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WLXT (96.3 FM, "Lite 96.3") is an
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 ...
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 ...
licensed to
Petoskey, Michigan Petoskey ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Emmet County, Michigan, and is the largest settlement within the county. Petoskey has a population of 5,877 at the 2020 census, up from 5,670 at the 2010 census. Petoskey is part of N ...
, at an ERP of 100,000 watts, covering most of northern
Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. It is owned by Trish MacDonald-Garber, whose family has owned the station for over 30 years. Between mid-November and December each year, WLXT switches to an all-
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 ...
format.


History

The station signed on in 1967 at 96.7, only broadcasting with 3,000 watts and airing beautiful music. The station was originally WMBN-FM, owned by Les Biederman's Midwestern Broadcasting Company of
Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, Michigan, Grand Traverse County, although it partly extends into Leelanau County, Michigan, Leelanau County. The city's population was 15, ...
, and mostly simulcasted
WMBN WMBN ("Michigan's Beautiful North") is an AM radio station broadcasting at 1340 kilohertz, kHz in Petoskey, Michigan, United States. The station, owned by MacDonald Garber Broadcasting, Inc. airs the Fox Sports Radio format of sports radio, spor ...
(1340 AM). In the 1970s, Biederman wanted to boost the signals of his Traverse City stations, ordering him to divest most of his other properties due to
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 ...
(FCC) rules and regulations. He sold WMBN-AM/FM to Kenneth MacDonald of
MacDonald Broadcasting MacDonald Broadcasting is a privately held radio broadcasting company in Michigan owned by Kenneth MacDonald, Jr. The family-owned broadcasting group is headquartered in Saginaw and owns eight radio stations across Mid-Michigan, including stati ...
, a friend of his who owned stations in
Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in Saginaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 44,202 at the 2020 census. Located along the Saginaw River, Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of ...
and later
Lansing Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...
. MacDonald had a cottage in the Petoskey area, and accepted the offer to purchase WMBN. MacDonald trained his children, Andy, Ken, Jr. (aka "Mac") and Patricia ("Trish") to run successful stations like he did, and put young 20-something Trish in charge of WMBN. Under her rule, WMBN changed its call sign to WWPZ and flipped to an early version of the adult hits
Jack FM Jack FM is a radio network brand that is licensed by Sparknet Communications, with the exception of the European Union where it is licensed by Oxis Media. It plays an adult hits radio format, format, in most cases not using disc jockey, DJs. F ...
format. WWPZ played everything from
oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...
to
classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...
,
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
to
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 ...
hits, mostly with Dennis Martin (Corpe) programming the station. They also aired The
Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American TV and radio host presenter, author, and former spokesman. He was a WMBM radio interviewer in the Miami area in the 1950s and 1960s and beginning in ...
Show at night. WMBN-FM, however, remained beautiful music, using the slogan "Michigan's Beautiful North". WPZ also aired sports, like Tigers baseball. It was also around that time that WMBN-FM moved from 96.7 to 96.3 and boosted its power to 100 kW. WMBN-FM remained beautiful music throughout most of the 1980s, and got strong adults numbers in the Northwest Michigan ratings. The station was automated most of the time, including a voicetracked night shift from owner Ken MacDonald himself. Sadly, Ken passed in 1989, and for a while, the station still aired his taped show. Jim Scollin did a live morning drive show for many years in the 1980s.


