WINC-FM (105.5 FM) is a

hot 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 ...

-formatted radio station licensed to

Berryville, Virginia Berryville is an incorporated town in and the county seat of Clarke County, Virginia, United States. The population was 4,574 at the 2020 census, up from 4,185 at the 2010 census. History Berryville was founded at the intersection of the Winc ...

, serving the Northern

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia in the United States. The Valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the east ...

. WINC-FM is owned by Darrin Jones, through Euclid Avenue Properties, LLC.

History

In November 2020, the then-WXBN flipped to

, assuming the hot adult contemporary format and "WINC-FM" (pronounced "Wink FM") branding previously heard on the Winchester-based 92.5 frequency (which was in the process of being sold to the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest contempor ...

). The station would take over the WINC-FM legacy callsign on December 29, 2020. On April 30, 2021, Centennial Broadcasting announced it was selling WINC-FM and sister station WZFC to

Fairfax, Virginia Fairfax ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia and the county seat of Fairfax County, Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 24,146. Fairfax is pa ...

-based Metro Radio, Inc. for $225,000. Fellow sister station

WINC Winc is a workplace support company operating in Australia supplying office essentials, furniture, safety equipment and IT solutions. The company is focused on supporting businesses through the delivery of everything a workplace needs to work - ...

was not included in the sale. Allen B. Shaw, Centennial's president and CEO, said in a May 2021 interview with ''

The Winchester Star ''The Winchester Star'' is a daily newspaper (Monday-Friday) based in Winchester, Virginia covering the Shenandoah Valley area. History On March 6, 2018, it was announced that ''The Winchester Star'', along with the other Byrd family newspapers ...

'' that Metro Radio, Inc. had had insured Shaw "they do not intend to" change the format of WINC-FM and WZFC. Shaw further said Metro thought WZFC's format was "probably the best format for the Winchester market" for ad revenue. On June 30, long-time morning show host Barry Lee signed off after 37 years at the station. Hours later, long-time afternoon host Paula Kidwell would also sign off. The sale of WINC-FM and sister WKDV-FM was completed the same day. WINC-FM was acquired by funeral home operator Darrin Jones, through his Euclid Avenue Properties, effective December 12, 2022. Following the sale's completion, on December 16, 2022, WINC-FM began stunting with

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

, ahead of an announcement to be made on January 5, 2023, at 10:55 am. At that time, the station relaunched its hot adult contemporary format from a new Winchester studio; Metro Radio had operated the station from Fairfax, with the intent of serving Leesburg. WINC-FM is operated in conjunction with its former AM sister station, which had been sold in the interim to Todd Bartley's Colonial Radio Group of Williamsport and renamed WZFC; the arrangement saw the AM station reclaim its former WINC call sign.

References

External links

* * {{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in Virginia 1979 establishments in Virginia Hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1979 INC-FM