WMAL-FM

For the radio station in Washington, D.C. at 107.3 FM known as WMAL-FM from 1948-1979, see WRQX.
WMAL-FM
City Woodbridge, Virginia
Broadcast area Washington Metropolitan Area
Branding "105.9 FM & AM 630 WMAL"
Slogan Where Washington Comes To Talk
Frequency 105.9 MHz
First air date 1962
Format Talk radio
ERP Horizontal: 28,000 watts
Vertical: 25,000 watts
HAAT 198 meters
Class B
Facility ID 70037
Transmitter coordinates 38°52′28.0″N 77°13′24.0″W / 38.874444°N 77.223333°W / 38.874444; -77.223333
Callsign meaning W-"Martin A. Leese"
(founder of AM simulcast WMAL)
Former callsigns 2009–2011: WVRX
1994–2009: WJZW
1986–1994: WCXR-FM
1981–1986: WPKX-FM
1962–1981: WXRA
Affiliations Westwood One Network
Premiere Radio Networks
Owner Cumulus Media
(Radio License Holdings LLC)
Sister stations WMAL, WRQX
Webcast WMAL-FM Webstream
Website WMAL site

WMAL-FM (105.9 MHz) – branded 105.9 FM & AM 630 WMAL – is an FM radio station licensed to Woodbridge, Virginia, serving the Washington, D.C. Metro area. WMAL-FM airs a Talk radio format and is owned and operated by Cumulus Media.[1] The station's studios are located at 4400 Jenifer Street NW in Washington, two blocks from the city's border with Maryland, and the transmitter site is in Falls Church, Virginia. Since September 19, 2011, all of WMAL-FM's programming is simulcast from co-owned WMAL (AM) at 630 kHz.

Programming

Weekday mornings on WMAL-AM-FM start with "Mornings on the Mall" with hosts Brian Wilson and Larry O'Connor. O'Connor returns at 5 p.m. with a one-hour show called "The Drive at Five." At 9 a.m., Chris Plante hosts a show also heard on several other Cumulus stations. The rest of the day, nationally syndicated shows air from Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Mark Levin and John Batchelor. Red Eye Radio is heard overnight, seven nights a week. Weekends feature shows on money, health, law and gardening with repeats of some weekday shows and Brokered programming. Most weekday hours feature local news at the beginning of each hour. Westwood One national news airs nights and weekends.

History

Before the current station was founded, an earlier station, called WHIP, existed on 105.9 FM in the Washington area. The station was founded between 1948 and 1950 and licensed to Silver Spring; therefore it is unrelated to the current station, which is licensed to Woodbridge.[2][3][4]

1962–1994: Early years

The station that would become WMAL-FM was founded in August 1962. This station was then known as WXRA, and during most of its early history it ran a mix of country and gospel daily from 6 pm until midnight. Beginning in September 1967 it simulcasted with WPIK, a co-owned station on 730 AM. Although WXRA was run from the same Alexandria studios as WPIK, WXRA's city of license has always been Woodbridge. On December 31, 1967, WXRA began to run a full-time country format in response to a flood of listener requests.[5][6]

The station was assigned the call letters WPKX-FM on December 9, 1981, and kept the country format but changed names to "Kix 106". On January 27, 1986, the station changed its call sign to WCXR-FM and instituted its first classic rock format, known as "Classic Rock 105.9".[7] The classic rock format, which was just beginning to take hold in 1986, was considered experimental and debuted to high interest and ratings before eventually falling to more normal levels.[8] The simulcast with 730 AM, now known as WCXR, was broken off around this time.

In 1989, WCXR's owners, the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, sold ten stations including WCXR to Group W.[9] Just four years later, in mid-1993, Group W sold WCXR to Viacom. This fueled rumors of a format change. Viacom elected to keep the format but fired the station's entire airstaff; the company officially took control on November 1, 1993.[10][11]

1994–2008: Smooth Jazz 105.9

A new smooth jazz format, called "Smooth Jazz 105.9," finally debuted on September 30, 1994. This was spurred on, at least in part, by the format changes of WLTT (now WIAD) to classic rock and of WJZE (now WBIG-FM) to oldies.[12][13] The call letters became WJZW on October 17.

In February 1997, Viacom sold 10 stations, including WJZW, to Chancellor Broadcasting. To comply with FCC limits on the amount of radio stations that can be owned by one company, Chancellor sold WJZW to ABC Radio, which was part of the Walt Disney Company, on April 14 of the same year.[14] Citadel Broadcasting bought ABC Radio from Disney in 2007.

