WEMX (94.1 FM, "Max 94.1") is an American

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 ...

serving the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

area. The

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

station broadcasts with an ERP of 100 kW and is licensed to

Kentwood, Louisiana Kentwood is a rural town in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States, near the Mississippi state line. The population was 2,198 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Hammond MSA. Kentwood is best known as the hometown of singer Britney Spe ...

. WEMX broadcasts an

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contemporary r ...

music format An audio format is a medium for sound recording and reproduction. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio content—in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its ...

. Its studios are located downtown and the transmitter tower is near

Clinton, Louisiana Clinton is a town in, and the parish seat of, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The town was named for New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. The population was 1,340 in 2020. It is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan statistical are ...

. The station was assigned the WEMX

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 ...

by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

on November 1, 1996.

History

The station originally signed on the air in 1967 in

McComb, Mississippi McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States. The city is approximately south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 12,790. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi Micropolitan Statis ...

as 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 ...

outlet with the call letters WCCA. They would later change call letters to WXLT in 1986 while retaining the format. In 1993, WXLT relocated its COL to Kentwood, Louisiana and target the Baton Rouge area as WYCT, adopting a "Young Country" presentation in the hopes of attracting a younger audience and lure listeners away from WYNK. By 1996, WYCT changed its call letters to WEMX and adopted the handle Max 94.1 (as in "Maximum Country"), but after three years of trailing WYNK in the ratings, WEMX flipped to Hip Hop/R&B on January 1,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, this after being paired up with the format's previous occupant,

KQXL-FM KQXL-FM (106.5 MHz, "Q106.5") is an urban adult contemporary music formatted radio station serving the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area. The Cumulus Media station operates with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 50 kW and is licensed to New Ro ...

, who immediately shifted to Adult R&B. WEMX also kept the call letters and Max 94.1 handle intact after the switch. In 1997,

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company founded and developed by Larry Wilson. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the count ...

took over ownership of the station, which lasted until September 2011, when Cumulus became the owner after its acquisition of Citadel. In June 2013, WEMX transitioned from Urban to Rhythmic due to the addition of Rhythmic Pop product, resulting in the station being placed on

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

's Rhythmic panel that same month, with BDS following suit in May 2014.Nielsen BDS monitored reporting stations list
/ref> WEMX's shift to Rhythmic gives Cumulus two Rhythmics in Louisiana, joining sister station KBIU/ Lake Charles. In January 2022, WEMX transitioned from Rhythmic to Urban due to the addition of Mainstream Urban product.

References

External links

Max 94.1's official website
* WEMX-FM Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in Louisiana {{Louisiana-radio-station-stub