WMAX-FM

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WMAX-FM
City of license	Holland, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	96.1 Max FM
Slogan	Max Means Music
Frequency	96.1 MHz
Format	Hot Adult Contemporary
Power	50,000 watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	Max FM
Former callsigns	WVTI (2/21/97-11/16/05) WAKX (11/21/94-2/21/97) WKEZ (5/8/92-11/21/94) WYXX (9/14/83-5/8/92) WHTC-FM (?-9/14/83)
Owner	Clear Channel
Website	http://www.961maxfm.com/

WMAX-FM are the call letters of a radio station owned by Clear Channel Communications located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, transmitting on a frequency of 96.1 MHz.

Since March 19, 2007, this station is programming an upbeat-style Hot AC format, including some well-known 80's and alternative cuts mixed in with more contemporary music.

[edit] History

The frequency originally belonged to WHTC-FM. When WHTC dropped the FM format in 1983 to focus solely on AM, 96.1 became known as WYXX. During this time, it was an automated CHR station that focused primarily on playing Billboard magazine's Top 100 hits.

When WOOD-FM dropped its easy listening format in 1992, WYXX adopted the format along with the call letters WKEZ.

A few years later, a "Young Country" format was adopted with the call letters WAKX.

The station was later purchased by Clear Channel Communications and the station became WVTI, known as "I-96" (taking its name from the highway Interstate 96 passing through Grand Rapids). WVTI was for a time "Continuous Hit Music, I-96," a CHR with a very tight playlist. Clear Channel took control of rival station WSNX in the late summer of 1999; much of the "I-96" air lineup moved over to WSNX, which shifted from CHR/Rhythmic to CHR/Pop as a result, and "I-96" itself shifted from CHR to Hot AC, which it would remain for the next six years.

On October 18, 2005, the station flipped to a Jack FM clone called "MAX-FM". It gained the call sign of WMAX from another Clear Channel operation in Chattanooga, Tennessee on November 16, 2005. On March 19, 2007, the station retooled itself into a modern-leaning Hot AC presentation, known as "The NEW MAX-FM".

Legally, 96.1 is WMAX-FM, as the WMAX-AM calls are used at a Catholic Christian radio station (not co-owned) at 1440 AM in Bay City, Michigan.

[edit] Sources

• Michiguide.com - WMAX-FM History

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WMAX-FM