WMXY (98.9 FM "Mix 98.9") is a

commercial radio Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...

station in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

. It broadcasts a mainstream

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 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, ...

and switches to 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 ...

for much of November and December. WMXY is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It is the Youngstown

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

for the ''

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 ...

'' syndicated music and call-in show in the evening, and carries the Ellen K Weekend Show Saturdays and

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40'', as well as the weekly syndicated televi ...

's classic

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 ...

on Sundays. WMXY has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 5,900 watts. The

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 ...

is off South Avenue in

Boardman, Ohio Boardman Township is one of the fourteen townships of Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The population was 40,213 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb directly south of Youngstown and the second-largest municipality in the Youngstown–Warre ...

.Radio-Locator.com/WMXY
/ref> WMXY broadcasts in the

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 ...

hybrid format. The HD-2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

carries an

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

format branded as "Indie Radio."

History

WKBN-FM

The station first

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on August 26, 1947. It began as WKBN-FM, a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

to WKBN (AM 570), and six years later, would be joined by

WKBN-TV WKBN-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power Fox affiliate WYFX-LD (channel 62); Nexstar also provides certain services to ABC a ...

. The two radio stations are co-owned to this day, although the TV station was spun off to a different owner in 1997. In the station's earliest years, WKBN-FM and WKBN would mostly

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) ...

. The two stations were affiliated with the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

, carrying CBS's schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports and other network programming. Eventually, as network programming moved from radio to television, WKBN-AM-FM switched to a middle of the road format of popular music, news, sports and talk in the 1950s. By the mid-1960s, the

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 ...

began requiring FM stations to carry different programming from their AM stations for most of the day. WKBN-FM became a beautiful music outlet. It was mostly

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...

, airing quarter hour sweeps of mostly instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular adult hits, as well as Broadway 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 ...

show tunes. It later began calling itself "Stereo 99" after installing

FM stereo FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high-fidelity sound ...

equipment. The format proved quite successful, playing in many Youngstown area stores and offices. Like many

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...

stations nationwide, it was at its peak of profitability from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.

WMXY

By the mid-1980s, the audience for easy listening was aging while advertisers usually seek young to middle aged customers. WKBN-FM switched from its easy listening format to

soft 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 ...

on March 20, 1989. Most of the dayparts remained automated, however, and the "Stereo 99" moniker remained. By the end of the 20th century, the station needed to further brighten up its image and sound more youthful. WKBN-FM changed its

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 ...

to WMXY and adopted the slogan "Mix 98.9", with 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 ...

format. In early 2012, WMXY adjusted its music mix back to mainstream AC, using Clear Channel's Premium Choice AC music logs and continuing to carry

at night.

References

External links

* {{coord, 41.057, N, 80.645, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title MXY Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations Radio stations established in 1947 1947 establishments in Ohio