WQMF (95.7 FM) is a

mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...

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 ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. The station is licensed 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 ...

(FCC) to the nearby city of

Jeffersonville, Indiana Jeffersonville is a city and the county seat of Clark County, Indiana, Clark County, Indiana, United States, situated along the Ohio River. Locally, the city is often referred to by the abbreviated name Jeff. It lies directly across the Ohio River ...

, and broadcasts with 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 28.5 kW. The station's studios are in the Louisville enclave of Watterson Park and the transmitter site is near

Elizabeth, Indiana Elizabeth is a town in Posey Township, Harrison County, Indiana, United States. The population was 162 at the 2010 census. History The original plat of the town of Elizabeth was recorded on April 17, 1812. It was witnessed by Sheriff John Ti ...

, west of the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

. The station is owned 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 ...

Station history

95.7 signed on as WQHI in April 1974 as ''HI 95'', an automated Top 40 station utilizing TM's "Stereo Rock" format. The first song played when HI 95 signed on was "Oh My My" by

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

. In January 1981, WQHI was sold to the Wood family owners of Secret Communications and the people behind

WEBN WEBN (102.7 FM) – branded as 102-7 WEBN – is a commercial mainstream rock radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio, serving Greater Cincinnati. Owned by iHeartMedia, WEBN serves as the FM flagship for the Cincinnati Bengals R ...

, so the station was changed to a AOR format as ''96 FM WQMF''. Within a short period of time, QMF was successful in toppling WLRS as the top Album Rock station in the market under Program Director Tom Owens. Many current well-known Louisville radio personalities appeared on the station. The early years consisted of Ron Clay and

Terry Meiners Terry Allen Meiners (born January 22, 1957), is a radio and television personality on WHAS (AM) and WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky. On radio, ''The Terry Meiners Show'' has aired weekday afternoons since 1985. Meiners is known for broadcasting i ...

on ''The Show With No Name''. They used this morning show name after departing the morning show at WLRS where their “Morning Sickness” name had been trademarked by WLRS. After Meiners departed, Clay continued his morning run at QMF with Mason Dixon and later Alan Sells. Clay left WQMF in early 1986 for KZAP in Sacramento, CA. Until his return less than a year later. Clay continued his run with ''“ Uncle Ron's Asylum'' until his passing in 1991. QMF then hired LRS 102's alum Rocky Knight to launch ''The Rocky & Troy Morning Show''. Karen Bach-Markins, Duke Meyer, and Future Bob were also on QMF as well. Their former mascot of WQMF was Wacky T. Weasel, who had the same snickering laugh that Muttley Mutt had on some legendary Hanna-Barbera shows such as ''Wacky Races'', ''Dastardly & Muttley In Their Flying Machines'', ''Yogi's Treasure Hunt'', ''Fender Bender 500'', & ''Yo Yogi!''. In the mid 1990s, WQMF switched to 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 ...

format.

HD programming

On May 11, 2016, WQMF shifted their format from

and WQMF-HD2 picked up the "Fox"

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

format from sister station WTFX-FM, which flipped to

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

. *HD1 is a digital simulcast of the traditional analog broadcast of WQMF. *HD3 is a digital simulcast of sister station WTFX-FM, an

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 ...

format. HD Radio Guide for Louisville, Kentucky

References

External links

WQMF's official website
* {{IHeartMedia QMF QMF Radio stations established in 1974 IHeartMedia radio stations