On July 10, 1952, the Madison County Broadcasting Company, owned by Annie Dee Davis, James T. Ownby, and J. Dige Bishop, received a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission for a new daytime-only radio station on 1370 kHz at Canton.[4] Originally broadcasting with 500 watts, WMGO began broadcasting in 1953; it was approved to increase power to 1,000 watts the next year.[4] The original owners filed to transfer control of the station to W. E. Farrar, R. E. and Lucille Hook, and Hugh Hughes in 1956; Hook bought out Farrar and Hughes the next year.[4]
In 1963, the Hooks sold the station to Roy James Loflin, Jr., and Wilbur Rodney Williams. As the sale awaited completion, the station was briefly taken off-air in April when a tractor plowed into the transmission line; the engineer intervened in time to prevent the driver from touching the electrified wiring.[5] The new owners relaunched the station as WMGO on July 9, 1963, from new studios.[4][6] Two years later, they sold WMGO to the Canton Broadcasting Corporation.[4] Under Canton Broadcasting ownership, the station continued to have an almost entirely White air staff, with the only Black personalities featured on Sunday mornings.[7] Canton retained the station for more than 15 years, selling to two men from Fairhope, Alabama, in 1981;[8] they owned the station until 1990, when it was sold to McCulloch.[9] New investors were brought in in 1993.[10]
WMGO was joined by an FM sister station in 1997 when owner Jerry Lousteau built WMGO-FM 93.1, licensed to Yazoo City.[11]
In 2014, WMGO owner Lousteau revealed that political ads placed on the station against United States Senate candidate Chris McDaniel, linking him to the Ku Klux Klan, had been placed by a Democratic Party operative.[12]
WMGO also broadcasts short form local news simply branded as "The Local Report". The program focuses on local news, weather, and obituaries in Canton, and airs at 7, 8 and 9 AM, and at noon and is anchored by Keith Hill.
The previous owner and presenter Jerry Lousteau died of cancer on May 25, 2024.[13]
