WXLA (1180 kHz) is a commercial AM

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 to Dimondale, a suburb of Lansing, Michigan. It is owned by

MacDonald Broadcasting MacDonald Broadcasting is a privately held radio broadcasting company in Michigan owned by Kenneth MacDonald, Jr. The family-owned broadcasting group is headquartered in Saginaw, Michigan, Saginaw and owns eight radio stations across Mid-Michiga ...

and airs a soft adult contemporary

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 was compelle ...

. It uses the branding "Easy 93.3". The dial position refers to WXLA's FM translator, W227DO at 93.3 MHz in Lansing. The station is a

daytimer A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-co ...

but the FM translator broadcasts around the clock. WXLA is powered at 10,000

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 ...

s during daylight hours. For two hours after sunrise and two hours before sunset it cuts back to 2,000 watts. For some months of the year, WXLA is authorized to broadcast at 500 watts starting at 6 AM local time under Pre-sunrise authorization. WXLA must

sign-off A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...

at sunset to protect from interference Class A clear channel station WHAM in Rochester, New York. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

is off Grovenburg Road in Lansing.

History

The station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A digi ...

the air on September 20, 1982 as WDTB. It originally broadcast on 1170 kHz with 1,000 watts, days only. It used the

all news All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to the discussion and broadcast of news. All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried on both major US satellite radio networks. All-news stations can run the ...

programming of

CNN Headline News HLN is an American basic cable network. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the network primarily carries true crime programming. The channel was originally launched on January 1, 1982 by Turner Broadcasting as CNN2 (later renamed Headline News ...

. The call letters were changed to the present WXLA on June 29, 1984. WXLA was the first radio station to program specifically to Lansing's

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

community with an urban contemporary / R&B format. In July 2005, the station increased its power and began referring to itself as ''10,000 Watt 1180''. With its new

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performanc ...

, the station could be heard as far away as

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Bay City and

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...

. In 2006,

purchased WXLA and

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

96.5

WQHH WQHH (96.5 FM), branded "Power 96.5" is a Commerce, commercial FM broadcasting, FM radio station located in DeWitt, Michigan, DeWitt, a suburb of Lansing, Michigan. The station broadcasts with 6,000 watts. The station plays hip hop as well as rhyt ...

for $3.65 million. MacDonald switched from the

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 ...

format (as "Mix 1180") to ABC Radio's "

Timeless Timeless (or atemporal) or timelessness (or atemporality) may refer to: * Agelessness, the condition of being unaffected by the passage of time * Akal (Sikh term), timelessness in Sikhism * Eternity, timeless existence or infinite duration * Im ...

" (formerly known as "Stardust") Middle of the Road/

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 w ...

/Adult Standards format in October 2006. The Timeless Classics format had previously aired on co-owned "Unforgettable 1320"

WILS WILS (1320 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station in Lansing, Michigan. WILS is owned by MacDonald Broadcasting and features a local news department and a mixture of local and national talk personalities. WILS is powered at 25,000 watts ...

and was moved to WXLA to make room for a new talk format on WILS. In 2010, with the demise of Citadel Media's Timeless format, WXLA flipped to Dial Global's "

America's Best Music America's Best Music is the on-air branding of a soft oldies and adult standards 24-hour radio network, formerly known as AM Only. The service is syndicated by Westwood One, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media. It was one of the original Transta ...

" format, which features many of the same songs that Timeless played but also incorporated more traditional adult standards material and pre-1960s hits. (America's Best Music has since evolved to mostly Soft

with a few adult standards songs in the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sev ...

.) Despite the fact that the actual "Timeless Favorites" format is no more, WXLA continues to use the phrase "Timeless Favorites" in its imaging. On August 11, 2020, WXLA changed their format from adult standards to soft adult contemporary, branded as "Easy 93.3" (simulcast on FM translator W227DO 93.3 FM Lansing).WXLA Goes easy in Lansing
Radioinsight - August 17, 2020

References

External links

* * {{Daytime-only radio stations in Michigan Soft adult contemporary radio stations in the United States XLA Radio stations established in 1982 XLA 1982 establishments in Michigan