WFMR was a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

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 ...

that existed on three different FM frequencies in the

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

area during its 51-year history. Its last frequency was 106.9 MHz.

History

Originally at 96.5 on the FM dial, WFMR signed on the air with a classical music format on June 26, 1956 from the Bayshore Shopping Center in

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

. The next year, the studios moved to downtown Milwaukee, at 606 West Wisconsin Avenue. The 50,000-watt transmitter (the most powerful allowed by the FCC) was located in a room on the top floor of the 20-story structure—just outside the studio. After Bill Dunn and partners sold the station to Koss Broadcasting (John Koss of

Koss Corporation Koss Corporation is an American company that designs and manufactures headphones. Headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1958, the company invented the first high fidelity stereophones. Koss continues to design and manufacture headphon ...

), the studios were moved to the north side of the city, at 711 West Capitol Drive (not to be confused with the WTMJ stations' Radio City, which nearly has the same address number of 720, but on East Capitol Drive fourteen blocks over). In 1983, the station was sold and was flipped 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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format, eventually becoming classic hits heritage station

WKLH WKLH (96.5 FM) is a classic rock-formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The station is owned by Saga Communications. Its studios (which are shared with the other four sister stations) are located on Milwaukee's West Side and the tran ...

. The owner of a radio station in suburban

Menomonee Falls Menomonee Falls is a village in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States, and is part of the Greater Milwaukee area. The population was 35,626 at the 2010 census, making it the most populous village in Wisconsin. It is the fourth largest communi ...

, WXJY (98.3 FM), immediately picked up the classical format and WFMR call letters, and it remained there at that frequency until December 12, 2000, when owner

Saga Communications is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, from the Super NES to the ...

moved WFMR to 106.9 FM, and WJMR-FM's

urban AC 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 ...

format and call letters to 98.3. This was done primarily to boost WJMR-FM's signal in the urban areas of

, and to target WFMR toward the Western and Northern suburbs. Saga moved the studios to Milwaukee the year before, in 1999. During its time as a classical music station, WFMR was a four-time finalist for the National Association of Broadcasters'

Marconi Award :''"Marconi Award" links here. Note that in the Netherlands, the radio academy awards are also called Marconi Awards.'' The Marconi Radio Awards are presented annually by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) to the top radio stations and ...

for ''Classical Station of the Year'', and celebrated its 50th year as a classical station in 2006. At midnight on June 26, 2007, on the 51st anniversary of its original sign-on, WFMR ended its classical music format when it flipped to a smooth jazz format. The decision was made when a rival station, WJZI, dropped the format a week earlier for light adult contemporary music. Just days after the flip,

KING-FM KING-FM (98.1 MHz; "Classical King FM") is a non-commercial classical music radio station in Seattle, Washington. It is owned by Classic Radio, a nonprofit organization. The studios and offices are on Mercer St in Seattle. KING-FM holds period ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

posted a banner on the ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' website telling listeners that they have a new place to turn to for classical music by going to their website.

Wisconsin Public Radio Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) is a network of 34 public radio stations in the state of Wisconsin. WPR's network is divided into two distinct analog services, the ''Ideas Network'' and the ''NPR News & Music Network,'' as well as the ''All Classi ...

eventually launched its

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

-only All Classical service on

WHAD WHAD (90.7 FM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Delafield, Wisconsin and serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Part of Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), it airs WPR's "Ideas Network", consisting of news and talk programming. Like the ...

(90.7) to serve the market over-the-air. On July 15, 2007, the station changed its call sign to WJZX. The callsign passed in early 2008 to

WOMR WOMR (92.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a public broadcasting community radio station based in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Its call-sign stands for "Outermost Radio". It started broadcasting in 1982 on 91.9MHz, switching to 92.1 in 1995 to gain a p ...

Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Provincet ...

, to be used as a repeater. WFMR in Orleans, Massachusetts signed on September 16, 2010 according to the originating station WOMR in Provincetown. The WFMR callsign now stands for "Furthermost Radio". Former WFMR program director and morning host Steve Murphy is now heard on a nationally syndicated morning show on the

World Classical Network The World Classical Network (WCN) is an internet-delivery classical radio broadcasting service owned by CCB Media in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The service has been in existence since February 1998, when it was owned and operated by Charles River ...

.Northeast Radio Watch - Scott Fybush - October 13, 2008
/ref>

References

External links

Archived WFMR websiteHistory of WFMR (from the Internet Archive)Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on flip to smooth jazz
{{Authority control FMR Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations disestablished in 2007 Classical music radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1956 1956 establishments in Wisconsin 2007 disestablishments in Wisconsin FMR

History

See also

References

External links