Owned by Venture Technologies Group and operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Weigel Broadcasting, the station airs a soft adult contemporary/oldies format via the 87.75 MHz audio channel under the brand 87.7 MeTV FM, a brand extension of Weigel's MeTV television network.
The WRME-LD studios are co-located with Weigel's headquarters in Chicago's Greektown neighborhood, while the transmitter resides atop the John Hancock Center.
In November 2019, the station (as WRME-LP) began airing news and weather updates from WBBM-TV (channel 2) during the morning and afternoon drive times.
On March 9, 2009, Venture announced that it signed letters of intent to lease out their Channel 6 signals on both WLFM-LP and KSFV-CA in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley, which would pave the way for the launching a dance format on the stations.
Programming was to have begun under that format June 1, 2009, and be patterned after Mega Media's New York City outlet WNYZ-LP and be branded as Pulse 87.
In the interim, on April 1, 2009, Channel 6 switched to an alternative country music format as "The L." One month later, Venture announced it would not pursue the deal with Mega Media.
In addition, channel 6 featured syndicated shows from Kenny G, Mindi Abair, Dave Ramsey and Dave Koz along with local specialty shows, such as Paul Wertico's Wild World of Jazz Sunday nights at 9 p.m., The Sounds of Brazil with Scott Adams heard Saturdays at midnight, The Smooth Jazz Top 20 Countdown with Allen Kepler, Dinner Party with Bill Cochran, and Sunrise Soundscapes and The Smooth Jazz Sunday Brunch with Rick O'Dell.
Venture Technologies management termed the LMA with Merlin as a "business decision" based in part on the future status of low-power analog TV stations, whose signals must be turned off or transitioned to digital by September 2015.
[7] (Twice-hourly news updates from WIQI were added to WLFM on April 24, Merlin's first noticeable change to the station.
The station, perhaps inspired by its low-FM dial position and its uncertain future ("Already there are some people maneuvering to shut us down"), cultivated a hard-edged "outlaw mystique."
Tribune Broadcasting announced that it would enter into a local marketing agreement for WKQX-LP as an "FM expansion" for its primary station, WGN (720 AM).
The arrangement was initially slated to last through September 2015, the FCC's original deadline for converting low-power television stations to digital broadcasting.
[20][21] Until sometime in 2014, the FCC database reflected the station's city of license as Rochelle, Illinois, a community in Ogle County located south of Rockford.
On December 31, 2014, WGWG-LP was changed to an FM simulcast of WGN's talk programming until the end of Tribune's LMA with Venture Technologies Group.
[24] On December 30, 2014, Weigel Broadcasting, which owns WCIU-TV and several other low-power TV stations in Chicago, said it would take over WGWG-LP in February 2015.
It would serve as a brand extension of its MeTV classic television network, seen locally on another low-power station, WWME-CD.
[27] In recent years, the range of records played on WRME has expanded to include those by performers usually considered to be "Album-Oriented Rock" artists.
By May 2017, despite the obstacles posed by its frequency and limited signal, WRME was tied in the Nielsen ratings with its full-power competitors WJMK and WLS-FM at an audience share of 2.7, putting it 14th in the market.