WDVD
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| WDVD | |
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| City of license | Detroit, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | [1] |
| Branding | 96-3 WDVD |
| Slogan | Today's Best Hits Without the Rap |
| Frequency | 96.3 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 96.3 HD-2: Planet 96.3 Alternative Rock |
| First air date | June 1, 1948 |
| Format | Hot AC |
| Power | 20,000 watts |
| HAAT | 240 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 8631 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Former callsigns | WPLT (6/30/97-3/14/01) WHYT (8/16/82-6/30/97) WJR-FM (6/1/48-8/16/82) |
| Owner | Citadel Broadcasting (Radio License Holding I, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WJR, WDRQ |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 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. 96-3 WDVD is currently owned and operated by Citadel Broadcasting.
WDVD is licensed for HD Radio Operations with its secondary channel known as "Planet 96.3" with an Alternative Classics format, which was used from 1997 to 2001.
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[edit] History
[edit] WJR-FM/California Radio
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 June 1982, Billboard Magazine reported that WJR-FM's owner, Capital Cities Communications, had hired consultant Mike Joseph to implement his widely successful "Hot Hits" format on WJR-FM by the fall of that year, taking note of the success the format was having in Philadelphia (WCAU-FM) and in Chicago (WBBM-FM). In July 1982, WJR-FM applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a call letter change to WHYT. The call letter change was approved late in the summer of 1982 and, oddly, the new calls coexisted with the station's Beautiful Music format for a few weeks. 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.
"Hot Hits," which had already proven an immense success in Philadelphia for WCAU-FM and in Chicago for WBBM-FM, was 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" (the same slogan used by WBBM-FM which operated on the same 96.3 frequency in Chicago). "96 NOW" made the top 10 in its first ratings book in the fall of 1982. The station's ratings soon cooled off, however, and WHYT's CHR format went through several metamorphoses in the next few years, dropping the Mike Joseph formatics (though they continued to use the slogan "Hot Hits" on the air through 1986) and adopting several different on-air monikers, including "96 Hit FM" (1983) and "Hitradio 96" (1984). In 1985 the station retooled itself as "Power 96 FM" and added more dance music and urban contemporary product to its CHR playlist, and listenership increased (perhaps due to urban contemporary powerhouse WDRQ's switch to an adult-contemporary format earlier that year), leading the station to be a regular top 10 ratings finisher through the end of the decade.
For much of the 1980s, WHYT was Detroit's local affiliate for Casey Kasem's (and then Shadoe Stevens') American Top 40. 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", "Hitradio 96", "Power 96", and, by 1989, simply "96.3 FM".
WHYT's major competitors from the mid-1980s through the early 1990s were Z95.5 and 99.5 The Fox, as well as urban-contemporary powerhouse WJLB-FM. The station's peak of popularity came during its days as "Power 96" and then "96.3 FM" from roughly 1986 to 1991, when the station moved its music mix toward rhythmic CHR (while not totally abandoning mainstream pop and rock), frequently racked up top five Arbitron ratings 12+, and was one of the top stations in the 12-24 age demographics (often neck-and-neck with WJLB). Michael J. Foxx was a popular draw in the mornings. In 1991, however, the debut of 89x, as well as Foxx's departure, took substantial market share away from WHYT as teens and young adults flocked to the "cutting edge" modern rock format of 89X.
In 1992, the station delved even farther into rhythmic CHR territory, becoming known as "96.3 Jamz." WHYT eliminated most of the mainstream pop and rock from its playlist and began to focus almost exclusively on hip-hop, R&B and dance hits as well as some dance remixes of mainstream hits. Ratings with the "Churban" approach were decent, especially after WDFX went under at the end of 1992 due to bankruptcy (changing into the ill-fated talk/news station 99-5 WOW-FM and later switching to a country format and becoming WYCD), but advertising revenue was not.
The WHYT calls are now used at a contemporary Christian music station near Lapeer, Michigan.
