WMIA-FM
| City | Miami Beach, Florida |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | South Florida |
| Branding | 93.9 MIA |
| Slogan | Rhythm from the 80's to Now! |
| Frequency |
93.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) 93.9 HD-2 for Country "93.5 The Bull" |
| Translator(s) | 93.5 W228BV (Fort Lauderdale, relays HD2) |
| First air date | 1958 (as WMBM-FM) |
| Format | Rhythmic AC |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 307 meters |
| Class | C0 |
| Facility ID | 51978 |
| Callsign meaning | MIAmi |
| Former callsigns |
WMBM-FM (1958-1961) WMVJ (1961-1965) WGOS (1965-1969) WBUS-FM (1969-1976) WWWL (1976-1983) WWWL-FM (1983-1984) WLVE (1984-2009) |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (Clear Channel Broadcasting Licenses, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WBGG-FM, WHYI-FM, WINZ, WIOD, WMGE, WMIB |
| Webcast |
Listen Live Listen Live (HD2) |
| Website |
my939miami.com 935thebull.com (HD2) |
WMIA-FM is a Rhythmic AC radio station that is licensed to Miami Beach, Florida. It broadcasts on 93.9 MHz with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts. Its studios are located in Miramar and the transmitter site is in Miami Gardens.
History
93.9 FM signed on the air in 1958 and has been WMBM-FM (Simulcast with WMBM), WMVJ (Miami's Voice of Jazz), WGOS-FM (Wild Goose Country), WBUS-FM, "The Magic Bus", progressive rock, then a full-time traditional jazz station. In 1976, the station became "Love 94", changing to a soft rock adult contemporary format. DJ Irene Richard, ( later Irene Richard Brandon ) joined the station in 1976, becoming one of South Florida's earliest, pioneer female broadcasters. Their call letters changed to WWWL until WLVE became available. Later, the soft rock transitioned to smooth jazz and was successful for many years. On Sunday mornings, Love 94 had a Sunday Jazz Brunch program hosted by Stu Grant and a Brazilian Jazz program called "Brazilian Love Jazz" hosted by Gina Martell every Sunday evening. In the later years, however, due to the increasing amount of R&B and Adult Contemporary music being added to the playlist by Broadcast Architecture (which WLVE adopted in 2007), the ratings started to decrease drastically.
On December 25, 2008, WLVE flipped to rhythmic AC as "93.9 MIA." The demise followed the lead of similarly formatted stations in other cities, such as Dallas, Houston, New York City and Washington, D.C.. Miami's new home for smooth jazz is Love Smooth Jazz, with the current format now going up against rhythmic top 40 WPOW and urban AC WHQT. The first song was Will Smith's "Miami", which is a reflection upon where the city it broadcasts from.[1]
The WLVE calls now reside on the former WKMZ in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, which services the Milwaukee area with the non-profit K-LOVE CCM network after a two-year warehousing period on former Clear Channel/iHeart sister station WXVA in Winchester, Virginia. The calls, long sought after by K-LOVE's owner, Educational Media Foundation, were likely exchanged by iHeartMedia as part of one of the many transactions EMF has executed to iHeartMedia in return for selling former K-LOVE translator stations to them to relay iHeartMedia HD Radio subchannels on analog FM radio in small coverage areas.
In 2010, WMIA began adding more pop titles from artists such as Maroon 5, Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, and Taylor Swift to its playlist, following a pattern used by sister stations such as WWVA-FM and WISX which eventually evolved out of, or switched from Rhythmic AC, as the station became more hot adult contemporary. In November 2010, the station switched to all-Christmas music. While there were rumors that the station would flip to adult top 40 after the holidays, the rhythmic AC format returned on Christmas Day, 2010, at 11:58 AM, with "Material Girl" by Madonna being the first song to be played. By that time, although WMIA had continued to Mediabase's hot AC panel, its playlist had shifted back to a rhythmic direction with less hot AC material. By June 2012, BDS has moved the station to the top 40 panel due to its increasing amount of rhythmic pop product, although this was done to compliment sister station WHYI, who is the market's primary top 40 and CHR outlet, and to a lesser extent, to shift the older 1980s, 1990s and 2000s product to adult hits sister WSHE.
Once again, in December 2012, WMIA revamped their direction to adult top 40 with recurrents from the 1990s and 2000s, billing themselves as "90s and Now." The majority of rhythmic material that had not charted on that format was dropped, only to reinstate it by the spring of 2013, when it dropped most of the 1990s product and changed its slogan to "Today's Hits". It also adopted a rhythmic-leaning adult top 40 presentation, using the same approach as sister station WKTU/New York City,[2] and in early 2014, changed slogans to "Miami's Variety from the 90's to Now". In May 2014, 93.9 MIA changed their slogan to "93.9 MIA Means Variety" and added 1980s hit songs to their playlist.
On August 8, 2014, WMIA rebranded as "MY 93.9" with their slogan becoming "More Music, Better Variety!". This change came after WMIA was the lowest rated music station in the Nielsen ratings for the Miami market, with a 2.3 share in the July 2014 ratings. "MY 93.9" dropped most of the 1980s material from their playlist and instead added more hits from the 1990s and 2000s.[3]
On March 18, 2016, WMIA rebranded once again as "93.9 MIA", shifting back to Rhythmic AC with the new slogan "Rhythm from the 80's to Now."[4]
WMIA-FM HD2
The station also airs a country music format, "93.5 The Bull" on its HD2 sub-channel and is relayed on FM translator W228BV 93.5 FM in Fort Lauderdale. Before the country format (2009-2014), WMIA-HD2 aired a smooth jazz music format.
References
External links
- WMIA website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WMIA
- Radio-Locator information on WMIA
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WMIA
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Coordinates: 25°58′05″N 80°12′32″W / 25.968°N 80.209°W