WVTY (92.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

"92.1 VTY Country") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

in Racine,

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

. It serves Racine,

Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is the fourth-most populous city in Wisconsin, with a population of 99,986 at the 2020 census. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Ke ...

and

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

's southern suburbs. WVTY airs a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

and is co-programmed with

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

92.5 WMBZ in West Bend. They are owned by David Magnum, through licensee Magnum Communications, Inc., along with

WRYU WRYU (1470 kHz) is a commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station licensed to West Bend, Wisconsin, and covering Milwaukee's northern suburbs. The station is owned by David Magnum, through licensee Magnum Communications, Inc., and features a clas ...

in West Bend. WVTY is a Class A FM station with an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 2,700

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is off 2 Mile Road in

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

(atop a

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

previously used by

WPXE-TV WPXE-TV (channel 55) is a television station licensed to Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Milwaukee area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongs ...

).Radio-Locator.com/WVTY
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History

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air in 1961 as WFNY, a

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

derived from the name of owner Jerome Feeny. It was only powered at 1,000 watts and was a rare stand-alone FM station, with no co-owned AM outlet. WFNY aired a beautiful music format. It played quarter-hour sweeps of mostly soft instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular hits, with some Broadway and

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

show tune A show tune is a song originally written as part of the score of a work of musical theatre or musical film, especially if the piece in question has become a standard, more or less detached in most people's minds from the original context. Th ...

s. Eventually an

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

music playback system was installed, but live announcers remained on staff. Some of the air personalities over the years have included

Paul Weyrich Paul Michael Weyrich (; October 7, 1942 – December 18, 2008) was an American conservative political activist and commentator associated with the New Right. He co-founded The Heritage Foundation, the Free Congress Foundation, National Empowerm ...

, Lou Rugani, Dave Garland, Don Jensen, Jerry Grimmer, Kevin Kellogg, Mike Kristof, Tim Yorgan, Chris Morreau, Gene Miller, Mike Petersen, and Frank Ricchio. In the 1980s, to make the sound a bit younger, more soft vocals were added to the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

and the instrumentals were scaled back. WFNY was sold in 1986 and the format was flipped to

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

as WHKQ. Two years later, WHKQ became "Country 92". The station was sold once again in 1991, with the format returning to its

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

origins. In 1995, the station adopted the WEZY call sign, using the branding "EZ92 WEZY". The easy listening format was simulcast on then-sister station

WRJN WRJN (1400 AM) is a full service oldies radio station in Racine, Wisconsin, serving Racine and Kenosha Counties. The station is owned by Civic Media, Inc., along with sister station WAUK in Milwaukee. WRJN features live sports including Gre ...

overnights. In 1997, Bliss Communications purchased WEZY and WRJN. Bliss owned eight other radio stations in Wisconsin and numerous newspapers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. On December 26, 1997, the station returned to a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format. On January 2, 2007, WEZY changed its moniker to "Lite Rock 92.1". On June 25, 2014, Bliss Communications announced that it would sell WEZY and WRJN, along with

WBKV WBKV (102.5 FM) is a radio station in Buffalo, New York. It is owned by Educational Media Foundation and is a part of its K-Love network. The license currently on 102.5 has been operating since 1946, with predecessors dating to 1932; it is ...

and WBWI-FM in West Bend, to David Magnum's Magnum Communications, Inc. The sale, at a price of $2.25 million, was consummated on October 31, 2014. On December 2, 2014, at 12:55 a.m., the station flipped to

as ''Q92''. Afterward, the station changed its call letters to WMKQ. On May 29, 2015, WMKQ flipped to adult hits as ''92.1 The Lake''. This move came the same day that Milwaukee station 94.5 WLWK, which also branded as ''The Lake'' with an identical logo, flipped to country music as WKTI-FM. The de facto "swap" was intentional, with Magnum citing the "heritage" of the format in Milwaukee, and the decision by the station's new owner, The E.W. Scripps Company, to drop it. The change in branding and Magnum's appropriation of WKTI's former branding caught Scripps off-guard. Representatives of both companies indicated that they were in discussions over the matter. On June 7, 2015, WMKQ changed its call letters to WVTY. ''Radio Insight'' also reported that Magnum had registered new domain names and social media accounts with different possible brands, ''92.1 The Shore'' and ''Variety 92.1''. On June 29, 2015, WVTY dropped its "Lake" moniker and rebranded as ''92.1 The Shore''. On October 30, 2018, WVTY's management learned of WKTI's pending November 1 flip from country to

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

as part of its sale by Scripps to

Good Karma Brands Good Karma Brands, LLC (GKB, formerly Good Karma Broadcasting) is an American conglomerate. Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it has interests in radio broadcasting, sports marketing, retail, and real estate. GKB was founded in 1997 by Craig Karmaz ...

. That prompted WVTY to return to country music as ''92.1 VTY Country''. As with its use of the former ''Lake'' branding earlier, the station's new branding and logo is based heavily on the branding previously used by WKTI. Magnum Communications also purchased advertising time on WKTI to promote WVTY and West Bend sister station 92.5 WMBZ to its former listeners. While WVTY and WMBZ air separate commercials, they have the same DJs and play the same music.

References

External links

* * {{Country Radio Stations in Wisconsin VTY Radio stations established in 1961 1961 establishments in Wisconsin Country radio stations in the United States Racine, Wisconsin