WDVD

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WDVD

City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	96.3 WDVD
Slogan	Today's Best Hits Without the Rap
First air date	June 1, 1948
Frequency	96.3 MHz
Format	Hot Adult Contemporary
Power	20,000 watts
ERP	20 kW
Class	B
Former callsigns	WPLT (1997-2001) WHYT (1982-1997) WJR-FM (1948-1982)
Owner	ABC Radio, being acquired by Citadel Broadcasting
Website	http://www.963wdvd.com/

WDVD is a hot adult contemporary radio station in Detroit, Michigan, broadcasting at 96.3 MHz on the FM dial. WDVD's studios and offices are located in the Fisher Building near downtown Detroit. WDVD's transmitter is located in Oakland County in Royal Oak Township at 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue. WDVD broadcasts with an Effective Radiated Power of 20,000 watts from an antenna that is 787 feet in height. WDVD transmits its signal from the same tower that five other Detroit FM radio stations broadcast from. WDVD is currently owned and operated by ABC Radio, however a sale to Citadel Broadcasting is pending.

1 History
2 On-Air Lineup
3 Sources
4 External Links

[edit] History

[edit] WJR-FM

On June 1, 1948, the station signed on as WJR-FM, simulcasting WJR-AM. Around 1970 the station adopted the "Solid Gold" automated format from Drake-Chenault, which played oldies from the 50's and early 60's with a sprinkling of current hits. For a time, WJR-FM used the on-air moniker "California Radio" with this format. By 1973, however, the station had reverted back to the beautiful music format, with which it was quite successful for a time.

[edit] Hot Hits WHYT

In August 1982, WJR-FM changed its call letters to WHYT, reportedly in a move to help the station distinguish itself better from WJR-AM. Initial word was that the format would remain beautiful music and that the "HYT" stood for "height," as in "the height of beautiful music," but this turned out to be a smokescreen. "HYT" actually stood for "Hit," and WJR-FM was readying a format change to Top 40. On September 15, 1982, at 5 p.m., WHYT signed off the beautiful music for good with "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra, followed by the first song of the new format, "You Dropped a Bomb On Me" by The Gap Band.

WHYT initially used consultant Mike Joseph's "Hot Hits" format, a fast-moving, jingle-intensive format that featured a tight rotation of 50 current hits (no recurrents or oldies). The station's on-air name was "96 NOW" (coincidentally, the same slogan used by Chicago's WBBM-FM, a "Hot Hits" station on the same 96.3 frequency). "96 NOW" made the top 10 in its first ratings book in the fall of 1982. By the end of 1983, though, the ratings had cooled off somewhat, and WHYT had dropped the Mike Joseph formatics (though they continued to use the slogan "Hot Hits" on the air through 1986) and allowed non-current and even gold songs (such as Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff," from 1979) to creep into the music mix. Nevertheless, WHYT continued to be consistently a top ten-rated station through much of the rest of the decade.

WHYT's major competitor through most of the '80s was WCZY-FM 95.5 (Z95.5), and then WDFX-FM 99.5 (The Fox) in the early '90s (CKLW-AM 800, which had been Detroit's leading pop station for years, dropped its contemporary hit format for Music of Your Life in 1984). Legendary personality Joey Reynolds, last heard from in Detroit radio in 1966 at WXYZ-AM 1270, hosted WHYT's morning show for a time in 1984. Through the '80s the station adopted several names such as "96 Hit FM", "Power 96", and "96.3 FM". In 1992, the station morphed into a "rhythmic CHR," focusing on hip-hop and R&B with the biggest danceable crossover pop hits, and adopted the moniker "96.3 Jamz." Ratings with the "Churban" approach were decent (especially with teens and young adults), especially after WDFX went under at the end of 1992 due to bankruptcy (changing into the ill-fated WOWF "Wow-FM" and later country WYCD), but advertising revenue was not.

[edit] The Planet

With the emergence of alternative rock in 1994 the station called itself "The Planet 96.3" and began adding alternative rock to its playlist. For a time, this created an interesting music mix in which Madonna, 2 Unlimited, Real McCoy and Ace of Base were played alongside Nirvana, Soundgarden and the Cranberries. The station had evolved completely to alternative by 1995. After completing a deal with a college radio station in Plattsburgh, New York, the station's calls were switched to WPLT to match the "Planet" moniker in 1997. As "Planet 96.3," the station played a number of local Detroit acts that never quite achieved national stardom, such as the Suicide Machines and Charm Farm, as well as some very non-mainstream music like "Billy Ray" by Opposite Day (a #1 request on the station for a time in 1995) and "Near The Black Forest" by Vanessa Daou. With the call letter change to WPLT, however, the station tweaked its format to more of a Modern Adult Contemporary sound to distinguish it more from competing alternative-rock station CIMX (and, later in 1997, WXDG).

Over the Labor Day weekend of 1999, the station stunted by playing "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M., and then debuted "Alternative Classics", an attempt to convert the station's popular '80s "Flashback" shows into a full-time format by combining '80s new wave and punk with more recent (but non-current) '90s rock. Artists featured included U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Go-Go's, Peter Gabriel, Erasure, and Echo & The Bunnymen. The change failed to raise ratings, and within a year WPLT had begun to re-add current music into its rotation (such as "Smooth" by Santana and Rob Thomas) in the guise of "Future Alternative Classics." In response to continued low ratings the station changed its calls to WDVD in 2001, with its music gradually shifting in a more mainstream Hot Adult Contemporary direction.

[edit] WDVD Today

Today the station's playlist still has a heavy alternative rock base, although WDVD also plays Aerosmith and pop artists such as Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera. In 2006 the station attempted to freshen its presentation by dumping many of the pre-1990s titles from its playlist, adding jingles, and re-positioning itself as Today's Best Hits Without the Rap (referring to heavily rhythmic CHR WKQI). In 2007, the station added even more variety with newer pop songs similar to those played on WKQI, including "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado, "The Sweet Escape" by Gwen Stefani, and "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake, though the only hip-hop artists the station plays are those who cross over to the Hot AC charts, such as OutKast and Gnarls Barkley.

In 2006, the station announced that, true to their call letters, they were experimenting with advanced technology that would transmit video to radios, but were not yet ready to put it into production use.

The WHYT calls are now used at a contemporary Christian music station near Lapeer, Michigan; the WPLT calls have been picked up by a country station in Spooner, Wisconsin.

[edit] On-Air Lineup

As of March 2007:

On-air personality	Time
Scott "Fig" Figula	12 AM — 5:30 AM
The 96.3 WDVD Morning Show Blaine & Lisa with Allyson	5:30 AM — 10 AM
Jake Edwards	10 AM — 3 PM
Jesse Addy	3 PM - 7 PM
Scott Vertical	7 PM - 12 AM (M-Th) 7 PM - 9 PM (F)
Allyson at Boogie Fever	9 PM - 1 AM (F)
Rob Kelley	7 PM - 12 AM (Sat)