Radio WPGC 95.5 (WPGC-FM)

WPGC-FM is one of the most popular radio stations among Washington, D.C.'s urban format radio stations, and has been ranked as one of its top rated radio stations for over 20 years, according to the Arbitron ratings.[citation needed] It has a city of license of Morningside (its studios are located in Lanham) at the 95.5 MHz frequency on the FM dial. Its tower operates at an effective radiated power of 50 kilowatts (kW) and is located in Capitol Heights, Maryland. It also formerly shared the WPGC calls with sister station WPGC-AM, which once played Urban gospel music (the AM station is now talk as WHFS). In 2005, WPGC began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity. Despite being a rhythmic top 40 station according to Mediabase reports, it primarily plays urban contemporary music (as Nielsen BDS reports it as an urban), making WPGC-FM an urban-leaning rhythmic station (the other being KBFB in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas).

The station that later became WPGC-FM signed on as on January 18, 1948, on the 96.7 frequency with the WBUZ call letters. WBUZ was owned by Arthur Baldwin Curtis, president of Chesapeake Broadcasting Company, Incorporated, and was located in Bradbury Heights. WBUZ-FM was broadcasting at 420 watts effective radiated power. The call letters were a play on the word "bus," as WBUZ broadcast background music for a Prince George's County, Maryland based bus company.

WBUZ-FM raised power to 6.3 kilowatts and its city of license was changed to Oakland, Maryland (near District Heights; not the Western Maryland town) in May 1953. Then on June 8, 1953, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a permit to the station to raise power from 6.3 to 18 kilowatts. WBUZ-FM changed frequency from 96.7 to 95.5 megahertz and power was reduced to 16.5 kilowatts from a new transmitter & tower site on Walker Mill Road in Oakland. The calls were changed to WRNC on March 30, 1956. By the end of the year, WRNC was simulcasting the WPGC-AM programming. The ERP was reduced to 15.7 kilowatts while the power increase authorized for the WPGC-AM in 1955 to 10,000 watts daytime only.

WPGC-AM, Inc., purchased WRNC in 1956. The calls were changed to WPGC-FM in March 1958. WPGC-FM temporarily goes silent until February 1959 as new studios were being constructed for the top 40 format. The call letters stand for "We're Prince Georges County", the county in which the station is actually located, but at one time in the 1970s and early 1980s, it was referred to in on-air promos as "Where People Get Cash".

WPGC-FM maintained some form of the top 40 format (skewed from rock 'n' roll-based to Adult Contemporary) until 1984, when it flipped to easy listening/adult contemporary WCLY, "Classy 95."

WPGC logo from 1996 to 2009The format failed and First Media decided to sell all of its properties for $177 million to a minority interest in early 1987. New owners, Cook Inlet Media, a group of Alaska Natives, promptly rebuilt the station as a Rhythmic and reclaimed the legendary call letters, WPGC on May 30, 1987. The station flipped to a successful music format with the brand name "WPGC, 95 Jams". Also in the early 2000s, the branding reverted to simply "WPGC 95.5", dropping the "Jams" moniker from the brand although it still visibly remained on the station's logo and was used in the slogan. In August 2009, the station rebranded again to "95-5 PGC " and changing its slogan from "DC's #1, Blazin' At Least 18 Jamz in A Row" to "DC's Hip Hop and R&B". The "Jams" moniker was also removed from the station's logo and replaced with "wpgc.com" & "955 FM". Even though Nielsen BDS has moved WPGC-FM to the urban panel, it is still on the rhythmic panel on Mediabase, as Radio One's WKYS is its competitor, but is an urban contemporary station.