WJTI (1460
AM) 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
West Allis, Wisconsin
West Allis is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. A suburb of Milwaukee, it is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 60,325 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census.
Histo ...
, United States. The station serves 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. The station is owned by El Sol Broadcasting, LLC.
History
The 1460 kHz frequency signed on the air in 1950 with the WRAC call sign, licensed to
Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...
. The owner of the station purchased another Racine station,
WRJN-FM in 1969, changing it to WRAC-FM. A year later, the FM station flipped to a rock-leaning
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 ...
format as WRKR, and in 1975, WRAC adopted that call sign, simulcasting their FM sister station.
It was also for a brief time WWEG ("The Country Egg") before returning to WRKR and again simulcasting the FM signal. Later, there was a short lived Spanish format.
The station switched calls to WBZN on October 14, 1987, simulcasting its sister station's new
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
format. Both stations flipped to urban contemporary in June 1991, becoming WKKV.
The AM station broke away from the simulcast in November 1993, flipping to a Spanish-language format as WBJX. The year 2007 brought the current call sign, WJTI, and a new city of license, the Milwaukee suburb of
West Allis
West Allis is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. A suburb of Milwaukee, it is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 60,325 at the 2020 census.
History
The name West Allis derives from Edward P. Allis, ...
.
On December 17, 2021, WJTI began
stunting with
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...
and launched a simulcast on new translator W273BQ (102.5 FM). The previous Regional Mexican format continues through former translator 97.9 W250BN, which is now fed via the HD3 sub-channel of
WMYX-FM
WMYX-FM (99.1 Hertz, MHz) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Calling itself "99-1 The Mix," it was the first station in the U.S. to use the "Mix" moniker. WMYX-FM has been airing roughly the same ...
. On December 26, 2021, WJTI and W273BQ flipped to a
smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s.
History
Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...
format as "102.5 FM".
Translators
The sale of
translator station
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
W250BN to El Sol was completed in May 2014, with El Sol beginning to simulcast WJTI upon it over that month's Memorial Day weekend. Previously the station had independently been a translator of
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 ...
's Ideas Network via
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) under the ownership of "Radio Power, Inc." , which
moved the translator over the years up the
Rock Freeway corridor from
Beloit in an attempt to move it to Milwaukee in order to likely present a ready-made signal for a commercial operation to broadcast an
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 ...
subchannel or AM signal over. The moves were questioned 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 ...
, with a denial of a construction permit to the
MPTV Tower in the
Shorewood tower farm and an inquiry to Radio Power on their motives before the purchase by El Sol.
Radio Power eventually was approved to transmit from the
Hilton Milwaukee City Center
The Hilton Milwaukee City Center is a historic Art Deco-style hotel opened in 1928 and located in the Westown neighborhood of downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is owned by the Marcus Corporation, which also owns the Pfister Hotel and the Saint ...
tower in the downtown area, which is closer to the core Latino-American neighborhoods on Milwaukee's south side which WJTI serves than the Shorewood site.
On December 17. 2021, WJTI signed on
translator station
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
102.5 W273DQ, which serves the Milwaukee market.
Previous logo
References
External links
**
**
Former WBJX Website
{{Milwaukee Radio
JTI
Smooth jazz radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1950
1950 establishments in Wisconsin