WSRT (FM)
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| WSRT & WSRJ | |
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| City of license | WSRT: Gaylord, Michigan WSRJ: Honor, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | WSRT: [1] WSRJ: [2] |
| Slogan | Soft Rock, Great Talk |
| Frequency | WSRT: 106.7 MHz WSRJ: 105.5 MHz |
| First air date | WSRT: 1972 WSRJ: January, 2002 |
| Format | Adult Contemporary |
| Power | WSRT: 100,000 watts WSRJ: 4,700 watts |
| Class | WSRT: C1 WSRJ: A |
| Callsign meaning | WSRT: Soft Rock, Great Talk WSRJ: Soft Rock |
| Former callsigns | WSRT: WKPK (10/1/84-9/14/05) WWRM-FM (11/15/82-10/1/84) WWRM (1972-1982) WSRJ: WKVK (1/31/02-9/19/05) WAIR (1/4/99-1/31/02) WIAR (5/22/98-1/4/99) |
| Owner | Northern Radio |
| Website | http://www.1067wsrt.com/ |
WSRT (106.7 FM "Soft Rock, Great Talk") is a radio station that broadcasts out of Gaylord, Michigan. The 100,000-watt station is also simulcasted on 105.5 WSRJ Honor/Traverse City and translator 95.3 W237DA Boyne City, Michigan. (Another former translator station in Alpena, Michigan, W272AN 102.3, is no longer on the air.) The station airs an Adult contemporary format, though through most of its operational life it was best-known as a CHR/Top 40-formatted station known as WKPK ("The Peak").
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[edit] History
The station began in 1972 as WWRM "Warm 107", airing primarily beautiful music. The station was the brainchild of John DeGroot and Glen Catt, the founder of the Glen's Market chain. The station's first studio was located on the second floor of the Glen's Market in Gaylord. DeGroot bought Catt out, however, and in 1984 he switched the format and changed the call letters from WWRM to WKPK in an attempt to go head-on with the highly-successful WKHQ. The new station called itself "107 The Peak" (later modified to "106.7 The Peak" to reflect the increasing prevalence of radios with digital readout).
Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, KHQ and The Peak would butt heads in the ratings, mainly due to the two being so close to each other on the dial. By the early 90's, KHQ was the more-adult station while The Peak, with several countdown shows daily and "Peak It Or Plunge It", a voting show, was the hit for the younger crowd. The Peak frequently also played both alternative-rock and rhythmic tracks that few other CHR stations, even in major markets, would touch, such as "Comedown" by Bush and "I Wish" by Skee-Lo, while WKHQ tended to stick to the proven mainstream hits and avoided most rap. One memorable liner from this period stated, "If you stop at '106' [referring to WKHQ], you haven't reached 'The Peak.' The difference is .7."
In 1996, DeGroot retired from broadcasting and sold The Peak to Northern Broadcasting, the North Dakotan owners of AOR-formatted WKLT and what is now Classic Hits The Fox. The ownership change allowed the station, to invest in new equipment, including a new studio. New automation equipment allowed the station to run 24/7 without the need of a night disc jockey, which stood in contrast to the operations of the early 1990s when the station would sign-off at 1 a.m. and return to the air at 5 a.m.
Despite excellent ratings and the battle with 106 KHQ still in swing, the station's Grand Rapids-based management decided in 2000 to make the station Hot AC, dumping most of their rap/hip-hop tracks. In 2004, the station became a full-blown AC with the demise of heritage AC WLDR.
The Peak's changes have no doubt left listeners alienated. Many people still call The Peak "the rap station" even though they haven't played a rap record in years. As a result, their last three Arbitron ratings books have put the station near the bottom of the list at around a 2.3. Still, 2004 was by far WKPK's most profitable year since its creation.
