WMJM (101.3
FM "Magic 101.3") is an
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 ...
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle stati ...
licensed to
Jeffersontown, Kentucky
Jeffersontown is a home rule-class city in Jefferson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 26,595 at the 2010 U.S. census.
It is a major suburb of Louisville. When the Louisville Metro government was established in 2003, Jefferso ...
serving the
Louisville metropolitan area
The Louisville metropolitan area is the Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 43rd largest United States metropolitan area, metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States. It had a population of 1,395,855 in 2020 accor ...
owned and operated by
Alpha Media
Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...
. It currently carries the ''
Steve Harvey
Broderick Stephen Harvey Sr. Also aired August 16, 2015. (born January 17, 1957) is an American television host, producer, actor, and comedian. He hosts '' The Steve Harvey Morning Show'', '' Family Feud'', ''Celebrity Family Feud,'' the Miss ...
'' Morning Show. The station's studios are located in
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...
and the transmitter site is atop
Kaden Tower
Kaden Tower is a 15-story office building at 6100 Dutchmans Lane in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. The building opened in 1966 as the headquarters for Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company and was originally named Lincoln Tower.Encyclopedia of Lo ...
in east Louisville.
History
The station
signed on
Signing may refer to:
* Using sign language
* Signature, placing one's name on a document
* Signature (disambiguation)
* Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice
* Digital signature
A dig ...
in 1978 as WZZX with an
album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-orient ...
format. Unable to gain traction against market-leader 102.3
WLRS WLRS may refer to:
* WLRS (AM), a radio station (1570 AM) licensed to serve New Albany, Indiana, United States
* WLRS FM, a radio station in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, with frequency 102.3 FM, now WXMA, which held the call sign WLRS fro ...
, WZZX switched to an
adult contemporary music
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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
format as WJYL "The Joy of Louisville" in 1981. This station struggled against AC competitor 103.1
WRKA
WRKA (103.9 FM) is a commercial urban adult contemporary radio station licensed to serve Louisville, Kentucky. Owned by SummitMedia, the station covers the Louisville metropolitan area. The WRKA studios are located in Downtown Louisville, ...
, so it began adding
top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 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. "Top 40" or "conte ...
music to its playlist, becoming 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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, qui ...
outlet. This move was successful, but short-lived. Following a sale, in 1984, WJYL adopted an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, 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 conte ...
format, becoming the first FM station in the Louisville market to target African-American listeners. On January 5, 1989, the station began
stunting with a loop of "
Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying
"Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" is a song written by Gerry Marsden, Freddie Marsden, Les Chadwick and Les Maguire, the members of British beat group Gerry and the Pacemakers. It was first recorded and issued as a single by Louise Cordet i ...
" by
Gerry and the Pacemakers
Gerry and the Pacemakers were a British beat group prominent in the 1960s Merseybeat scene. In common with the Beatles, they came from Liverpool, were managed by Brian Epstein, and were recorded by George Martin. Their early successes alongsid ...
. It would be accompanied with a return to a Soft AC format, becoming WLSY-FM ("Lite and Sunny")
WLSY-FM was sold to the owners of mainstream urban contemporary
WGZB
WGZB-FM (96.5 MHz, "B96.5") is a mainstream urban radio station in Louisville, Kentucky. Its city of license is Lanesville, Indiana, and its radio tower is located near Elizabeth, Indiana near the Ohio River, while its studios are located in d ...
in 1994 and became an urban adult contemporary-formatted sister station to the younger-skewing WGZB. This FM-FM duopoly combination covered the entire demographic reach of Louisville's African-American radio listenership, and hastened competitor
WLOU
WLOU (1350 AM) is a radio station broadcasting an urban oldies music format. Licensed to Louisville, Kentucky, United States, the station serves the Louisville, KY-IN market area. Its studios are located west of downtown and the transmitter is ...
's decline as the longtime urban/black/soul formatted station for the Louisville market (WLOU switched to an
urban gospel
Urban/contemporary gospel is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genre was well established by the end of the 1980s. The radio format is pitched prim ...
format in 1996). The call sign was changed to WMJM in 1996;
shortly afterward, the station moved from its original 101.7 frequency to 101.3 in a swap with
WTHQ,
allowing the WMJM signal to move farther west and avoid violating FCC antenna separation distance rules with the former WLRS on 102.3 MHz.
WMJM was acquired by Alpha Media in July 2014, as part of its purchase of
Main Line Broadcasting Main Line Broadcasting was an American media company, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its peak, Main Line Broadcasting owned 19 radio stations in four markets in the United States. The company was founded by Dan Savadove, and was most rece ...
.
References
External links
Magic 101.3 Facebook*
MJM
Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States
Alpha Media radio stations
Radio stations established in 1978
1978 establishments in Kentucky
{{Louisville-stub