In 1925, Jefferson Standard Life Insurance bought WNRC and changed the call letters to WBIG. Among the programs that aired on the station: Arthur Godfrey, Jack Benny, and murder mysteries. In its early days, the station was located in the basement of the O. Henry Hotel. Bluegrass musician Bill Monroe, a resident of the area, was one of the country music performers who played live in the studio. According to former WKEW owner Bill Mitchell, Manoree, the tonic that sponsored Monroe's show, "helped get you going." WBIG also had its own 10-piece orchestra. In 1934, Jefferson Standard sued to collect $790 in overdue rent from WBIG, which had its facilities at the top of the Jefferson Standard Building, claiming the station was attempting to get out of paying by having Guilford Broadcasting take over the license. In 1980, WBIG was the number one station in Guilford County. For more than 20 years, Bob Poole, the "Duke of Stoneville," was a DJ. "The smooth, deep-voiced morning man for the old BIG... would whistle with his theme song each day and... went down nice and easy, like a first cup of coffee." Dusty Dunn was a long-time morning host, his sidekick was Buddy Bray, and Jim Pritchett was sports director. Lloyd Gordon, the news and programming director, said that Jefferson-Pilot signed off WBIG on November 20, 1986, because the station was not making money. Dunn and Ken Karns were among those still working there at the time.
History of WWBG
On December 9, 1994, Walt Cockerham announced that the former WBIG would return to the air with its old frequency, but the call sign was no longer available. During the year after WKEW changed from news/talk, Truth Broadcasting bought several stations in the Greensboro area, including the one that would be called WWBG, the call sign that the new station was assigned by the Federal Communications Commission on August 21, 1992. Truth Broadcasting planned to do what WKEW had done. This meant news, talk, sports and community affairs relating to Greensboro. On November 1, 1999, Dunn and Bray returned to 1470 AM. Dunn said, "It's like being home. We've got the old morning crew back together." The news/talk format only lasted until January 1, 2002, because, program director David Albright said, it was not profitable and a number of Spanish-speaking people wanted a radio station of their own. "La Movidita" was already airing on WTOB in Winston-Salem. In 2003, Truth Broadcasting stopped selling time to La Movidita, which moved to its former home WSGH. Que Pasa moved from WSGH to WWBG and WTOB. WTOB began airing separate programming in 2013.
