WILS

This article is about the radio station. For the orchid genus, see Wilsonara. For the radio station in Lansing, Michigan, formerly known as WILS-FM, see WHZZ.
WILS
City Lansing, Michigan
Branding 1320 WILS
Slogan Lansing's More Compelling Talk Radio
Frequency 1320 kHz
First air date February 19, 1947
Format News/Talk
Power 25,000 watts (Daytime)
1,900 watts (Nighttime)
Class B
Facility ID 39537
Transmitter coordinates 42°37′19″N 84°38′38″W / 42.62194°N 84.64389°W / 42.62194; -84.64389
Affiliations Fox News Radio
Michigan Radio Network
Owner MacDonald Broadcasting
Sister stations WHZZ, WQHH, WXLA
Webcast Listen Live
Website 1320wils.com

WILS (1320 AM) is a news and talk radio station in Lansing, Michigan that broadcasts on AM 1320 with 25,000 watts of power during the day and 1,900 watts at night. WILS is owned by MacDonald Broadcasting and features a local news department and a mixture of local and national talk personalities.

WILS is home to the locally produced Morning Wakeup with Dave Akerly and the Capital City Recap with Michael Cohen. WILS focuses heavily on local issues and personalities, especially topics of political and business interests. It is the Lansing Market's home for syndicated talkers Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larson, and Coast to Coast AM.

The station is an affiliate of Fox News Radio and the Michigan Radio Network.

History

1320 WILS signed on in 1947 from their studios and transmitter co-located at 600 West Cavanaugh Road on Lansing's South Side. The station was once sisters with Lansing NBC television affiliate WILX-TV. The television station signed-on March 15, 1959 and was owned by Jackson Telecasters[1] along with WJCO radio (AM 1510, now WJKN). The company was half-owned by Lansing Broadcasting along with WILS.

WILS was a popular Top 40 music station in Lansing during the 1960s and 1970s, becoming an adult contemporary station in the '80s. One popular WILS personality during the '60s Top 40 era was John Records Landecker, who later went on to great popularity at WLS in Chicago and CFTR in Toronto. Tim O Toole, another popular Chicago radio personality, worked at WILS from 1969-1971.[2] He currently does Weekends on True Oldies 94.7 in Chicago.[3] WILS-AM was a fully staffed live radio station until January 17, 1984, when the station switched to mostly automation (the original automated format was Drake-Chenault's "Hitparade", a Big Band/Nostalgia format) and was known as "Hometown Radio 1320".

WILS was purchased by MacDonald Broadcasting, owner of several other stations in the Saginaw and Traverse City markets. The station switched briefly to a Country music format (simulcast with WILS-FM) in 1992, and then flipped to Adult Standards in 1993. It was known as "Timeless Favorites 1320" and was an affiliate of ABC Radio's satellite-delivered adult standards/MOR music package known as "Timeless Classics" (formerly "Stardust"). The station had had this format since the early 1990s and was quite successful in the ratings with it. The Timeless Favorites format moved to sister WXLA 1180 AM after that station was purchased by MacDonald Broadcasting; WILS and WXLA essentially simulcast each other with separate IDs and imaging until 2006. 1320 WILS changed its format to news and talk radio, with the slogan "More Stimulation Talk Radio" airing personalities such as Laura Ingram, Clark Howard, Dennis Miller, and Michael Savage. Local personalities included morning show host Tony Conley and sports talk host Jack Ebling. In 2010, the station changed its slogan to the current "More Compelling Talk Radio" moniker.

On January 25, 2008, WILS turned on their new Windsor Township transmitter and became the most powerful AM station in Lansing. The new 25 kW daytime signal covers much of Mid-Michigan, and be easily received as far away as Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Mt. Pleasant, and Jackson. The station can even be heard in portions of northern Ohio and Indiana. The directional pattern of WILS is limited to the east to avoid adjacent channel interference with WTRX 1330 in Flint. The new 1.9 kW four tower nighttime array provides better coverage to the immediate Lansing, Charlotte, Grand Ledge, and DeWitt areas.

Programming

Since switching to news-talk, WILS has become Lansing's premiere news radio station, offering more local news and local talk shows than any other station in the market.

WILS is a direct competitor Townsquare Media's (formerly Cumulus Media) WJIM also licensed to Lansing. The situation has almost come full circle as 1240 WJIM was WILS's main competitor as a top 40 station in the 60s and 70s. In 2013 Cumulus dropped Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck from WJIM. WILS immediately gave the conservative personalities a new home in the Capital City. Also, WILS is the only Lansing radio station with news reporters covering Ingham County commission, East Lansing and Lansing City Council, and the Lansing School Board.

Dave Akerly, former Lansing television personality begins the day at WILS with the "Morning Wake Up" from 6am to 9am. Michel Cohen anchors the "Capital City Re-Cap" weeknights from 6pm to 7pm. Both programs also tackle a wide variety of issues involving local, state and national government and also feature guest experts that share opinion from all sides of the political spectrum.

References

  1. ↑ "WILX-TV Channel 10 Onondaga/Lansing". Station Listings. michiguide.com. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.tomotoole.com
  3. ↑ WLS FM

Sources

External links

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