WSML began broadcasting on December 2nd, 1967, with 250 watts directional, daytime-only, at 1190 AM from the Alamance County seat. On August 17th. 1981, WSML became WWOK, but reverted back to the familiar WSML call sign on February 1st, 1982. WSML has aired southern gospel and country in the past, and went by the handle "Smiles". The station filed with the FCC in 1987 to add nighttime service and increase their daytime power to 10,000 watts at 1200 AM. The facility change was finally made in 1992. In June of 1998, Clear Channel Radio announced plans to buy the station from owner Gray Broadcasting and add it to its Piedmont-Triad Portfolio, which included Winston-Salem-based talk station WSJS 600 AM, which has some signal issues in areas east of Greensboro. To alleviate the deficiencies in the WSJS signal, WSML began simulcasting their talk programming under the WSJS brand as "News/Talk for the Triad, 600/1200 WSJS". When Clear Channel picked up additional FM properties in the Piedmont-Triad area in 2002, WSML, WSJS and WMFR 1230 in High Point were all spun off to CBS Radio (then known as Infinity Broadcasting). On November 21st, 2006, CBS Radio announced that Curtis Media Group would buy the three stations in an $8 million deal.