WLAV-FM (96.9 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 ...

broadcasting a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

music format in

Grand Rapids, Michigan Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...

. It is the dominant classic rock-formatted radio station in the market and is generally a top ten performer in the Grand Rapids ratings.

History

WLAV (AM) went on the air in 1940. In 1949, WLAV-TV 7 signed on, later becoming WOOD-TV 8. WLAV-FM began broadcasting by 1948. The station was a simulcast of WLAV 1340 in its early days, but began to break the simulcast in the early 1970s to first utilize the syndicated "Love" format with the likes of Brother John and then went live to play AOR music at night. Also for a time in the early 1970s WLAV-FM played

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

under the tag line "Grand Rapids' Goldmine." In 1974, it became western Michigan's first full-time AOR station and was an instant success. The station experienced difficulties in the 1980s. The station was sued for the death of two people and the injury of two other at its popular annual raft race event. Many of its top D.J.s began to leave: morning host Laurie DeYoung left for Baltimore, Tony Gates left in 1984, and in 1986 popular morning personality Kevin Matthews left to work in St. Louis. By the early 1990s, WLAV-FM was doing poorly in the ratings, facing increased competition from nascent album rocker WKLQ and classic rocker

WJFM WJFM (88.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, the station is currently owned by Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. The listener-supported station is run by SonLife Radio, a ...

. In the spring 1991 Arbitron report, WLAV, which had been a top five station just a year before and had been the #1 station 12+ as recently as fall 1987, fell completely out of the top ten stations 12+, its role as Grand Rapids' top album-rocker having been usurped by WKLQ. On Memorial Day 1992, the station changed to a

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

-based format, since it felt that modern rock was the direction that

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

and album-oriented rock radio was heading towards. Following backlash from listeners, by the fall of 1993, WLAV put the alternative format on 1340 WLAV-AM (then calling it "1340 Underground", where it ran for approximately 2 more years until a sports format replaced it). At the same time, they switched the FM signal back to a more classic rock-driven format. They continued refining the format during the 1990s, honing it towards classic rock music from the 1960s to the 1980s, to renewed success in the ratings.

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 ...

acquired the station from Bloomington Broadcasting (doing business as Michigan Media) in 2000. Citadel merged with

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 ...

on September 16, 2011.

References

Michiguide.com - WLAV-FM History

External links

* LAV-FM Radio stations established in 1948 Cumulus Media radio stations Classic rock radio stations in the United States {{Michigan-radio-station-stub