N.B.: This profile has not been updated in several years, and may contain significant inaccuracies.
WWWG broadcasts with 5000 Watts day and night from 3 self-supporting towers almost in a line. By day, WWWG is non-directional. At night, most of the WWWG signal is beamed north towards Rochester, protecting WBNS Columbus and WGNA Albany.
WWWG is descended from Rochester's second radio station, WHEC, founded in 1925 by Lawrence Hickson and named after his Hickson Electric Company. Hickson was the best-known engineer in the pioneering days of Rochester radio, having built WHQ for Frank Gannett and WABO for the Lake Avenue Baptist Church before building his own station.
WHEC moved through several frequencies in quick succession before landing on 1430 kHz in the early 1930s, moving its transmitter from the studio roof in the Rochester Savings Bank building downtown to a new 5000-Watt facility on Mount Read Boulevard in 1937. In 1932, WHEC became a primary affiliate of the the CBS network. In 1940, WHEC's FM transmitter, under the calls W8XAD, took to the airwaves. It would later be known as W43R, WHEF, and finally WHEC-FM before being shut down in 1950.
The NARBA realignment in 1941 moved WHEC to 1460, and at war's end, WHEC moved to a new transmitter site on Winton Road South in the town of Brighton, a site that remains in use today. With the grant of the WHEC-TV license in 1953, the radio and TV studios were moved to a new building at 191 East Avenue.
For the next two decades, WHEC maintained its course as a full-service station, mixing local and CBS news with middle-of-the-road music. In 1972, corporate owner Gannett decided to end its radio presence in Rochester, selling 1460 to new owners.
The frequency was reborn on January 5, 1972 as WAXC, "Waxy" radio, a fast-paced top-40 station in direct competition with market leader WBBF. The two stations fought head-to-head for more than seven years before WAXC surrendered. In 1979, the station was sold to American General Media. Under the new calls WWWG ("Where We Worship God"), 1460 became 3WG, Rochester's first religious radio station.
For nearly two decades, 3WG's mixture of religious programming and leased-time ethnic broadcasts (including long-running Italian and Polish shows) has been a fixture at the top end of the Flower City radio dial. The only major change in recent years came in the late 80s, when the land surrounding the WWWG studio/transmitter building became valuable for development. The old art deco building was torn down, and WWWG moved into one of the buildings of the new office park that went up in front of the three WWWG towers.