The station first hit the airwaves in January 1939 as WJJJ, owned by George William "Will" Covington, Jr. (1170 AM is the second-oldest frequency in use in the Montgomery market, the oldest being 1440 kHz, which began as WSFA, later became WHHY, and finally WLWI.)

Covington died in 1949, and his family kept the station until selling it to Gay-Bell Corporation in 1964, earning a substantial return on their investment of 25 years earlier.

Nationally syndicated talk programming features Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Rusty Humphries, Jerry Doyle, Roy Masters, and Neal Boortz.

This station was reported to be off the air in April 2017; it has been running on a special temporary authority antenna since December 2016 due to lightning damage to their daytime transmitter.

Core artists include: Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Weezer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink 182, Cake, Seether, Soundgarden, Janes Addiction, Linkin Park, Neon Trees, Metallica, Garbage, The Offspring, Bush, and more.

WGMP broadcasts with a Continental Electronics transmitter at 10,000 watts (daytime) into a two-tower AM directional array.

WGMP programming is also carried on a low-powered FM broadcast translator, mainly to improve the station's nighttime coverage.