WQTU

The radio station 102.3 FM began broadcasting on May 1, 1966{{cite web|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1968/1968-BC-YB.pdf|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|title=WRGA-FM|date=1968|page=B-46 (194)|accessdate=February 6, 2020}} as WRGA-FM, the sister FM station to WRGA (AM 1470). It was the second time an FM counterpart had been built for WRGA; a prior WRGA-FM had operated at 106.5 MHz from 1950 until being deleted on January 17, 1955.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1955/1955-01-31-BC.pdf|work=Broadcasting|date=January 31, 1955|page=86|title=For the Record|accessdate=February 6, 2020}} WRGA-FM initially carried a 60 percent simulcast of the AM station.{{r|airdate}}

In 1977, WRGA-AM-FM was sold from Mather Payne to Mike McDougald for $750,000; McDougald immediately announced his plans to change the FM station's call letters to WQTU and program it independently,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/43766236/|work=Atlanta Constitution|date=August 4, 1977|title=Broadcasting|accessdate=February 6, 2020|page=7-C}} with the station adopting its present adult contemporary format.{{cite web|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC-YB/1979/1979-BC-YB.pdf|accessdate=February 6, 2020|work=Broadcasting Yearbook|date=1979|title=WQTU(FM)|page=C-57 (281)}} While McDougald had reached a deal to sell the stations to the newly formed Radioactivity Broadcast Group in 1988, the company—in the midst of a $10 million buying spree—fell apart after Radioactivity owner Clyde Murchison was arrested that October in an FBI sting operation; the company's partners noticed discrepancies in his background, while he claimed to be a nephew of Clint Murchison but was not recognized by a family friend.{{cite news|pages=1, 34|work=Radio & Records|date=November 11, 1988|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1980s/1988/RR-1988-11-11.pdf|accessdate=February 6, 2020|title=FBI Arrests Radio Exec Murchison For Wire Fraud}} While Radioactivity was given until the end of 1988 by the equity broker in the Rome transaction to find a replacement equity partner,{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1988/BC-1988-12-05.pdf|accessdate=February 6, 2020|date=December 5, 1988|work=Broadcasting|title=Radioactivity working to restructure station acquisitions|page=74}} this did not come to pass. McDougald was named the chairman of the Hospital Authority of Floyd County in 1992; as part of a special grand jury investigation into conflicts of interest at the hospital authority, it was found that his stations received more than 80 percent of the agency's radio advertising budget even though competitors WTSH and WKCX were higher-rated.{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=348&dat=19950630&id=LIBMAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bEUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6842,7940784|title=Grand Jury Presentments|date=June 30, 1995|accessdate=February 6, 2020|page=9-A}}

McDougald would own the pair for 25 years, selling the stations in 2002 to Paul Stone's Southern Broadcasting Companies in a $1.6 million transaction.{{cite news|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/2000s/2002/RR-2002-01-11.pdf|work=Radio & Records|date=January 11, 2002|title=Transactions|page=8|accessdate=February 6, 2020}} Stone sold the stations and other Rome radio assets in 2009 to Rome Radio Partners, with WRGA-WQTU going for $2.65 million.{{cite news|url=https://www.rbr.com/rome-cluster-wasnt-built-in-a-day/|work=RBR|title=Rome cluster wasn't built in a day|date=April 6, 2009|accessdate=February 6, 2020}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://q1023.fm/ Official website]
• {{FM station data|40816|WQTU}}

{{Rome GA Radio}}

{{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in Georgia}}

{{coord|34.234|N|85.231|W|type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC|display=title}}

QTU

Category:1966 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)

Category:Radio stations established in 1966