| City of license | Reed City, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | [1] |
| Branding | Sunny 97.3 |
| Slogan | We Play Your Oldies |
| Frequency | 97.3 MHz |
| First air date | October 1, 1981 (as WDEE-AM), then August 1997 as WDEE-FM |
| Format | Oldies |
| ERP | 2,850 watts |
| HAAT | 146 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 63424 |
| Owner | Beilfuss Broadcasting |
| Website | sunny973.com |
WDEE-FM (97.3 FM, "Sunny 97.3") is a radio station licensed to Reed City, Michigan, with studios in Big Rapids. The station plays oldies of the 1950s through the 1980s.
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WDEE originally began as an AM station broadcasting on 1500 kHz, first going on the air in 1981, and under the ownership of David A. Carmine, a well-known country music radio personality from Detroit known by his on-air name of Dave Carr. Carmine had moved his family to nearby Harrison, Michigan just six years before to put his first station on the air. WDEE first broadcast with its own independent staff and programming originating from downtown Reed City at 410 W. Upton Avenue. By the end of the decade, WDEE was reduced to a simulcast outlet of WKKM in Harrison before finally being silenced in October 1992.
Prior to this version of WDEE, the WDEE call sign was on a well known 50,000 watt AM station in Detroit, Michigan, on the same frequency of 1500 kHz (now known as WLQV). WDEE in Detroit was one of the first radio stations to program a country music format using top 40 methods and was very popular. Like the original WDEE, Reed City's WDEE was a country station.
WDEE was then sold to Steven V. Beilfuss. Beilfuss put the station back on the air in 1994 with an Oldies format.
Originally a weak daytime-only AM signal of 250 watts, ownership then successfully applied for an FM license at frequency 97.3, which made its debut as WDEE-FM after three years as a full simulcast of its AM sister-station. At that time, the station was known as "Classic Hits 97.3."
Eventually, programming was separated between the two stations, with a classic country format on WDEE-AM. After ownership failed to renew WDEE-AM's license,[1] WDEE-FM was left as the only license owned by Beilfuss Broadcasting and continues to broadcast today.
Relatively recently, WDEE-FM has re-located its studios from Reed City into downtown Big Rapids, outside of their community of license designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[2]
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