[edit] Crew
The Peak, being in the mid-sized Traverse City-Gaylord-Petoskey radio market, has seen both big market DJs in need of a gig and DJs just starting out. The station's alumni include Brent Carey (went on to WDRQ, and PD of WIOG Saginaw and WTWR Toledo), McConnell "Man @ Large" Adams (went on to WIOG, WDRQ (both in Detroit), KKDA/K-104 (APD/Nights)Dallas Texas, My 103.9 and Wild 96.3 in Ft. Wayne, and KFAT 92.9[3] in Anchorage, Alaksa, Aaron Santini (KKHQ PD in Waterloo, Iowa), WQAL (Cleveland) morning jock Rebecca Wilde, Radio Disney jock Aaron K., Craig Russell, who did 2 tours of duty in the Alpine City, hosted both the Morning Hustle (1993-1995) and the Afternoon Hustle (1999-2004); he is now at sister station WFCX after serving time in Waterloo, IA; Andrew Delancey (now producing news at a Tampa Bay television station, and doing afternoon news for the statewide "Smile FM" contemporary Christian music network), and former WDRQ (Detroit) jock Jake Edwards (now on WDVD). Rob Weaver, who was at the station for over 20 years, is currently the PD of variety hits "Eagle 101.5" (WMJZ) in Gaylord, MI. Middayer Jeremy is now the "J.C." of the "J.C. and Chase" Morning show on KKHQ Q92.3 Waterloo, Iowa.
[edit] Changes
In late Summer 2005, The Peak changed its call letters to WSRT, which stands for "Soft Rock and Talk".
Northern Radio also consolidated their operations, moving the station from its long-time home in a converted Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses to their Traverse City studios. All the local jocks the station has are now based in the Traverse City area.
When the station flipped to AC, they also trimmed their airstaff since mornings and nights/overnights were all satellite-fed by Bob and Sheri and Delilah respectively. In early 2007, the station dropped Bob and Sheri due to poor ratings. The station's current morning show ("Mary in the Morning") is hosted by local businesswoman Mary Rogers, who aims her morning show towards fellow businesswomen.
WSRJ moved from 100.7 to its new frequency of 105.5 in September 2007. This frequency change has fueled speculation that the WSRT/WSRJ simulcast will return to CHR, creating a "KHQ sandwich". Thus far, however, the format remains AC.
In addition, WSRT programming is now heard on W237DA 95.3 FM in Boyne City, serving the Petoskey area. W237DA had formerly been a simulcast of classic hits sister station WFDX 92.5 FM "The Fox FM". This translator originally operated at 95.5, simulcasting The Fox FM, as W238AO and was granted its license in February 2005 after several months on the air. In December 2006, W238AO was granted a construction permit to move down the dial to 95.3 with new call sign W237DA to alleviate some of the interference to modern rock competitor WJZJ ("The Zone"). W237DA was noted on the air at the new frequency in February 2007. In late September, the translator changed its programming source from WFDX to WSRT.
[edit] Spring 2007 ratings book
In October 2007, Arbitron announced that the Spring 2007 ratings for the Traverse City/Petoskey radio market would be reissued after they discovered diaries had been returned from "media affiliated households." In the notice to subscribers of the report, Arbitron stated that "ratings for radio station WSRT could be substantially affected." Later press reports in various radio related trade websites, including AllAccess.com, revealed that two WSRT employees were either asked to resign or were terminated for their involvement in the incident. All Access and Radio and Records later reported a letter, written by one of the terminated WSRT employees, admitting culpability in the incident with a bizarre story about filling our the diaries but not intending to mail them in. (Read those reports at http://www.allaccess.com and http://www.radioandrecords.com.) A new ratings report was issued by Arbitron on Oct. 22nd. The new report has not been made public. [1]
[edit] Sources
- ^ http://www.allaccess.com - registration required and http://www.radioandrecords.com Some aspects of this incident were reported on a public message board http://www.mibuzzboard.com, but those posts are unmoderated for accuracy.
[edit] External links
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