WTOU (1660 AM) is a commercial radio station 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 operate on 1660 kHz from facilities located in

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

History

WTOU began as the "expanded band" twin to a station operating on the standard AM band. On March 17, 1997 the FCC announced that eighty-eight stations had been given permission to move to newly available " Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with then-WQSN in Kalamazoo authorized to move from 1470 to 1660 kHz."FCC Public Notice: Mass Media Bureau Announces Revised AM Expanded Band Allotment Plan and Filing Window for Eligible Stations"
(FCC DA 97-537), March 17, 1997. A construction permit for the expanded band station was assigned the WQSN call letters on October 1, 1998, concurrent with the call letters of the original WQSN on 1470 AM changing to WKLZ. The FCC's initial policy was that both the original station and its expanded band counterpart could operate simultaneously for up to five years, after which owners would have to turn in one of the two licenses, depending on whether they preferred the new assignment or elected to remain on the original frequency, although this deadline was extended multiple times. It was ultimately decided to transfer full operations to the expanded band station, and on February 20, 2006 the original station on 1470 AM, now WKLZ, was deleted. The station had been licensed to Fairfield Broadcasting as WQSN. It was sold to

Midwest Communications Midwest Communications is a Wausau, Wisconsin-based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Illinois and ...

in 2006. The FCC approved a callsign change on March 26, 2007 to WQLR, the former callsign of

WVFM WVFM, known simply as 106.5 Jack FM and formerly WQLR, is an adult hits outlet serving the Kalamazoo, Michigan radio market. The station's frequency is 106.5 MHz on the FM dial with an ERP of 33 kW. They are owned by Midwest Communicati ...

, an existing FM music station owned by Midwest Communications in Kalamazoo. The station flipped from

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

urban adult contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

on December 1, 2020. On December 18, 2020, the station switched callsigns with

WTOU (1560 AM) WTOU (1560 AM) was the call sign assigned from 2019 until 2020, and the last call sign used on the air, by a radio station licensed to Portage, Michigan. It last broadcast an urban adult contemporary format, provided by ABC Radio Networks ( The ...

References

Michiguide.com - WQLR History

External links

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FCC History Cards for DWKLZ (1470 AM)
(covering 1955-1981 as WKLZ / WYYY) TOU Urban adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1998 1998 establishments in Michigan Midwest Communications radio stations {{Michigan-radio-station-stub