Lite 96 FM

In 1990, Trish decided to flip WMBN-FM from beautiful music to Soft AC. The station's music became more contemporary, and aimed for a slightly younger audience. Meanwhile, the easy listening music found a new home on the AM dial at WMBN (AM), which would move to Westwood One's "AM Only" format of
adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...
(now known as
America's Best Music America's Best Music is the on-air branding of a soft oldies and adult standards 24-hour radio network, formerly known as AM Only. The service is syndicated by Westwood One, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media. It was one of the original Transtar Ra ...
and syndicated by
Dial Global Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The c ...
). In the mid-1990s, Trish purchased WWLZ 96.7 in
Cadillac, Michigan Cadillac ( ) is a city in and county seat of Wexford County, Michigan, Wexford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second most-populated city in the Northe ...
, changing the station from
CHR CHR or chr may refer to: Organisations * Canadians for Health Research, a national not-for-profit organisation * Centre for Human Rights, an organisation promoting human rights in Africa * Christ Church Secondary School, a government-aided school ...
to a simulcast of WMBN-FM, which changed its call letters to WLXT to match its Lite 96 name. 96.7 became WLXV. In 2002, the WLXT/WLXV simulcast ended when Trish decided that Cadillac, a town with six stations and five of them being simulcasts of other stations (and the one that was not,
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 ...
, being mainly syndicated talk), needed a music station to call its own. She flipped WLXV to a
hot AC 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 as Mix 96. (In early 2003, WLXV gained a sister station also solely serving the Cadillac market in WKAD-FM "Oldies 93.7", airing a syndicated 1960s/1970s oldies format from
Jones Radio Networks Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio su ...
- this format is now part of
Dial Global Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The c ...
's
Kool Gold Classic Hits (known as Kool Gold until June 17, 2012) is a 24-hour music format produced by Westwood One. Its playlist is composed of oldies music from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s, from artists such as Billy Joel, The Beatles, The Temptations, Flee ...
network.) After Christmas 2010, WLXV got competition in the form of Jennifer Theodore's 107.9 WCDY, giving Cadillac two hot AC stations.


WLXT today

Today, Lite 96 is the AC ratings leader in northern Michigan even though they have lost some audience to other stations such as former
smooth jazz Smooth jazz is commercially oriented crossover jazz music. Although often described as a "genre", it is a debatable and highly controversial subject in jazz music circles. As a radio format, however, smooth jazz radio became the successor to e ...
station
WJZQ WJZQ (92.9 FM) is a 100,000-watt Cadillac, Michigan radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format as ''Z93''. It is owned by Ross Biederman's Midwestern Broadcasting, who also owns WTCM-AM/ FM and WCCW-AM/ FM, all in Travers ...
and former AC
WSRT WSRT (106.7 FM) is a country station that broadcasts out of Gaylord, Michigan. The 100,000-watt station was also simulcast on 105.5 WSRJ Honor/Traverse City until 2020. Throughout most of its life, it was best known as a CHR/Top 40-formatted ...
. WLXT is also the northern Michigan affiliate for the
John Tesh John Frank Tesh Jr. (born July 9, 1952) is an American musician and radio and television presenter. He wrote the '' NBA on NBC'' basketball theme " Roundball Rock", and hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 20 ...
Radio Show. The station aired
Delilah Delilah ( ; , meaning "delicate";Gesenius's ''Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon'' ; ) is a woman mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible. She is loved by Samson, a Nazirite who possesses great strength and serves as t ...
's love-song dedication program at night for a short time after WSRT, northern Michigan's former Delilah affiliate, dropped its AC format for talk. WLXT also airs ''
American Top 40 ''American Top 40'' (abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally radio syndication, syndicated, independent song countdown radio programming, radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs (broadcaster), Ron Jaco ...
: The '80s'' and the 1980s and 1990s editions of ''
Backtrax USA ''Backtrax USA'' is a weekly two-hour radio program hosted by former WHTZ (Z100) disc jockey Kid Kelly that premiered in 1992. The original show highlights hit music from the 1980s. Since 2003, ''Backtrax USA'' has also offered a 1990s version o ...
'' during the weekends. Like many other AC stations across the country, WLXT flips to continuous Christmas music during the holiday season. In the fall of 2007 the station adjusted its on-air branding from "Lite 96" to "Lite 96.3", possibly due to competitor Northern Radio flipping its Petoskey-area translator station at 95.3 to a simulcast of AC competitor WSRT. In May 2010, WSRT dropped its AC format and switched to a talk radio format, leaving WLXT as the only AC station in the market.


References


External links


Official Website
* {{Adult Contemporary Radio Stations in Michigan LXT Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in Michigan