[edit] The Planet 96.3
With the emergence of alternative rock in 1994 the station dropped most of the hip-hop and R&B from its playlist and replaced it with alternative rock, redubbing itself "The Planet 96.3." For the first several months the station continued to play mainstream dance/pop artists such as Madonna, Real McCoy, and Ace of Base, creating a CHR/Alternative hybrid similar to the then-current sound of WHTZ in New York City. 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 artists such as Opposite Day ("Billy Ray") and 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 on March 14, 2001, with its music gradually shifting in a more mainstream Hot Adult Contemporary direction.
The WPLT calls have been picked up by a country station in Spooner, Wisconsin.
In 2007, WDVD revived "Planet 96.3" and the "Alternative Classics" format as an offering on its secondary HD Radio channel.
[edit] 96-3 WDVD Today
After the transition to Hot AC and the WDVD calls, the station continued to feature a heavy alternative-rock base for several years, while still playing "hair bands" such as Poison and Aerosmith and pop artists like Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera, and while still remaining mired in the lower echelons of the Detroit ratings. In 2006, however, this began to change as WDVD freshened its presentation and began to evolve into more of an Adult Top 40, adding jingles, branding itself with the new slogan Today's Best Hits Without the Rap (and taking shots at longtime rival station WKQI for playing too much hip hop), and adding more pure pop music and light rhythmic material to its playlist, including some artists the station would probably not have previously played, such as Justin Timberlake and Fergie, and more recently, Jordin Sparks, Chris Brown, and Leona Lewis. Generally, though, as per its slogan, the station avoids hip hop music except for those who cross over to the Hot AC charts, such as OutKast and Gnarls Barkley.
WDVD also has pop-rock artists with hit songs not played on Channel 955 record brief promos which are inserted over the introductions to their records, saying, "Here's another hit the Rap Channel doesn't play," or some variant thereof. One song branded in this way was "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles, although WKQI has actually begun playing Bareilles' hit since that promo was recorded.
On June 12, 2007, WDVD was taken over by Citadel Broadcasting. According to the Citadel page [2], Citadel considers WDVD an adult-leaning Top 40 station without rap. After a long time in the ratings doldrums, the station has seen its share of the Detroit market increase recently (see below) as they have added more pop music to their playlist to compete with Channel 9-5-5.
[edit] Airstaff
The current lineup (as of February 2008) is as follows
- Morning Show: The 96.3 WDVD Morning Show - Blaine Fowler & Lisa Jesswein with Allyson
- Mid-Days: Jake Edwards
- Afternoon Drive: Jesse Addy
- Nighttime: Scott Vertical
- Overnights: Jeanmarie
- Weekend's/Fill-in's: Carl Anthony, Brian "FIG" Figula, "Jamie" James Flanagan, Krystle Kline, Ray Prosser and Renee Vitale
[edit] Current Station Rating
96-3 WDVD currently ranks as #12 in the Detroit market according to the Spring 2008 Phase I ratings release.
| Spring 2006 | Summer 2006 | Fall 2006 | Winter 2007 | Spring 2007 | Summer 2007 | Fall 2007 | Winter 2008 | Spring 2008 Phase I |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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(#17) |
(#18) |
(#14) |
(#17) |
(#10) |
(#11) |
(#12) |
(#13) |
(#12) |
According to a preliminary Arbitron report released May 29, 2008
[edit] Logo Gallery
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| WHYT logo (circa 1982) |
WHYT logo (circa 1983) |
WHYT logo (circa 1985) |
WHYT logo (circa 1986) |
WHYT logo (circa 1990) |
WHYT logo (circa 1992) |
WPLT logo (circa 1997) |
WDVD logo (circa 2006) |
[edit] Sources
[edit] External links
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WDVD
- Radio Locator information on WDVD
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WDVD
- WHYT CHR airchecks, 1982-1992
- Steve McVie's Mike Joseph Hot Hits tribute, featuring WHYT "96 Now" airchecks from 1982-83
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