WMNP (99.3 FM, "Mixx 99.3") is an American radio station licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

Block Island, Rhode Island Block Island is an island of the Outer Lands coastal archipelago in New England, located approximately south of mainland Rhode Island and east of Long Island's Montauk Point. The island is coterminous with the town of New Shoreham, Rhode Isl ...

. The station is owned by 3G Broadcasting, Inc, and broadcasts a

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

music format. Its studio is located in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

History

Established in 1984 as WITQ, it officially signed on in October 1988 as WBLQ. The format was automated

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 ...

until the early 1990s when the station shifted its programming to an eclectic

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...

format. In 1996 the station was sold to Bear Broadcasting and the call sign changed to WERI-FM. The operation was moved to Newport in 1999 when Astro Tele-Communications rebranded the station as Swing FM running a

swing music Swing music is a style of jazz that developed in the United States during the late 1920s and early 1930s. It became nationally popular from the mid-1930s. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise on the melody over the arrangement ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

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 ...

format as WJZS. The format shifted to adult contemporary again as 99.3 The Bridge, then rebranded as Variety 99.3. In April 2013 3G Broadcasting Inc. purchased WJZS and

WADK WADK (1540 AM) is a radio station licensed to serve Newport, Rhode Island, United States. The station is owned by 3G Broadcasting, Inc. It airs a business news/talk format, with jazz airing each weekend. The station, the first to be built o ...

. On May 3, 2013, under the new ownership of 3G Broadcasting with program director Matt Girard, WJZS changed formats to a contemporary hit radio/Top 40 format, branded as "Mixx 99.3" along with a new call sign: WMNP. Kurt Jackson's Island Broadcasting of RI agreed to purchase WMNP and WADK from 3G Broadcasting in 2024.

References

External links

1988 establishments in Rhode Island Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States New Shoreham, Rhode Island Radio stations established in 1988 MNP {{RhodeIsland-radio-station-stub