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WMXD (92.3 FM ''Mix 92.3'') is a commercial
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 ...
in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The station operates with 45,000
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 ...
s of power from an antenna located on the Cadillac Tower building in
downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a Neighborhoods in Detroit, residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Michigan high ...
. The studios and offices were housed for years at Detroit's Penobscot Building until November 2009, when they were moved to the Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia), studios in Farmington Hills. WMXD programs 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 on ...
radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
. The music selection includes current R&B and classic soul along with an occasional old school hip-hop title. The station is licensed for
HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
operations and formerly played old school hip-hop on its HD2 side channel.


History


WLIN/WCAR-FM years

Detroit's 92.3 FM began with a
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)
construction permit Planning permission or building permit refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. House building permits, for example, are subject to bu ...
under the
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 ...
WIPE. The permit was originally granted in 1960, held by
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 ...
disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...
Sleepy Stein and
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
composer and musician
Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, ...
. The construction permit specified a power of 10,000 watts from a
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
location atop the Cadillac Tower Building in downtown Detroit. In 1961, David Kelly formed Downriver Broadcasting and purchased the construction permit for WIPE from Stein and Mancini. Downriver Broadcasting signed on the station on November 2, 1962, with the call letters WLIN. Bill Hennes hosted the first broadcast from studios on Fort Street at LaBlanc Avenue in
Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...
. The studios were built and transmitter installed by chief engineer Art Lebermann. WLIN's original aim was to program a full-service variety format for the downriver Detroit area. The original schedule consisted of morning host Bill Hennes, a two-hour talk show, afternoon drive with Dave Kelly, and evening DJs Ron Rose and Don Haney. In 1963, the station relocated its studios to the Lafayette Pavilion Apartments complex in downtown Detroit, and the format became all jazz music. In 1964, Hy Levinson, owner of successful "good music" outlet WCAR, purchased WLIN and rechristened it WCAR-FM on December 8 of that year. WCAR-FM initially broadcast from 6 a.m. to midnight and
simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...
its AM sister's conservative MOR format 100% during that time. In 1969, Levinson hired consultant Ken Draper to modernize the music format for both WCAR and WCAR-FM, and the music mix was adjusted from conservative MOR to contemporary MOR. WCAR AM made a brief attempt at
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 ...
in 1971–1972; however, WCAR-FM was separately programmed, remaining a contemporary MOR outlet.


Tower 92/WCXI-FM

In February 1977, Levinson agreed to sell WCAR-AM-FM to
Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American actor, musician, singer, composer, rodeo performer, and baseball team owner, who largely gained fame by singing in a Crooner ...
's Golden West Broadcasters, Inc., but he would stay on as a consultant. In October of that year, Golden West changed WCAR-FM's MOR format to the syndicated "Great American
Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
" package from Drake-Chenault. In the summer of 1978, the stations moved into studios in the new
Renaissance Center The Renaissance Center, commonly known as the RenCen, is a complex of seven connected skyscrapers in downtown Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located on the Detroit International Riverfront, the RenCen is owned and used by General Motors ...
. WCAR-FM's country format was moved over to the AM station, which became WCXI. The FM station adopted the call sign WTWR, airing an
Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Syste ...
/
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 ...
hybrid format under the name "Tower 92" (an homage to the station's new digs). Tower 92 was partly live, partly automated, with the air staff including Jack Kirkwood, Joey Ryan, Kurt Kelly, Kevin Sanderson, Ron Tavernit, Russ Gibb, and Tom Shannon, with Steve Schram as program director. The news team included Linda Ashley from WDEE, Jim Lowlor from WDET-FM, John Bell and News Director Ray Cardoza. The station was only a moderate ratings success, but the most successful format on 92.3 FM to that time. In late 1981, Tower 92 transitioned from its Hot AC/Oldies hybrid to full-fledged Top 40 under the guidance of programmer Todd Wallace, and saw a slight improvement in the ratings in the Winter 1982 Arbitron report. Nevertheless, Golden West wanted to strengthen its country music position in the market against WWWW-FM, and so Golden West pulled the plug on "Tower 92" on May 10, 1982, after only 15 weeks of the Top 40 format. The station became WCXI-FM, programming a country music format separate from
WCXI WCXI (1160 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Fenton, Michigan. The station broadcasts to Metro Detroit and the Flint area. It is owned by the Birach Broadcasting Corporation and it airs a Christian talk and teaching radio ...
, in an effort to forge a two-pronged competition with the successful WWWW-FM. WCXI-FM and WCXI had distinct personalities, with WCXI-FM being a contemporary hit country format and WCXI taking a more full-service approach and focusing more on traditional country.


92 Music/WNTM

In March 1986, Golden West announced they would sell WCXI and WCXI-FM to Shamrock Broadcasting; in return, Shamrock would spin the station off to Fritz Broadcasting, who would pair it with successful talk station WXYT. On May 14, 1986, the FM station was changed to WNTM "92 Music," a
satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
-fed
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 ...
format. Since Detroit already had four adult contemporary stations, ''92 Music'' sank to the bottom of the ratings, perhaps due to its lack of live and local air talent.


