Outlet profile

WGNI-FM / Cumulus Wilmington (NWS bulletin reprint)

U.S. commercial radio, apolitical music format; parent company leans right

Owned byCumulus Licensing LLC, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media Inc., a publicly traded commercial radio group headquartered in Atlanta, GA

FundingCommercial advertising revenue (local and national spot advertising); Cumulus Media reported approximately $845 million in total 2025 revenue, with roughly 60% from broadcast spot sales

On the administrationmostly neutral

Background

The WGNI call letters trace back to Christmas Eve 1945, when a 1340 AM station in Wilmington launched under General Newspapers Inc., publisher of the Wilmington Morning Star. The 102.7 FM frequency went on air in 1971 as WAAV, initially a beautiful-music station. After Cape Fear Broadcasting acquired it, the WAAV and WGNI call signs were swapped in 1981, placing WGNI on 102.7 FM with an adult contemporary format that it has kept ever since. Cape Fear sold its Wilmington stations to Cumulus Media, with the deal completed around 2001. Cumulus Media was founded in 1998 and expanded aggressively, acquiring Citadel Broadcasting in 2011 and the Westwood One national syndication network in 2013, making it one of the largest commercial radio chains in the U.S. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2017, emerging with reduced debt and an institutional shareholder base. Media Bias/Fact Check rates Cumulus Media as right-leaning overall, citing its national roster of conservative talk hosts such as Dan Bongino, and mixed for factual reporting due to some shows with poor fact-check records. WGNI itself, however, does not air political talk programming, and the NWS weather bulletins it posts on its website are unedited reprints of official forecasts from the National Weather Service Wilmington office — a federal agency with no political affiliation.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-13; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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