| City of license | Muncie, Indiana |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Muncie-Marion |
| Branding | Greatest Hits of All Time |
| Frequency | 104.9 MHz |
| Format | Oldies |
| ERP | 6,000 watts |
| HAAT | 100 meters |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 1723 |
| Callsign meaning | "Werk (as in Work) Radio" |
| Former callsigns | WWHC (1964-1985) WOKZ (1985-1991) WERK-FM (1991-1999) |
| Owner | Backyard Broadcasting Indiana Licensee, LLC |
| Website | werkradio.com |
WERK (104.9 FM, licensed to Muncie, Indiana) is a commercial FM station broadcasting an Oldies format.The station serves the Muncie-Marion area. The former WURK (now WIKL licensed to Elwood, Indiana) was a simulcast of WERK until January of 2010. The station is currently owned by Backyard Broadcasting Indiana Licensee, LLC.[1]
The station also carries a local morning show, Brownie in the Morning as well as syndicated programming The Mike Harvey Show with Mike Harvey and The 70's with Steve Goddard.
Contents |
The station went on the air as WBMP in 1964 becoming WEWZ on 1985-11-08. on 1992-07-03, the station changed its call sign to WIVM, on 1994-02-15 to WLHN, on 1999-06-16 to WURK,[2] WURK was sold to EMF Broadcasting as a K-LOVE station in the fall of 2009 which is now WIKL.
WERK first signed-on in 1965 with a Top Forty format as an AM daytime station at 990 kHz and was owned by Robert Poorman's company/licensee The Muncie Broadcasting Corporation. Its original studios, offices, transmitter and six directional transmitting towers were located south of Muncie on State Road 3. Poorman's son William was best known as air personality Bill "Super" Shirk up until 1973 when he purchased WXLW in Indianapolis and later gained local notriety as an aspiring daredevil. Shirk's powerful vocal delivery was also heard in the form of station IDs and liners for other stations in Indiana and Ohio as well...and was the voice of radio ads for the now defunct International Hot Rod Association and its local sanctioned track Mid America Dragway.(now NHRA-sanctioned Muncie Dragway.) Although only 250 watts daytime (to protect the 50,000 watt nighttime skywave signal of CBW (AM) (aka: CBC Radio Manitoba) in Winnipeg and WNOX (now WNML) in Knoxville, Tennessee, WERK's high energy on-air production values,programming,promotions and jingles produced by PAMS and Jam Creative Productions gave the station a more professional on-air image likened to that of its respectiveTop 40 counterparts WNDE, WMEE, WLS (AM), WCFL, CKLW and WABC and was the top rated station in Muncie giving heavy competition to WLBC-FM and its Drake-Chenault automated contemporary hit format "Solid Gold."
WERK (nicknamed: "Werk Radio" and "990 Werk") for many years was the launching pad for many area radio personalites...many of which attended Ball State University that included Johnathan Apple (later the host of his own sydnicated program "Oldies Coast To Coast") Dan Collins (later of WMEE),"Marvelous Mark" McClure (later of WNDE), Paul Mendenhall (later of WIBC), John Irwin (later of WOWO), Randy Lawson (later of WNDE, Indianapolis, Armed Forces Radio Panama and Turkey, and currently Lawson Productions and Shine 99 Operations Director; and, Chad Hunt (later of WMEE) among countless others who became known as "The Men At Werk." Irwin also worked in news as did Lee Kelso (later of WKJG-TV, now WISE-TV), Brad Byrd and Nila Wells.
WERK was the first commercial station in East Central Indiana with a Top 40 format and for many years competed with the former WHUT 1470 in Anderson (now WGNR (AM)),the former WGOM 860 in Marion (which since has reverted back to the original WMRI callsign) and with WHON 930 in Richmond.
The FM station originally went on the air in 1985, taking its 104.9 frequency from WWHC located in Hartford City. WWHC's frequency was simultaneously swapped to 93.5 and call letters changed to WWWO. On 1991-11-12, WOKZ changed its call sign to the 6-letter WERK-FM. Then on 1999-06-16 modified to the current 4-letter callsign of WERK,[3]
In the mid-1980s to the 1990s, the station was a Contemporary Christian music station and went by Christian Radio at WERK (pun).
According to Indiana posts in October 2009 through January of 2010,at www.radio-info.com. WURK was sold to EMF Broadcasting in the fall of that year. The WIKL calls were previously used as an affiliate of EMF-owned Air 1 operating at 90.5 mHz. That station is now WQRA which retains its Air 1 affiliation. The former WURK (now WIKL) went silent on January 1, 2010 and returned to the air as a K-LOVE station on January 5, 2010.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||