WEMX (94.1 FM, "Max 94.1") is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radio ...

serving the

Baton Rouge Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-sma ...

area. The

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

station broadcasts with an ERP of 100 kW and is licensed to

Kentwood, Louisiana Kentwood is a rural town in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States, near the Mississippi state line. The population was 2,198 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area. Kentwood is best known as the home ...

. WEMX broadcasts an

urban contemporary Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

music format An audio format is a medium for sound recording and reproduction. The term is applied to both the physical recording media and the recording formats of the audio content—in computer science it is often limited to the audio file format, but its w ...

. Its studios are located downtown and the transmitter tower is near

Clinton, Louisiana Clinton is a town in, and the parish seat of, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States. The town was named for New York Governor DeWitt Clinton. The population was 1,653 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Stati ...

. The station was assigned the WEMX

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 assigne ...

by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

on November 1, 1996.

History

The station originally signed on the air in 1967 in

McComb, Mississippi McComb is a city in Pike County, Mississippi, United States. The city is approximately south of Jackson. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 12,790. It is the principal city of the McComb, Mississippi Micropolitan Statist ...

as a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

outlet with the call letters WCCA. They would later change call letters to WXLT in 1986 while retaining the format. In 1993, WXLT relocated its COL to Kentwood, Louisiana and target the Baton Rouge area as WYCT, adopting a "Young Country" presentation in the hopes of attracting a younger audience and lure listeners away from WYNK. By 1996, WYCT changed its call letters to WEMX and adopted the handle Max 94.1 (as in "Maximum Country"), but after three years of trailing WYNK in the ratings, WEMX flipped to R&B/Hip-Hop on January 1,

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, this after being paired up with the format's previous occupant,

KQXL-FM KQXL-FM (106.5 FM, "Q106.5") is an urban adult contemporary music formatted radio station serving the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, area. The Cumulus Media station operates with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 50 kW and is licensed to New Roa ...

, who immediately shifted to Adult R&B. WEMX also kept the call letters and Max 94.1 handle intact after the switch. In 1997,

Citadel Broadcasting Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the country. Only iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media ...

took over ownership of the station, which lasted until September 2011, when Cumulus became the owner after its acquisition of Citadel. In June 2013, WEMX transitioned from Urban to Rhythmic due to the addition of Rhythmic Pop product, resulting in the station being placed on

Mediabase Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...

's Rhythmic panel that same month, with BDS following suit in May 2014.Nielsen BDS monitored reporting stations list
/ref> WEMX's shift to Rhythmic gives Cumulus two Rhythmics in Louisiana, joining sister station

KBIU KBIU (103.3 FM, "Hot 103.3") is a radio station Broadcasting a Contemporary hit radio, Top 40 (CHR). licensed to Lake Charles, Louisiana, Lake Charles, Louisiana. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media. Its studios are located on Broad S ...

/ Lake Charles. In January 2022, WEMX transitioned from Rhythmic to Urban due to the addition of Mainstream Urban product.

References

External links

Max 94.1's official website
*

WEMX-FM WEMX (94.1 FM, "Max 94.1") is a radio station serving the Baton Rouge area. The Cumulus Media station broadcasts with an ERP of 100 kW and is licensed to Kentwood, Louisiana. WEMX broadcasts an urban contemporary music format. Its studios a ...

Urban contemporary radio stations in the United States Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1967 1993 establishments in Louisiana {{Louisiana-radio-station-stub