WMIA-FM (93.9
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
hot 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, quiet ...
radio station that is licensed to
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on natural and artificial island, man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the ...
. The station is owned and operated by
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 ...
. Its studios are located in
Miramar, and the transmitter site is in
Miami Gardens
Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is located north of Downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from I-95 and Northeast 2nd Avenue to its east to Northwest 47th and Northwest 57th Avenues to its west ...
.
History
Early years
93.9 FM signed on the air December 1, 1948, as WLRD, the first standalone FM station in Miami.
It was built by Alan Henry, Leo and Yvette Rosenson, doing business as the Mercantile Broadcasting Company; studios were in the Mercantile National Bank building at 420
Lincoln Road.
The original mast at 812 First Street was damaged in
Hurricane King
Hurricane King was the most severe hurricane to strike the city of Miami, Florida since the 1926 Miami hurricane. It was the eleventh tropical storm and the last of six major hurricanes in the 1950 Atlantic hurricane season. The cyclone formed i ...
in 1950. Early programming was background music.
The station became WAHR-FM in 1956 after the establishment of
WAHR
WAHR (99.1 FM, "Star 99.1") is an American mainstream adult contemporary music-formatted radio station licensed to serve Huntsville, Alabama. The station is licensed to Southern Stone Communications, LLC. The signal covers most of northern Alabam ...
(1490 AM) two years prior. From this point, the FM primarily simulcast the AM. Both stations were sold to Community Service Broadcasting of
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
in 1958, with the call letters changed to WMET-AM-FM, Four years later, WMBM-FM struck out on its own with a jazz format and changed its call sign to WMVJ ("Miami's Voice of Jazz"). The change was reverted the next year, but it split off again as WGOS in 1966. Initially airing a gospel format, this changed to country "Wild Goose Country". In 1968, WGOS became WBUS; by 1970, it had turned the letters into business, airing a business news format. Three years later, WBUS flipped to
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 ...
as "The Magic Bus". A jazz format returned in 1974, and the station hired
Symphony Sid out of retirement for its air staff.
Love 94
On October 29, 1976, after losing money with the jazz format, the station became WWWL "Love 94", changing to a "soft rock"
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. DJ Irene Richard (later Irene Richard Brandon) joined the station in 1976, becoming one of South Florida's earliest, pioneer female broadcasters. The WLVE call letters were adopted in 1984 after being surrendered by
a station in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
. Later, the soft rock transitioned to
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 ...
and was successful for many years. On Sunday mornings, Love 94 had a Sunday Jazz Brunch program hosted by Stu Grant and a Brazilian Jazz program called "Brazilian Love Jazz" hosted by Gina Martell every Sunday evening. It also had a satellite station, WWLV 94.3 in West Palm Beach from 1998 to 2003. In the later years, however, due to the increasing amount of R&B and Adult Contemporary music being added to the playlist by Broadcast Architecture (which WLVE adopted in 2007), the ratings started to decrease drastically.
After Love: WMIA-FM
On December 25, 2008, WLVE flipped to
rhythmic AC
Rhythmic adult contemporary, often abbreviated as rhythmic AC or RAC, is an adult contemporary radio format. The format focuses primarily on rhythmic hits aimed towards an adult audience, often resembling a mixture of the classic hits and hot adult ...
as "93.9 MIA." The demise followed the lead of similarly formatted stations in other cities, such as
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The first song was
Will Smith
Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his Will Smith filmography, acting career starring as Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a ...
's "
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
", which is a reflection upon where the city it broadcasts from.
In 2010, WMIA-FM began adding more pop titles from artists such as
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It currently consists of lead vocalist Adam Levine, keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine (musician), James Valentine, drummer Matt ...
,
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé ( ; born September 9, 1975) is a Canadian singer. A four-time Grammy Award winner, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songboo ...
,
Kelly Clarkson
Kelly Brianne Clarkson (born April 24, 1982) is an American singer, songwriter, author, and television personality. She rose to fame after winning the first season of ''American Idol'' in 2002, which earned her a record deal with RCA. Her debu ...
, and
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...
to its playlist, following a pattern used by sister stations such as
WWVA-FM and
WISX
WUMR (106.1 Hertz, MHz, "Rumba 106.1") is a commercial Reggaeton, Spanish CHR FM radio, FM Radio broadcasting, radio station licensed to serve Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The WUMR studios are located ...
which eventually evolved out of, or switched from rhythmic AC, as the station became more
hot 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, quiet ...
. In November 2010, the station 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 ...
. While there were rumors that the station would flip to
adult top 40
The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems ...
after the holidays, the rhythmic AC format returned on Christmas Day 2010, at 11:58 AM, with "
Material Girl
"Material Girl" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her second studio album, '' Like a Virgin'' (1984). It was released on November 30, 1984, by the Sire label as the second single from ''Like a Virgin''. It also appears slightly ...
