WMSP

[3] Originally licensed in 1953 as WBAM, the station broadcast contemporary and country music before turning to sports talk under the WMSP callsign in 1995.

Big BAM Shows of the late 1960s and early 1970s featured all the biggest artists of the day, including Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, Iron Butterfly, The Carpenters, The Monkees (as a group and individually), Tommy Joyce and Bobby Heart, The Grass Roots, and many more.

WBAM was sold to Colonial Broadcasting in 1985, and an era ended when the call letters changed to WMSP for sports radio programming.

[13] In the 1960s and early 1970s, the station sponsored a series of pop/rock concerts known as "Big BAM Shows" featuring acts ranging from Paul Revere and the Raiders, Lou Christie, and The Beach Boys to comedian Pat Paulsen.

[15][16] Other notable former personalities included Bill J. Moody, Paul Simpkins, Mark Robbins, Gene Hocutt and Joe Cook.

[15][16] Cliff Ellis, award-winning college basketball coach and currently the head coach at Coastal Carolina University, was a musician in the mid-1960s and his group, The Villagers, had several regional hits in the Southeastern U.S.[18] The group got their first big break when Ellis convinced WBAM disc jockey Bill Moody to play their first self-financed record, "Laugh It Off", on the air.

[19] Alabama author Paul Hemphill included references to WBAM in his 1979 novel Long Gone as the preferred radio station of the protagonist, Jamie Weeks.

TV and Radio personality Jimmy Carter has assembled a few videos featuring some photos, jingles, and air checks of WBAM in its heyday.

[23] In February 1995, after more than 40 years as a 50,000-watt regional "blowtorch", WLWI applied to the FCC to decrease its daytime broadcast power to 10,000 watts.

[1] In January 1998, Robert E. Lowder reached an agreement to sell WMSP license holder Colonial Broadcasting Company, Inc., to Cumulus Holdings, Inc.