Country 96.9". In 1991, the WEQR calls later popped up at another Goldsboro station, urban WOKN 102.3 FM. WKTC became WKIX on January 9th, 1998, taking the format and legendary call letters of Raleigh's WKIX "Kix 96.1" and joining with Burlington-based WPCM, 101.1 FM in a simulcast that covered most of the central and eastern parts of the state. The new WKIX and WPCM, which was renamed WKXU, were marketed as "Kix 96.9 and 101.1". In February 2001, WKIX became WYMY and began simulcasting then-'80s oldies outlet WWMY "Star 102.9". The legendary WKIX calls and format went to another Goldsboro FM station, the second WEQR at 102.3. For the next two years, the stations went under the handle "Star 96-9 and 102-9". At 5 o'clock on March 7th, 2003, WYMY dropped their 102.9 FM simulcast and became the market's first full-time FM Spanish station, "96.9 La Ley", which means "the law" in Spanish.

WYMY-FM 96.9 Gallery