WHZZ (101.7 FM, "Mike FM") 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 ...
licensed to
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...
with a
variety hits format.
History
The station has gone through many different formats over the years. After beginning as a simulcast of
WILS
WILS (1320 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station in Lansing, Michigan. WILS is owned by MacDonald Broadcasting and features a local news department and a mixture of local and national talk personalities.
WILS is powered at 25,000 watts ...
1320 AM as WILS-FM in 1967, the station separated programming in the late 1960s with an automated
MOR
Mor or MOR may refer to:
Names and titles
* Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor
* Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór
* Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac
Radio and television
* Middle of the road (music) genre
* ...
format (with the exception of the Jerry Marshall morning show, which was simulcast with WILS-AM from 6 to 10 a.m.). In 1972, WILS-FM launched an automated Country format which was branded as "Hit Country", although the morning simulcast continued. In 1975, WILS-FM abandoned the Country format in favor of a 12-hour daily simulcast with WILS-AM, followed by split programming in the evening, which included an
AOR format from 6 p.m. to midnight, and a
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
format from midnight to 6 a.m.. In 1978, WILS-FM abandoned the overnight Jazz and ended the simulcast with WILS-AM, programming the AOR format full time. The AOR format proved to be quite successful for the station, resulting in respectable ratings despite WILS-FM's 3KW signal.
In August 1983 WILS-AM and WILS-FM's original owner Lansing Broadcasting, sold the station to Sentry Broadcasting (a division of
Sentry Insurance
Sentry Insurance is a mutual insurance company specializing in business insurance. The company’s home office is in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where about half the company’s approximately 4,500 employees are located. Sentry offers property and ...
) The new management made changes quickly, deciding to automate sister station WILS-AM with a
Nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
format; in December 1983, most of the WILS-FM air staff, including the highly rated morning team of Douglas "Doug" Burton and Danny "Dan" Ballard, were let go, and were replaced by announcers from WILS-AM. On April 14, 1984, WILS-FM abruptly changed 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 using the brand name ''WILS FM 102'' to compete with top-rated
WFMK
WFMK (99.1 FM) is an adult contemporary radio station licensed to East Lansing, Michigan and serving the Lansing radio market. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts in HD radio.
WFMK is one of the United States' oldest adult con ...
. The station's ratings plummeted and would not recover for over a decade as 101.7 FM went through unsuccessful tries at
Hot AC
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, quiet s ...
as WKKP, and then later as WLYY, and Country formats (the latter with a return to the WILS-FM calls in the early 1990s). The station also went through a number of ownership changes during this period.
Sentry Insurance
Sentry Insurance is a mutual insurance company specializing in business insurance. The company’s home office is in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where about half the company’s approximately 4,500 employees are located. Sentry offers property and ...
dissolved their radio division and sold WILS to Northstar Broadcasting in 1986, and after going through an upper-management shakeup, Northstar sold the station to current owner
MacDonald Broadcasting
MacDonald Broadcasting is a privately held radio broadcasting company in Michigan owned by Kenneth MacDonald, Jr. The family-owned broadcasting group is headquartered in Saginaw and owns eight radio stations across Mid-Michigan, including stati ...
in 1989.
In the spring of 1995, WILS-FM became WHZZ under their new moniker ''Z101.7''. WHZZ filled the void as the new
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 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. "Top 40" or " con ...
/
CHR station for Lansing after
WVIC-FM dropped its longtime CHR format to compete with country market leader
WITL
WITL-FM (100.7 MHz) is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Lansing, Michigan, and serving Ingham, Eaton and Clinton Counties in Michigan. It first began broadcasting in 1961 (as WMRT-FM) alongside daytime only ...
. WHZZ was frequently criticized by CHR aficionados for featuring an overly conservative adult-oriented playlist heavy on Hot AC chart currents and 1980's and 1990's gold, but the station enjoyed good Arbitron ratings during their Top 40/CHR run, and even reached #1 overall (12+) at least once.
On September 13, 2005, WHZZ unexpectedly flipped to
adult hits as "Mike FM". Two days after WHZZ's flip, the CHR format was picked up by
WJIM-FM
WJIM-FM (97.5 FM, "975 Now FM") is a radio station in Lansing, Michigan, broadcasting an adult leaning Top 40 (CHR) format.
The station has had the WJIM-FM calls continuously since it signed on in 1960. For over three decades, WJIM-FM broadcas ...
.
See also
*
Dave FM
*
Hank FM
Hank FM is the on-air brand name of several radio stations in the United States and Canada. Stations using the Hank FM brand name typically air a country format, in configurations of classic country, contemporary country, or a less tightly-formatt ...
*
Jack FM
Jack FM is a radio network brand, licensed by Sparknet Communications, with the exception of the European Union where it is licensed by Oxis Media. It plays an adult hits radio format, format, in most cases not using disc jockey, DJs.
Format c ...
*
Joe FM
*
Sam FM
Sources
Michiguide.com - WHZZ History
External links
*
{{Lansing Radio
Adult hits radio stations in the United States
HZZ-FM
Radio stations established in 1967