WKIM (98.9
MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
) is a
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
FM 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
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Munford, Tennessee
Munford is a city in Tipton County, Tennessee, Tipton County, Tennessee. The population was 5,927 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, when it was listed as a town.
History
Beginning as a small village which grew around the Mt. Zion Me ...
, and serving the
Memphis metropolitan area. It is owned by
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 ...
and airs a
news/talk
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
.
The
studio
A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...
s are located on Murray Road at the Memphis Radio Group building in East Memphis. The
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
site is in
Cordova, Tennessee
Cordova is a community in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. Cordova lies east of Memphis, north of Germantown, south of Bartlett, and northwest of Collierville at an elevation of 361 feet (110 meters).
The majority of Cordova has been an ...
, off Raleigh-Lagrange Road. WKIM has an
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
(ERP) of 100,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s, the current maximum for American FM stations.
Programming
Weekdays on WKIM begin with the "Memphis Morning News with Ditch and Bob." In afternoon
drive time
Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...
, another local show is heard, "Nation of Jake." The rest of the schedule is
nationally syndicated talk shows:
Dan Bongino
Daniel John Bongino (born December 4, 1974) is an American conservative political commentator, radio show host, and author. He served as a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer from 1995 to 1999 and as a Secret Service agent from 1999 ...
,
Ben Shapiro
Benjamin Aaron Shapiro (born January 15, 1984) is an American attorney, businessman, columnist, conservative political commentator, and media personality. At age 17, he became the youngest nationally syndicated columnist in the United States. ...
,
Brian Kilmeade
Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays he co-hosts the morning show, ''Fox & Friends'', and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade Sho ...
,
Michael Knowles, Rich Valdes, Jimmy Failla, "Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis" and "
America in the Morning." Some local news and weather is supplied by
WREG-TV
WREG-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Channel 3 Drive near the Mississippi River on the west side of Memphis, ...
Channel 3. Most hours begin with an update from
Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
History
In 2003, ...
.
WKIM carries
Tennessee Titans
The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
along with
University of Memphis
}
The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.
The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...
Tigers football and
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
. That includes weekly coaches' shows with Tigers football coach
Ryan Silverfield
Ryan Daniel Silverfield (born August 4, 1980) is an American football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Memphis. Silverfield has spent most of his coaching career, which began during his senior year of high school, as eithe ...
and men’s basketball coach
Penny Hardaway
Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18, 1971) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Hardaway pla ...
.
History
Early years (1948-2001)
The station
signed on
Signing may refer to:
* Using sign language
* Signature
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...
the air in 1948. It was in
Kennett, Missouri
Kennett is a city in and the county seat of Dunklin County, Missouri, United States. The city is located in the southeast corner (or " Bootheel") of Missouri, east of Arkansas and from the Mississippi River. It has a population of 10,932 accor ...
, and used the
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 ...
KTMO. In 2001, 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 ...
(FCC) gave it permission to move into the more lucrative Memphis
radio market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television station, television and radio broadcasting, ra ...
.
Smooth jazz (2001-2004)
After its relocation, it began playing
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 ...
as "Smooth Jazz 98.9" WJZN. That lasted three years.
Rhythmic (2004-2006)
In November 2004, the station changed to a
rhythmic contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary, also known as Rhythmic Top 40, Rhythmic CHR or rhythmic crossover, is a primarily American music-radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip hop and upbeat R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary never uses ...
format as WMPW, "Power 99", putting it in competition with
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 ...
WHRK
WHRK (97.1 MHz "K97") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Memphis, Tennessee. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and it airs an urban contemporary radio format. The station carries the nationally syndicated weekday morning show, ''T ...
, rhythmic
KXHT
KXHT (Hot 107.1) is a Hip-Hop-intense mainstream urban radio station licensed to Marion, Arkansas and serves the Memphis, Tennessee, area. The Flinn Broadcasting outlet operates at 107.1 MHz with an ERP of 2.75 kW. The station's studio ...
and
mainstream top 40
Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/contemporary hit radio, CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by Billboard (magazine), ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played o ...
WHBQ-FM
WHBQ-FM (107.5 MHz) is a Germantown, Tennessee, United States-based radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. It serves Memphis along with its northern and eastern suburbs from an antenna located in Cordova, Tennessee. It is commonly ref ...
.
Adult hits (2006-2010)
![WKIM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/WKIM.png)
On September 15,
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, at 2 p.m., WMPW flipped to a female-leaning
adult hits format as "98-9 Kim FM" under new call letters WKIM. The first song on "Kim FM" was ''
Like a Prayer'' by
Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
. After several books of substandard ratings, about a year later, the station flipped formats to
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 ...
