WXRX (104.9 FM, commonly known as "The X") is a

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 ...

. Licensed to

Belvidere, Illinois Belvidere is a city in and the county seat of Boone County, Illinois, United States. It is settled on the Kishwaukee River in far northern Illinois. Known as the 'City of Murals', Belvidere is home to several public art installations througho ...

, the station serves the

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, Winnebago and Ogle County, Illinois, Ogle counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Located in far northern Illinois on the banks of the Rock River (Mississippi River tributary), Rock River, Rockfor ...

area. Originally created by a company called "Radio Works" run by David McAley and Robert Rhea Jr., it is now owned by

Mid-West Family Broadcasting Mid-West Family Broadcasting is an independently owned broadcasting company based in Madison, Wisconsin. The company owns and manages radio stations in Madison, Wisconsin, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Benton Harbor/St. Joseph, Mich ...

. WXRX started as a

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

station. WXRX broadcasts two channels in the HD format. Popular

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 ...

s that have worked for WXRX include Jonathon Brandmeier, Tim Crull, Cheryl Jackson as K.C. Meadows, Sky Drysdale, Alan Cox, Jamie Markley, Mark Zander Jim Stone, as Mark Edwards, Lori Hastings, and Pete McMurray. In the

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

motion picture ''

Batman Returns ''Batman Returns'' is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters (screenwriter), Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman (1989 film), Batman'' (1989) and th ...

'', WXRX is a fictional

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

Gotham City Gotham City ( ), or simply Gotham, is a fictional city in the Northeastern United States that serves as the primary city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his List ...

History

The station went on the air as WKWL on February 27, 1971, playing a "Good Music" format and affiliated with

ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...

. The tower was co-located with the studios on N. Bell School Road in Rockford. A fire in the basement where the transmitter was located burned the entire building to the ground. The license was acquired in December 1974, and the station was rebuilt at the Cherryvale Mall. It returned to the air in 1976 with the call letters WYBR (for "We're the Yellow Brick Road"), transmitting from a tower in the Cherryvale parking lot, with studios inside the mall in suite E-114. The plan was to use an " Oz" format, including a helicopter traffic report called "Ork Reports." The initial format was termed "Theatre of the Mind", and the first airstaff included many people with theatrical background. Actress Susan Saint James was a frequent visitor and contributor to station programming elements. The format gradually migrated to 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 ...

/ MOR format in the late 1970s. Future WLUP jock Jonathon "Johnny B." Brandmeier was the morning DJ from 1978 to 1980. The station changed to

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 1983, then to

in October 1986. RadioWorks, Inc acquired WYBR-FM (and WRRR) in August 1989. Over the next four months, the company undertook a total upgrade of the station's audio chain. The debut of WXRX at midnight on January 1, 1990, was supported by an intensive TV advertising campaign. A year and a half after the debut, WXRX rose to #1 in the market according to the

Arbitron Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...

report. This displaced WROK and WZOK after a 25-year span where one or the other had been #1 overall in Rockford. In October 1992 Pete McMurray was hired as WXRX's 1st ever morning DJ, along with Linda Lampert as his co-host and thus "McMurray and Lampert in the Morning" was born. No morning show in the history of WXRX has achieved higher ratings or a bigger following than Pete McMurray and Linda Lampert. Then after almost 5 years at WXRX Linda Lampert had left in 1996, and then in 1998 after 6 rockin' years at WXRX morning DJ Pete McMurray had also too left for

WCKG WCKG (1530 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Elmhurst, Illinois, and serving the Chicago metropolitan area. It broadcasts a sports radio format and is owned by DuPage Radio, LLC. WCKG is a Fox Sports Radio Network affiliate. ...

in Chicago, Illinois. From 1992 to 1996 Pete McMurray and Linda Lampert reigned as the king and queen of Rockford morning radio.

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References

External links

Official website of WXRX
* * * {{Rockford Radio XRX Mass media in Rockford, Illinois Radio stations established in 1971 1971 establishments in Illinois Belvidere, Illinois