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WLMI 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 ...
licensed to
Grand Ledge, Michigan Grand Ledge is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city lies mostly within Eaton County, though a small portion extends into Clinton County to the north. The city sits above the Grand River 12.7 miles (20.4 kilometers) west of downtown La ...
, serving
Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...
. Owned by
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 ...
, it broadcasts a
classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...
format branded as ''Cruisin 92.9''.


History

What is now WLMI began life as WCER-FM in
Charlotte, Michigan Charlotte ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,074. It is the county seat of Eaton County. Charlotte is in the central portion of the county, on the boundary between Eaton Township and C ...
, in 1963. The station was co-owned with WCER (1390 AM, now Christian-formatted
WLCM WLCM (1390 AM) is a commercial Christian radio station located in Charlotte, Michigan. WLCM operates from two locations. During the day it broadcasts with 5,000 watts from Charlotte. Beginning on December 29, 2008, WLCM began operating with it ...
). On July 1, 1979, WCER-FM changed its calls to WMMQ, and on September 1 of that year, WMMQ separated programming from its AM sister and aired an
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 ...
/sports format as ''Q92''. By the mid-1980s, WMMQ was struggling in the ratings and losing to its Lansing-based A/C competitors, and the station's owners quietly prepared a format change. On April 15, 1985, WMMQ changed to a then brand-new format called
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 ...
, making it one of the first FM stations in the United States with such a format. The station was consulted by Fred Jacobs, revered as the "father" of the Classic Rock format, and quickly became one of the most popular stations in mid-Michigan, and Jacobs' first Classic Rock success story. After WMMQ moved to 94.9 FM on June 1, 1997, 92.7 became WVIC (94.9 was, for many years, WVIC-FM) and broadcast intermittently for the next several years. When it was on the air, WVIC aired fully automated
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
with no announcers and oddly placed legal station IDs, and with no commercials except for public-service announcements. Oddly, the station actually did show up in the Lansing Arbitron ratings during this time. From 2001 to 2005, the station was WQTX, airing sports talk as "The Ticket." Shows such as "The Sports Page" with Jack Ebling and Tom Crawford (now at crosstown WILS), "The Sports Inferno" with Mike Valenti (now at WXYT/Detroit), and "Mad Dog & Company" with David "The Mad Dog" DeMarco and longtime producer Brock Palmbos (now at crosstown WVFN) helped to push "The Ticket" ahead of crosstown rival, WVFN, in the ratings. In October 2005, WQTX flipped 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 ...
, adopting
Jones Radio Networks Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such ...
' smooth jazz format, and changed call letters to WJZL; the Sports Talk format continued on former simulcast partner WTXQ. In April 2006, 92.1 FM abandoned the Sports Talk format for good as it flipped to
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 ...
, taking the WQTX calls formerly used on 92.7. WJZL eventually shifted its frequency to 92.9. Following the demise of Jones' Smooth Jazz network in September 2008, WJZL switched over to
Broadcast Architecture Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...
's "Smooth Jazz Network" programming. The station operated for many months on 92.9 at reduced power until November 16, 2007, when it was able to broadcast at 5,400 watts. Until the station went to full power, its weak signal was prone to severe fading and co-channel interference from
WJZQ WJZQ 92.9 Cadillac/Traverse City is a 100,000-watt radio station broadcasting a Top 40 (CHR) format as ''Z93''. It is owned by Ross Biederman's Midwestern Broadcasting, who also owns WTCM-AM/ FM and WCCW- AM/ FM, all in Traverse City, MI. ...
-FM in
Cadillac, Michigan Cadillac ( ) is a city in and county seat of Wexford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census, which ranks it the third most-populated city in the Northern Michigan region after Traverse City and Alp ...
, even into
Clinton County Clinton County may refer to: *Counties named for George Clinton, first and third Governor of New York, and later the fourth Vice President of the United States: **Clinton County, New York ** Clinton County, Ohio *Counties named for DeWitt Clinton, ...
, which is located just north of Lansing. WJZL now has a much stronger signal in the immediate Lansing area and can be heard as far as
Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...
in the south,
Howell Howell may refer to: Places In the United Kingdom *Howell, Lincolnshire, England In the United States *Howell, Georgia * Howell, Evansville, a neighborhood of Evansville, Indiana *Howell, Michigan * Howell, Missouri *Howell, Utah * Howell C ...
in the east, and
Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
in the west. The station, along with
WJXQ WJXQ (106.1 FM, "Q106") is a commercial radio station licensed to Charlotte, Michigan, and serving the Lansing radio market. WJXQ is owned by Midwest Communications and airs an active rock radio format. Studios and offices are located on Cedar ...
, WVIC, and WQTX, was sold from Rubber City Radio 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 May 2010. The station changed its call letters to WLMI in October 2010; after playing Christmas music for the holiday season, the station flipped to a locally-programmed
classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...
format on December 27, picking up the format from
WQTX WQTX (92.1 FM, "Stacks 92.1) is a radio station broadcasting a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary format to the Lansing, Michigan radio market. Licensed to St. Johns, Michigan, it first began broadcasting in 1972, and has been through a number of dif ...
's impending switch to country. On April 25, 2017, Midwest Communications announced that WLMI would switch to CHR the next day as ''i92.9''. On July 31, 2020, WLMI began running liners promoting that a "revolution" would begin at noon on that day. At that time, after playing " Bang!" by
AJR AJR may refer to: * AJR (motorcycle), Scotland * AJR (band), a pop band from New York City, United States *Abdominojugular test, to measure venous pressure * Academy for Jewish Religion (New York) * ''American Journal of Roentgenology'' * ''Americ ...
, the station flipped to classic hits as "Cruisin' 92.9". The first song on Cruisin' was "
Revolution In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
" by
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
.Format Change CHR WLMI Lansing Michigan I92.9fm Becomes Cruisin 92.9fm- YouTube
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References


External links

* {{Midwest Communications
LMI LMI may refer to: * Lenders mortgage insurance * Low and moderate income; see Transit-oriented development * Logistics Management Institute, a consultancy dedicated to improving the business of government * Liberty Media International, a media-com ...
Radio stations established in 1963 1963 establishments in Michigan Midwest Communications radio stations Classic hits radio stations in the United States