WMQA-FM (95.9 FM, "95.9 The Island") is an American FM

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 radi ...

broadcasting 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 ...

format. Licensed to

Minocqua, Wisconsin Minocqua ( oj, Minwaakwaa) is a town in northwestern Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,388 as of 2017. The census-designated place of Minocqua and the unincorporated community of Rantz are both located in the town. M ...

, the station began broadcasting in 1975. The station features news from FOX Radio Networks and programming from

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1978. The compan ...

. WMQA-FM uses Westwood One's Adult Contemporary format outside of the live and local morning show. With a 22,000-watt signal, the station covers a portion of northwestern Wisconsin and some of the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including the Wisconsin cities of Minocqua, Rhinelander, Lac du Flambeau,

Tomahawk A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America. It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and Eur ...

, and Eagle River.

History

From its sign-on on April 3, 1975 until 1992, the station operated under the calls WWMH (We're Woodruff, Minocqua nd Hazelhurst), with a mixture of MOR and

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

. It would later shift to AOR music only. An AM sister station, 1570 WFBZ (later WMYM and WMQA-AM, now WLKD) was added in August 1978. In 1982, WWMH dropped AOR for Top 40. As a Top 40 station, the station was an affiliate of

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice No ...

's American Top 40 in the mid-1980s. In 1985, the station dropped Top 40 for its current adult contemporary format. The station changed its call letters to the current WMQA-FM in 1992, and the station had a power increase from 5,000 to 25,000 watts, with the station under the moniker "FM 96". As an AC station, the station went by the names ''Soft Rock 96'' and ''Northern Lites 96 WMQA''. On August 29, 2008, at 10 a.m., the station dropped the AC format and "Northern Lites" name to become "Oldies 95.9." The station's competition in the oldies format is WRJO-FM in Eagle River. WRJO (when local and not airing a different Classic Hits/Pop satellite feed from Westwood One) is more 1950s and 1960s oriented and WMQA's Westwood One programming leans more toward 1960s and 1970s (and some early 1980s) with a more upbeat, as well as a personality presentation. On June 14, 2021, WMQA-FM dropped its classic hits format and returned back to its previous adult contemporary format, branded as "95.9 The Island".WMQA-FM Flips To AC As The Island
Radioinsight - June 15, 2021

Previous logo

References

External links

95.9 The IslandMention of the format change to Kool 95.9 and audio of the format flip
* {{coord, 45.822, N, 89.721, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States MQA-FM Radio stations established in 1975 Oneida County, Wisconsin NRG Media radio stations