. The change still did not draw enough listeners.
'90s hits (2010-2011)
On March 31,
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
, at 5 p.m., the format was flipped to 1990s hits as ''Gen X 98-9''. The first song on "Gen X 98.9" was ''
Losing My Religion
"Losing My Religion" is a song by American alternative rock band R.E.M., released in February 1991 as the first single from the group's seventh album, '' Out of Time'' (1991). Built on a mandolin riff, the song was an unlikely hit for the group ...
'' by
R.E.M
R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the first alternativ ...
. By that autumn, the station added some current hits, making it a 1990s/Hot AC hybrid format.
News/talk (2011-2015)
On April 25, 2011, the station switched to a
talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
format, branded as "News/Talk 98.9". Because the station is owned by
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 ...
, many of the shows heard on News/Talk 98.9 were from the co-owned
Westwood One Network.
Classic hip hop (2015-2017)
On February 27, 2015, at Noon, WKIM flipped to
classic hip-hop
Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s.
Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...
, branded as "98.9 The Vibe." The first song on "The Vibe" was "
Hip Hop Hooray
"Hip Hop Hooray" is a song by American hip hop group, Naughty by Nature. The song spent one week at number one on the US R&B chart, and reached number eight on the US Pop chart. It contains samples from "Funky President" by James Brown, "Don't C ...
" by
Naughty by Nature. WKIM was one of two stations in the market airing the format;
WIVG
WIVG (96.1 FM) is a radio station licensed to Tunica, Mississippi, serving the Memphis, Tennessee area with EMF's Air 1 worship music format. Owned by Flinn Broadcasting, the station's studios are located in Southeast Memphis, and the transmitter ...
was the other. (That station has since flipped back to
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
).
Adult contemporary (2017-2021)
On October 31, 2017, at Noon, WKIM 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 ...
as "Christmas 98.9." On December 26, at 6 a.m., WKIM flipped to
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 ...
as "98.9 The Bridge." The switch puts WKIM in competition with
Entercom
Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...
-owned
WRVR
WRVR (104.5 FM, branded "The River 104.5") is an adult contemporary radio station broadcasting in Memphis, Tennessee. It has broadcast this format for at least 34 years as of 2021. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station's studios are located in Sou ...
, one of Memphis' leading radio stations. From early November until the
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
holidays, WKIM switched to all-
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 ...
. Weekday mornings, WKIM carried the
syndicated ''
Bob & Sheri Show'' from
WLNK
WLNK (107.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Charlotte, North Carolina. The station is owned by Urban One. WLNK broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. Studios are located at One Julian Price Place on West Morehead S ...
in
Charlotte
Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...
.
Talk (2021-present)
On May 25, 2021, Cumulus Media announced a five-year agreement to carry
University of Memphis
}
The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.
The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...
Tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
athletics on WKIM. The Tigers had previously been heard on
iHeartMedia
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
's
WREC
WREC (600 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. It broadcasts a talk radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Memphis. WREC is West Tennessee's primary ent ...
600 AM
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 600 kHz: 600 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency
Argentina
* LU5 in Neuquén, Neuquén.
Bolivia
* CP190 in Sucre
Brazil
* ZYH920 in São Luís, Maranhão
* ZYH287 in São Ga ...
and
WEGR
WEGR is a classic rock FM radio station in Memphis, Tennessee. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and serves the Memphis metropolitan area, including sections of Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi. WEGR broadcasts at 102.7 MHz and on th ...
102.7 FM. Concurrently, it was also announced WKIM would flip back to a talk radio format as "News/Talk 98.9, The Roar of Memphis".
Cumulus To Flip 98.9 The Bridge Memphis To Conservative Talk; Adds University Of Memphis Sports
/ref>
WKIM also became the Memphis affiliate for the Tennessee Titans Radio Network
The Titans Radio Network is an American radio network composed of 42 radio stations which carry English-language coverage of the Tennessee Titans, a professional football team in the National Football League (NFL).
Nashville market station WGFX ...
. In addition, WKIM affiliated with CBS Radio News
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
for world and national news coverage.
References
External links
News Talk 98.9 official website
*
{{Cumulus Media
KIM
Kim or KIM may refer to:
Names
* Kim (given name)
* Kim (surname)
** Kim (Korean surname)
*** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties
**** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948
** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
KIM
Kim or KIM may refer to:
Names
* Kim (given name)
* Kim (surname)
** Kim (Korean surname)
*** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties
**** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948
** Kim, Vietnamese f ...
Cumulus Media radio stations
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Conservative talk radio