" 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 ...
being the first song to be played. By that time, although WMIA-FM had continued to be listed on
Mediabase
Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytic ...
's hot AC panel, its playlist had shifted back to a rhythmic direction with less hot AC material. By June 2012,
BDS has moved the station to the Top 40 panel due to its increasing amount of rhythmic pop product, although this was done to complement sister station
WHYI-FM
WHYI-FM (100.7 MHz) is a heritage contemporary hit radio station. The station is licensed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and owned by iHeartMedia. Y100 broadcasts at an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from its 1,007 foot transmitter, w ...
, who is the market's primary Top 40/CHR outlet, and to a lesser extent, to shift the older 1980s, 1990s and 2000s product to adult hits sister
WSHE.
Once again, in December 2012, WMIA-FM revamped their direction to adult top 40 with recurrents from the 1990s and 2000s, billing themselves as "90s and Now". The majority of rhythmic material that had not charted on that format was dropped, only to reinstate it by the spring of 2013, when it dropped most of the 1990s music and changed its slogan to "Today's Hits". It also adopted an adult top 40 presentation, using the same approach as sister station
WKTU
WKTU (103.5 FM) is a rhythmic adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Lake Success, New York, a suburb of New York City. WKTU is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts from studios in the former AT&T Building in the Tribeca neighbo ...
in the New York City market, and in early 2014, changed slogans to "Miami's Variety from the '90s to Now". In May 2014, WMIA-FM changed their slogan to "93.9 MIA Means Variety" and added 1980s hit songs to their playlist.
On August 8, 2014, WMIA-FM rebranded as "MY 93.9" with their slogan becoming "More Music, Better Variety”. This change came after WMIA-FM was the lowest rated music station in the Nielsen ratings for the Miami market, with a 2.3 share in the July 2014 ratings. "MY 93.9" dropped most of the 1980s material from their playlist and focused on hits from the 1990s and 2000s.
![WMIA 93](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/WMIA_93.9MIA_logo.png)
On March 18, 2016, WMIA-FM rebranded once again as "93.9 MIA", shifting back to rhythmic AC with the new slogan "Rhythm from the 80s to Now." In March 2018, the station shifted to hot adult contemporary. This put WMIA-FM in a crowded field for adult music competing between WFEZ, WLYF, WFLC and WRMF.
On July 9, 2020, at Noon, after playing "
End of the Road" by
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men (pronounced ''boys to men''), also known as B2M, is an American vocal harmony group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are currently a trio composed of baritone Nathan M ...
, WMIA-FM flipped to
1990s hits, branded as "Totally 93.9". The first song was "Miami" by Will Smith (which was also the first song on "93.9 MIA" in December 2008).
On February 9, 2022, at 6 a.m., after playing "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men, WMIA-FM flipped back to hot adult contemporary and the "93.9 MIA". The first song after the relaunch was "
Locked Out of Heaven
"Locked Out of Heaven" is a song by American singer and songwriter Bruno Mars from his second studio album, ''Unorthodox Jukebox'' (2012). It was released as the lead single from the album on October 1, 2012. The song was written by Mars, Phil ...
" by
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez (born October 8, 1985), known professionally as Bruno Mars, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is known for his stage performances, retro showmanship, and for performing in a wide range of musical s ...
.
WMIA-FM HD2
WMIA-FM signed on
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 ...
operations in 2006. The HD1 sub-channel airs the same format as the analog, while the HD2 sub-channel initially aired a traditional jazz format. When the analog/HD1 format flipped to Rhythmic AC in 2008, the smooth jazz format moved to the HD2 channel. On July 11, 2014, WMIA-FMHD2 flipped to
Country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
, branded as "93.5 The Bull", which was relayed on FM translator W228BV 93.5 in Fort Lauderdale. On July 1, 2016, Zoo Communications acquired W228BV, and on November 17 of that year, W228BV and Zoo's W284CS (104.7 FM) swapped formats and ownership, with the Country format moving to 104.7 (with iHeart now owning that translator), while the Dance/EDM format of
W228BY
WZFL (Revolution Radio) is a radio station licensed to Islamorada, Florida, and serves South Florida metropolitan areas of Miami, Florida, Miami, Dade County, Florida, Dade County, and the Florida Keys. The station also utilizes a pair of broadcas ...
began simulcasting on W228BV.
In addition, "104.7 the Bull" airs several NASCAR events from the
Motor Racing Network
Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of N ...
.
References
External links
93.9 MIA website*
*
*
{{coord, 25.968, N, 80.209, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
MIA-FM
IHeartMedia radio stations
1948 establishments in Florida
Radio stations established in 1948
Hot adult contemporary radio stations in the United States