WSNI (97.7 FM, "Sunny 97.7") 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 ...

Keene, New Hampshire Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 23,409 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat and the only city in ...

. The station is owned by Saga Communications, and the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...

is held by Saga Communications of New England, LLC; it operates as part of Saga's Monadnock Broadcasting Group. WSNI airs 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 ...

music format.

History

The station's original

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 ...

was granted on February 1, 1980, with the call letters WEAD assigned on July 28, 1980; this was changed to WXYW on October 28, and to WINQ-FM on December 29, 1982. It took to the air in February 1983, though a license to cover was not issued until May 25, 1984. (The "-FM" suffix was dropped on May 13, 1991.) WINQ was originally licensed to

Winchendon, Massachusetts Winchendon ( ), nicknamed Toy Town, is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,364 at the 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Waterville and Winchendon Springs (also known as Spring Village). A ...

, and primarily targeted its programming to northern Worcester County. Initially, WINQ offered an

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 ...

format, airing primarily vocals, as well as several instrumentals an hour. In 1987, the station segued to an adult contemporary format; this gave way to an

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 ...

format two years later. In 1993, WINQ again changed its format, this time to

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 ...

. Saga purchased the station in 2003 and began to reorient WINQ to the Keene area. After a brief stint simulcasting WKBK's

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...

format, the station became a

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, ...

station that August. In early 2005, Saga swapped formats with its sister station on 98.7 FM, becoming WOQL, an oldies station. Around this time, WOQL relocated from its original transmitter near Winchendon to Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, improving its signal in Keene. The station changed its call letters to WSNI on October 16, 2006, prefacing its change to the current adult contemporary format at the end of 2006. WSNI then continued its relocation into Keene; it changed its city of license to Swanzey and relocated its transmitter to Keene in November 2007, and again changed its city of license, this time to Keene itself, in late 2008.

Translators

W255BQ, the former WKNE translator in Claremont, is now W256BJ 99.1 in Keene, which, after having relayed WKNE-HD2 for a while, has been relaying WSNI-HD2 since December 2018.

References

External links

* * *
Monadnock Broadcasting Group
{{Saga Communications

SNI In chemistry, Si (substitution nucleophilic internal) refers to a specific, regio-selective but not often encountered reaction mechanism for nucleophilic aliphatic substitution. The name was introduced by Cowdrey et al. in 1937 to label nucleo ...

Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1983 1983 establishments in Massachusetts Keene, New Hampshire