WSWT (106.9 FM, branded as "Mix 106.9") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 broadcasting, ...

, switching to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

for much of November and December. It is licensed to

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

, and is owned by Midwest Communications, Inc. The

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...

s and offices are on Fulton Street in Peoria. WSWT has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

(ERP) of 50,000

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 Wa ...

s, the current maximum for Illinois radio stations. The

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

is on Grosenbach Road in

Washington, Illinois Washington is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. Washington is on U.S. Route 24 and Illinois Route 8, northeast of East Peoria. The population was 15,134 at the 2010 census, a 39.6 percent increase over 2000. It is a suburb of ...

History

The station

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air in 1964 as WIRL-FM. It was the FM counterpart to

WIRL WIRL (1290 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a conservative talk format. Licensed to Peoria, Illinois, United States, the station serves the Peoria area and broadcasts in AM stereo. The station is currently owned by Midwest Communication ...

1290 AM. It has since changed

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

s to WIVC, WUHN and then to the current WSWT. For many years, it aired a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format, calling itself "W-Sweet" to go along with its call letters. The station played quarter hour sweeps of soft, instrumental

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of popular songs. Walter Thurman was a longtime announcer at the station. Beginning in the 1980s the station gradually evolved into a

soft 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, quiet sto ...

sound and then to the more upbeat adult contemporary format that is the format today. On December 22, 2014, WSWT announced it would rebrand from "Today's Lite Rock 107" to "Mix 106.9" after

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

as part of its "New Year, New Name" campaign. That returned the heritage brand to the market for the first time since September 2007, when WXMP 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 ...

WHPI WHPI (96.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Farmington, Illinois, and serving the Peoria metropolitan area. The station broadcasts a Top 40 - CHR radio format, simulcast with WPIA 98.5 FM. Both stations are owned and operated ...

and rebranded as "Hippie Radio". This is the fourth incarnation for the "Mix" branding in Peoria: it originated as WMXP in 1994 on 93.3, after a seven-year absence, it resurfaced on 105.7 in 2003, and then moved to 101.1 in 2006 before the callsign and format were dropped the following year. The rebrand officially took place on the 26th. Shortly after the rebrand, the station dropped all-80s music from its weekend schedule, and shifted its non-Christmas playlist to Hot AC. On February 4, 2019, Alpha Media announced that it was selling its Peoria cluster 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 ...

for $21.6 million. The sale closed on April 30, 2019. On December 26, 2019, WSWT changed its slogan to "Your Life. Your Music.", and also adopted a new

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

Previous logos

References

External links

*
"The Peoria Plague" on Archive.org — a radio drama that aired on the station in the early 1970s
SWT Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1965 Midwest Communications radio stations {{Illinois-radio-station-stub