WRCL (93.7 FM) is a commercial broadcast radio station serving the mid

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

area (

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 ...

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

and Bay City). It plays Rhythmic Contemporary Hits on the FM dial at 93.7 MHz, naming itself ''Club 93-7''. The transmitter is in Tuscola County, but the studios are in Burton, east of Flint. It station is owned by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

. WRCL offers a musical playlist consisting of a recent mix of Hip Hop/ R&B except for contemporary gospel on Sunday mornings. WRCL's core audience includes teens, adults 18-34 (primarily women) and African Americans. The station's ethnic composition is around 50%

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 ...

and 50% White/other (according to

Nielsen Audio Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging ...

History

WRCL signed on with a heavily gold-based

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 broadcasting as WZRZ-FM, airing an automated, commercial-free mix of music from the 1970s and 1980s. After purchasing the station, Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) flipped the station on Tuesday, January 8, 2002 to its current Rhythmic Top 40 format focusing on the Flint market. Regent Communications was known for its successful

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, ...

and

formats. WRCL was its first Rhythmic Top 40. The station was intended to be a niche format to eat away at the listenership of

Cumulus Cumulus clouds are clouds which have flat bases and are often described as "puffy", "cotton-like" or "fluffy" in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin ''cumulo-'', meaning ''heap'' or ''pile''. Cumulus clouds are low-level clouds, gener ...

WWCK-FM WWCK-FM (105.5 MHz, "CK105.5") is a radio station in Flint, Michigan, broadcasting a Top 40 (CHR) format. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and has programmed its current format since 1989. Its studios are located south of the Flint city li ...

and

WDZZ WDZZ-FM (92.7 MHz, "Z92.7") is a radio station broadcasting an urban adult contemporary format, licensed to Flint, Michigan, and under ownership of Cumulus Media. Its studios are located south of the Flint city limits and its transmitter is nort ...

and protect the ratings of its Adult Contemporary sister-station

WCRZ WCRZ (107.9 FM, "Cars 108") is a commercial radio station in Flint, Michigan, broadcasting an adult contemporary format and switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. WCRZ is the top-rated heritage station in the market. It ...

. In its first year, the new Club 93-7 playlist was heavy on Top 40 hits, especially upbeat party-type songs not limited to

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded da ...

House A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air cond ...

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 ...

, other

crossover Crossover may refer to: Entertainment Albums and songs * ''Cross Over'' (Dan Peek album) * ''Crossover'' (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles album), 1987 * ''Crossover'' (Intrigue album) * ''Crossover'' (Hitomi Shimatani album) * ''Crossover'' (Yoshino ...

titles and artists. The debut was better than Regent expected, so the station began to broaden its audience by playing less dance- and house-influenced music and more Urban Pop titles such as

Destiny's Child Destiny's Child was an American girl group whose final line-up comprised Beyoncé Knowles, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams. The group began their musical career as Girl's Tyme, formed in 1990 in Houston, Texas. After years of limited ...

Usher Raymond Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American R&B singer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, until moving to Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions befo ...

and

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing Hip hop music, hip hop in Middle America (United Sta ...

. The success of WRCL also served as the blueprint for future Regent Rhythmic Top 40 formats. The company has 6 other Rhythmic Top 40 and

Mainstream Top 40 Pop Airplay (also called Mainstream Top 40, Pop Songs, and Top 40/ CHR) is a 40-song music chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' Magazine that ranks the most popular songs of pop music being played on a panel of Top 40 radio stations in the U ...

stations. Based on the WRCL model are WZPW in

Peoria, Illinois Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Ce ...

and

KHXT KHXT (107.9 FM, "HOT 107.9") is a Rhythmic Top 40 radio station serving the Lafayette area. The Townsquare Media outlet broadcasts with an ERP of 97 kW and is licensed to Erath, Louisiana. Its studios are located on Bertrand Road in La ...

Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette (, ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the most populous city and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, located along the Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's fourth largest incorporated municipality by population and the 234t ...

(WZPW was later traded to

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 8 ...

in 2012 as part of 65-station swap Townsquare made with Cumulus). The other 4 mainstream Top 40 stations from Regent/Townsquare are KKSR in St. Cloud, Minnesota; KNNN in

Redding, California Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border ...

;

WBNQ WBNQ (101.5 FM) is the most powerful FM radio station in McLean County, Illinois, United States, broadcasting on at 50,000 watts of effective radiated power. It has had a contemporary hit radio music format since 1975. History WBNQ first signe ...

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomingto ...

and

WDKS WDKS (106.1 FM) is a Class A radio station licensed to Newburgh, Indiana and serving Evansville, Indiana. They are owned by Townsquare Media, which acquired the station from Clear Channel Communications in 2003. WDKS broadcasts in HD.http://hd ...

Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city i ...

(the latter having flirted with Rhythmic from August 2007 to March 2008). A seventh one, Rhythmic Top 40 KZAP in

Chico, California Chico ( ; Spanish for "little") is the most populous city in Butte County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 census, reflecting an increase from 86,18 ...

, was sold in 2007 and flipped formats after the sale was completed. By 2003, WCRZ remained the top ranked and revenue grossing station in the Flint market. Stiff competition from WDZZ and WWCK both adding more "adult" music in an attempt to capture some of WCRZ's audience share. In response, Regent invested additional resources into WRCL to make a more concerted effort in capturing market share from Cumulus. Ironically, Regent's gain came at the expense of Cumulus. In February 2003, nighttime personality "Clay" from WWCK left the station and joined WRCL in the same capacity. In March 2003, Cumulus-Myrtle Beach personality "Ced Lover" joined WRCL as the afternoon personality. With a leaner WRCL playlist of more Urban Contemporary and Top 40 songs to go after the younger WDZZ and WWCK audiences, both "Clay" and "Ced Lover" beat WDZZ and WWCK in their first overall ratings periods. That year WDZZ dropped all hip-hop and current music from its playlist and shifted to gold-based

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 ...

, which had less competition from WOWE. WDZZ remained ranked #2 in the Flint market while WRCL had surpassed WWCK in the overall ratings. In 2004, WWCK shifted from an

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems ...

back to a mainstream Top 40, but WRCL continued to win in the overall ratings. Head-to-head, WWCK would lose to WRCL the remainder of that year, but beat them in one period of 2005. WRCL again topped WWCK in late 2005. Also in 2005, nighttime personality "Clay" was promoted to morning personality as WRCL debuted "The Morning Roll-Out with Clay." This was the first live morning show for the radio station. The WRCL morning show was previously all-music with only weather and traffic updates.

Sources

Michiguide.com - WRCL History

External links

Club 93-7 official websiteClub 93-7 Myspace
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wrcl RCL-FM Rhythmic contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 2001 Townsquare Media radio stations