WDHT (102.9
FM "Hot 102.9") is an
urban-leaning rhythmic contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 20, Rhythmic Top 30, Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop and upbeat R&B hit ...
radio station in
Urbana, Ohio
Urbana is a city in Champaign County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located about northeast of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton and west of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 11,115 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...
serving the
Dayton
Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
–
Springfield area. WDHT is currently owned by
Alpha Media
Alpha Media LLC is a radio broadcasting company based in Portland, Oregon, and led by Bob Proffitt. The group does business under the Alpha Media name.
It was formed from the merger of Alpha Broadcasting, L&L Broadcasting, and Main Line Broadc ...
, which also owns
WING
A wing is a type of fin that produces both Lift (force), lift and drag while moving through air. Wings are defined by two shape characteristics, an airfoil section and a planform (aeronautics), planform. Wing efficiency is expressed as lift-to-d ...
,
WROU-FM,
WCLI-FM and
WGTZ. Its transmitter site on Miller Road in Springfield is shared with that of
WULM
WULM (1600 AM broadcasting, AM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Springfield, Ohio, United States, and features a Catholic Church in the United States, Catholic-oriented Christian radio, Christian format as a full-time owned-and-op ...
, as this was previously the transmitting site of the former WBLY/WAZU. Its studios are in
Kettering, Ohio
Kettering is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. It is an inner suburb of Dayton, Ohio, Dayton. The city had a population of 57,862 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populous suburb in the Dayton metr ...
.
History
MOR (1958–1979)
Prior to becoming WDHT, the 102.9 frequency was originally licensed to
Springfield as WBLY-FM from 1958 to 1979, simulcasting
MOR-formatted WBLY.
Album rock (1979–1993)
In the late 1970s, the station changed their call letters to WAZU under their brand spanking new name ''"WAZU, The New FM 103 The Zoo...from W to A to Z to U!"'' The station played
AOR and sometimes they also played
AC as well. Then in the mid to the late 1980s they renamed their moniker as ''"Rockradio FM 103 WAZU"'' and then later as ''"102.9 WAZU"''. On January 15, 1989, the station briefly went dark and when they returned to the airwaves later that day they become a fully fledged
AOR format and began calling themselves ''"102.9 WAZU, The Big Wazoo!"'' the highly successful AOR format ran until March 19, 1993, by which time the station had evolved into a harder edged
AR format.
Classic rock (1993–2001)
WAZU flipped their format to
CR as ''"Classic Rock 102.9 The All New WAZU, The Big Wazoo!"'' (In between the flip from Active Rock to Classic Rock, WAZU briefly stunted as "102.9 WZEP-All
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...
, All The Time"). In 1992, WAZU was sold to Osborn Communications by Robert "Smilin' Bob" Yountz's Champion City Broadcasting, owners of the former WBLY (now WULM), and moved the studios to Dayton. WAZU's studios were originally located in its city of license of Springfield. After then owner Great Trails Broadcasting dropped the iconic WAZU calls in May 1995 the WAZU calls moved to 107.1 FM licensed to Circleville, south of
Columbus in late 1996. They also used their moniker as ''"107.1 The New WAZU, The Big Wazoo!"'' along with their Active Rock format as well as using exactly the same imaging as 102.9 did in early 1993. (That station is now
WJYD with an urban gospel format). During their run as an AOR station WAZU competed fiercely with WTUE. The 102.9 frequency changed their calls to WING-FM in May 1995 and continued the Classic Rock format.
Rhythmic (2001–present)
In 2001, Radio One acquired WING and flipped it to
Rhythmic Contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 20, Rhythmic Top 30, Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop and upbeat R&B hit ...
on August 3 of that year. The station changed call letters to WDHT on October 24 to match the "Hot" moniker. Two years later, Radio One bought out rival urban station
WROU, which was Dayton's last locally owned FM radio station, and was converted to
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
, a move that allowed WDHT to evolve into a
Mainstream Urban
Mainstream may refer to:
Film
* ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film
Literature
* ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine
* Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher
* ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso
* ' ...
direction, even though its presentation is more along the lines of that of a
Churban-formatted station (like
WPGC-FM
WPGC-FM (95.5 MHz) is a commercial broadcasting, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Morningside, Maryland, and serving the Washington metropolitan area. It is owned by Audacy, Inc., and airs an urban contemporary format.
WPG ...
/Washington, D.C.).
Under Radio One, WDHT was known for
voice-tracking
Voice-tracking, also called cyber jocking and referred to sometimes colloquially as a robojock, is a technique employed by some radio stations in radio broadcasting to produce the illusion of a live disc jockey or announcer sitting in the radio stu ...
programming and repetition of songs in their playlists, which tends to favor Churban-friendly Rhythmic hits, but since the change in ownership to Main Line in 2007 and later on to its new owner Alpha Media in 2014, it has taken on a more live and local presentation. Also, in the wake of
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...
sister station
WGTZ's flip to
Adult Hits, it has also taken on a more broader Rhythmic direction than ever, which might be due to the competition it has with rival Top 40
WDKF, whose direction leaned Rhythmic. The station also aired the
Russ Parr morning show, which was dropped in August 2014 in favor of "The Breakfast Club." By September 2009, WDHT was officially moved from the R&B/Hip-Hop panel to the
Rhythmic Airplay Panel by
Nielsen BDS as it began to incorporate more Rhythmic Pop tracks into its playlist. The move to Rhythmic might have been spurred by WDKF's decision to shift away from a local presentation to adopting Clear Channel's
Premium Choice presentation. That approach, of course, would result in WDKF being dropped from both Mediabase and BDS Top 40 reporting panels in 2009, only to be reinstated in 2013 when it began re-adding air staffers.
In 2006, Radio One announced that sister station
WKSW would relocate its frequency from 101.7 to 101.5 and change its city of licence from Urbana to Enon. The move was later approved by the FCC. As part of a trade off, WDHT switched its city of license from Springfield to Urbana in 2010, but the station's transmitter remained in Springfield after WKSW's move. This move was planned before Radio One sold its Dayton area cluster to Main Line.
On May 17, 2007, Philadelphia-based Main Line Broadcasting announced the acquisition of Radio One's stations in the Dayton and
Louisville
Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...
market areas. Main Line took over the Dayton stations on September 14, 2007.
From Radio-Online (September 14, 2007)
/ref> In 2014 Main Line would be acquired by Alpha Media, thus becoming the new owners of WDHT and its sister stations in the Dayton cluster.
References
External links
Hot 102.9
*
{{coord, 39.953, N, 83.869, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
1958 establishments in Ohio
Alpha Media radio stations
Radio stations established in 1958
DHT
Rhythmic contemporary radio stations in the United States
Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States