2008–2009: True Oldies 105.9

At 3:00 pm on February 29, 2008, after a brief statement was read thanking the staff and listeners of "Smooth Jazz 105.9", Citadel Broadcasting changed the format of WJZW to oldies. All on-air employees were fired as a part of the format shift.[15] [16][17] The first song on the new format was "Respect" by Aretha Franklin. Initially, no local live on-air talent was utilized, with the station instead relying on Scott Shannon's The True Oldies Channel.[18] Imus in the Morning was added as the new morning show.[19] However, the ratings for True Oldies were not satisfactory enough to justify continuing the format.

2009–2011: 105.9 The Edge

105.9 The Edge logo used from 2009–2011

On August 26, 2009, at 10 AM, WJZW changed its format back to classic rock, this time as "105.9 The Edge".[20] The last song played on "True Oldies" was "Windy" by The Association, while the first song on "The Edge" was "Livin' on the Edge" by Aerosmith.[21] The format shift marked the station the only one in the DC market to broadcast classic rock, though WBIG-FM broadcast a lighter "classic hits" format. Just after midnight on September 17, 2009, the station changed its call letters to WVRX. On July 7, 2010, WVRX added a local morning drive program with Washington/Baltimore radio veterans Kirk McEwen and Mike O'Meara called "Kirk and Mike".[22]

Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.[23] On September 19, 2011, at 12:00 pm, the station flipped to a simulcast of co-owned talk station 630 WMAL.[24] (Management believed in a media market as concerned with news and politics as Washington, the AM station's news/talk format would be strengthened by simulcasting on the powerful FM signal of 105.9.) The last songs on "105.9 The Edge" were The Song Is Over by The Who and Hello, Goodbye by The Beatles.[25] The station filed a request to change its call sign to WMAL-FM, which became official on September 26, 2011.[26]

References

  1. ↑ "WMAL Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ Cosper, Alex. "Washington, DC-Baltimore Area Radio History". Playlist Research. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  3. ↑ "DC Area FM Stations: 1939, 1948 and 1950". Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  4. ↑ "U.S. FM Stations, Summer 1958". Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  5. ↑ "WXRA-FM on Full". Billboard: 26. January 7, 1967. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
  6. ↑ "Mid-September WPIK's Country Switchover Date". Billboard: 39. September 9, 1967.
  7. ↑ Holland, Bill (February 8, 1986). "Metroplex Outlet Tries 'Classic Rock'". Billboard 98 (6). Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  8. ↑ Freeman, Kim (October 25, 1986). "Classic Rock Thrives in 18 Months". Billboard 98 (43).
  9. ↑ Fabrikant, Geraldine (April 21, 1989). "Westinghouse Sets Deal To Buy 10 Radio Stations". New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
  10. ↑ Yorke, Jeffrey (July 13, 1993). "WCXR Clings to Classic Rock". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
  11. ↑ Yorke, Jeffrey (October 26, 1993). "Staff Wipeout at WCXR-FM". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
  12. ↑ Yorke, Jeffrey (January 17, 1995). "WJZW-FM: A Jump for Jazz". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
  13. ↑ http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1994/RR-1994-10-07.pdf
  14. ↑ Fisher, Marc (April 15, 1997). "3 More Area Radio Stations Change Hands; Sales Will Add To Conglomerate Trend". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
  15. ↑ Venta, Lance (February 29, 2008). "WJZW Washington Becomes True Oldies 105.9". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
  16. ↑ Fybush, Scott (March 3, 2008). "This Week's Bloodbath: Citadel". NorthEast Radio Watch.
  17. ↑ Fisher, Marc (March 9, 2008). "Smooth Jazz: Gentle Into That Good Night?; As the Genre Declines, Stations Switch To New Formats in D.C. and Nationwide". Washington Post. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Radio Stations". Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel. Archived from the original on July 28, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
  19. ↑ Farhi, Paul (March 1, 2008). "Strapped Owner Fires WMAL Host Chris Core". Washington Post. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  20. ↑ Venta, Lance (August 26, 2009). "True Oldies 105.9 Washington Becomes Classic Rock 105.9 the Edge". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  21. ↑ http://www.dcrtv.com/mediaw2z.html
  22. ↑ "105.9 The Edge – Classic Rock That Rocks!". theedge1059.com. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
  23. ↑ "Cumulus now owns Citadel Broadcasting". Atlanta Business Journal. September 16, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
  24. ↑ Venta, Lance (September 19, 2011). "WMAL Washington Adds FM Simulcast". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
  25. ↑ http://formatchange.com/105-9-the-edge-becomes-wmal-fm/
  26. ↑ Call Sign – Query – FCC (accessed September 20, 2011)

External links

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