FCC Cancels WGOP License As AM Dial Continues To Shrink

Another local AM signal has disappeared. The FCC today canceled the license of WGOP (540) and translator W293DN (106.5) in Pocomoke City. In a September 3 letter to The Waters Group LLC managing member Roger Waters, the FCC said the station’s license expired as a matter of law after it was silent and/or operating from unauthorized locations for a consecutive 12-month period.

The FCC said The Waters Group notified the commission in March 2025 that WGOP would go silent while relocating its facilities, but complaints alleged the station had already been off the air for more than a year. After an inquiry and what the FCC called an incomplete response, the commission gave the company 45 days in February to provide evidence that WGOP had operated from authorized facilities during the period in question. The FCC says no response was received. The commission has now marked the license expired and canceled and deleted the call sign.

The loss comes as the AM dial continues to thin out both locally and nationally. Just this summer, Radio Poder WWGB 1030 in Indian Head, went silent, with owner Good Body Media telling the FCC that financial issues were behind the shutdown. Nationally, the number of licensed AM stations has been steadily declining, falling by more than 300 over the past decade. WGOP, which dates to 1955 and was formerly WDMV, had explored relocating its facilities closer to the DC region. Instead, after more than 70 years, another longtime Maryland AM signal is now officially gone.