WUPS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WUPS | |
 |
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| City of license | Houghton Lake, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | [1] |
| Branding | UPS 98.5 |
| Slogan | We Deliver The Hits |
| Frequency | 98.5 MHz |
| First air date | 1961 |
| Format | Classic Hits |
| Power | 100,000 watts |
| Class | C1 |
| Former callsigns | WHZT (5/27/88-6/9/88) WJGS-FM (1961-5/27/88) |
| Owner | Coltrace Communications |
| Website | http://www.wups.com/ |
WUPS is a 100 kW radio station broadcasting at 98.5 in Houghton Lake, Michigan. The station is owned by John Salov and broadcasts a classic hits format.
The station signed on in 1961 to complement its sister station, WHGR 1290 (whose call letters stood for Houghton Lake/Grayling/Roscommon). In the beginning, the station, known as WJGS (for owners Jacob and Garnett Sparks), was 19,000 watts. In the 1960s, a fire destroyed the WJGS/WHGR studios right before Christmas. They ended up broadcasting from a trailer until a new building was built.
Throughout most of the 1960s and through the 1980s, WJGS was automated MOR.
In 1983, Sparks Broadcasting sold the stations to Shea Broadcasting, who sold it to Melling Tool and Die in 1988. WJGS's power was increased to 100,000 watts, flipped to CHR and became WUPS. The station was of course named after the United Parcel Service, for their longtime slogan is "We Deliver the Hits".
With its central location in Houghton Lake, WUPS's signal is heard in most of northern and central Michigan, with a coverage area stretching from Gaylord southward to Alma. For a short time in the early 1990s, the station was simulcasted to the Traverse City, MI area on WMLB 98.1 (now WGFN).
Throughout most of the 1990s, WUPS's format changed several times: adult top 40, hot AC, all-1970s, all-1970s-1980s, classic hits/hot AC hybrid and its current format, 1960s-1980s classic hits.
In 1998, Salov bought out Melling and created a huge controversy in 2001 when he sold WHGR - then satellite-fed standards - to Clear Channel for $250,000, making it their first property in northern Michigan. However, they bought out WHGR for only one reason: to shut it down. They wanted to expand their Grand Rapids, MI station, WOOD-AM 1300 to 25,000 watts, and the only way to do so was to shut down WHGR. The move stunned many people in the Houghton Lake area who had grown up with the station.
Today, WUPS broadcasts from studios on M-18/M-55 in Prudenville, as their old studio was destroyed to make way for a Wal-Mart in Houghton Lake many years ago.
WUPS has been granted a construction permit to change its city of license to Harrison, Michigan with no change in transmitter location or signal. To maintain local radio service to Houghton Lake, country music sister station WTWS (The Twister) will move to Houghton Lake.