92-3 The Wave/WVAE

92.3's next format was new-age (a precursor of today's
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 ...
format). It mixed contemporary jazz with new-age instrumentals and soft vocals. It was launched on December 28, 1987, as WVAE, ''92-3 The Wave'', modeled after
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
' successful KTWV. Much of the programming on WVAE was satellite-fed, and the station also featured comedy bits at the top of each hour to introduce the new hour. "The Wave," an attempt to appeal to the "
yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly neu ...
" audience, never achieved high ratings, but did have loyal fans, though it was in competition with beautiful music WJOI and longtime jazz station WJZZ, which began to play more contemporary jazz, new age and fusion material around that time.


92-3 The Mix/WMXD

On November 30, 1989, the station became ''The Mix'' as WMXD. Originally starting out as a
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary Rhythmic adult contemporary, often abbreviated as rhythmic AC or RAC, is an adult contemporary radio format. The format focuses primarily on rhythmic contemporary, rhythmic hits aimed towards an adult audience, often resembling a mixture of the cla ...
outlet and playing a wide variety of adult R&B and pop music, WMXD evolved into its current Urban AC format by late 1991 under the guidance of operations manager Kris McClendon. Ratings success came quickly after the station tapped the then-underserved Detroit audience for classic
soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American culture, African-American African-American neighborhood, communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps ...
. Detroit did have an AM classic soul station in WMTG, but that AM station's directional signal could not be heard in the city's East Side and other communities at night. WMXD was one of the four radio stations in the Barden, Michigan area (along with WRIF, WMUZ and WJZZ) that were used on Barden Cablevision's character generated line-up throughout the 1980s and 1990s. By 1993, WMXD was showing up regularly in the top 10 of Detroit's Arbitron ratings, and the format has endured since, surviving several ownership changes. In 1994, the station was sold from Fritz Broadcasting to Booth American, which merged with Broadcast Alchemy shortly afterward to become Secret Communications, forming a duopoly with longtime Detroit urban contemporary powerhouse
WJLB WJLB (97.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an urban contemporary radio format. Its studios are on Halsted Road in Farmington Hills. In morning drive time, WJLB carries ...
. Just a few months later, Secret sold the stations to Chancellor Media, which later merged with Evergreen Media to become AMFM, which was swallowed up by Clear Channel in 1999.


The Steve Harvey Morning Show

Until late June 2005, WMXD was the Detroit affiliate for the popular syndicated Tom Joyner morning show. In June 2005, Radio One relaunched its "Kiss FM" gold-based Urban AC format on the 105.9 frequency (now WDMK), moving 105.9's hip-hop format to 102.7 (now WDKL) and grabbing Joyner for mornings on 105.9. WMXD subsequently brought in a parade of celebrities such as soul singer Kenny Lattimore to host the morning show until a permanent replacement could be found. The station finally signed on as an affiliate of '' The Steve Harvey Morning Show,'' syndicated by Clear Channel's
Premiere Radio Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American Mass media, media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original Radio broadcasting, radio content distribut ...
out of
WBLS WBLS (107.5 MHz) is an urban adult contemporary radio format, formatted FM broadcasting, FM radio station, city of license, licensed to New York, New York. It is currently owned and operated by Mediaco Holding, along with sister station WQHT (97 ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
(although WBLS itself is currently owned by
Emmis Communications Emmis Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for "Truth" (''Emet'') was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR ...
). WMXD's morning and overall ratings have remained strong. WMXD also became the afternoon home to the syndicated ''Love, Lust and Lies'' Show with Michael Baisden, as well as the home of "The Sweat Hotel" with
Keith Sweat Keith Sweat (born July 22, 1961) is an American singer, producer and songwriter. An early figure in the new jack swing musical movement, he is known for his collection of hits including "I Want Her," "Make It Last Forever (song), Make It Last For ...
. The addition of ''Love, Lust and Lies'' and ''The Sweat Hotel'' made Frankie Darcell's midday show the only local daypart on WMXD during weekdays, with the other shows all being syndicated.


HD radio

WMXD is licensed for
HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
operations. The station featured an
Urban Gospel Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genr ...
format (provided by Clear Channel's
iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...
) on its HD2 side channel until August 2010, when Clear Channel entered into an agreement with 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 ...
, operators of the
K-Love K-Love (stylized as K-LOVE) is an American Christian radio network. Owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF), a non-profit Christian ministry, it primarily broadcasts contemporary Christian music. As of June 2019, the network's progr ...
format of contemporary Christian music, to program WMXD-HD2. K-Love programming was heard on WMXD-HD2 beginning in August 2010. WMXD-HD2 also fed five translators around the Detroit metro area, 98.3 W252BX and 93.5 W228CJ, both licensed to Detroit; 105.5 W288BK, licensed to Rochester Hills; 93.5 W228DE, licensed to New Baltimore, and 106.3 W292DK, licensed to Westland - which are owned outright by EMF. In August 2018, EMF bought WPZR, a full-power FM station at 102.7, and flipped it to K-Love, changing the callsign to WDKL. In return, W252BX and W228CJ were sold to Urban One, and dropped the K-Love programming for WPZR's former urban gospel format as "The Detroit Praise Network" (now fed from WDMK 105.9 HD2). The remaining translators, still owned by EMF, adopted the Air 1 format, now fed from WDKL-HD2. Subsequently, WMXD-HD2 switched to iHeartRadio's Throwback Hip Hop programming. The HD2 subchannel has since been turned off.


References


External links


MIX 92.3
* {{IHeartMedia MXD IHeartMedia radio stations Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1962 1962 establishments in Michigan