WSNX-FM

WSNX-FM is a radio station located in Clear Channel Communications' Grand Rapids, Michigan headquarters. The station has a rhythmic-leaning Top 40 (CHR) format. The 104.5 dial position is licensed to Muskegon, in Western Michigan with the station serving the Grand Rapids area, and is one of two contemporary hit radio stations in Grand Rapids, the other being WHTS.

History

What is now 104.5 WSNX began life as Beautiful Music station WQWQ (the "Q" stood for "Quality") in 1971. Goodrich Radio Marketing purchased the frequency in 1984 and quickly changed the Beautiful Music format to Top 40 and used the moniker "Sunny-FM" on-air. (The WQWQ calls and easy-listening format moved to 101.7 FM and continued there until the station became WMRR.) Goodrich Radio located the studios at 875 E. Summit in Norton Shores, just outside Muskegon. The antenna was upgraded to get a city-grade signal into Grand Rapids.

WSNX moved to Grand Rapids (at 2610 28th Street) in 1996, where it was occupying the same offices of sister station (107.3) WODJ Oldies format and (1140) WKWM Urban AC. It would also drop the "Sunny FM" moniker and simply go by 104.5 WSNX. It was around this time that the CHR formatted station added an apparent hip-hop or urban feel musically, as well as adding local music.

During the late 1980s, WSNX was one of several competing CHR stations in the area, with the dominant "Grand Rapids #1 Hit Music Station" 98 WGRD and 94.5 WKLQ. By the mid-1990s, WGRD had switched to alternative rock and WKLQ had long since switched to album-oriented rock, and the CHR battle was between WSNX and Federated Media's adult-leaning "Mix 96" WAKX at 96.1. In 1998, Clear Channel purchased 96.1 from Federated Media and flipped it to "Continuous Hit Music I-96" as WVTI. Goodrich aimed WSNX directly at I-96, competing with them on the air and through promotions. The station identified itself as "Grand Rapids' Hottest Music 104.5 WSNX".

WSNX moved again to downtown Grand Rapids after it was purchased by Clear Channel Radio in 1999, and took the "Continuous Hit Music" moniker and a slightly more mainstream, though still rhythmic-leaning, CHR format, as I-96 was retooled as a Hot AC to compete with 95.7 W-Lite. In 2006, the station dropped the "Continuous Hit Music" slogan, and the point from "104.5" and the station simply branded itself as 104-5 WSNX, virtually the same time when contemporary hit radio rival WHTS was launched. In 2011, the station has started using the "West Michigan's Party Station" slogan, but this is not used on-air and only used on the station's website.

WSNX was the first radio station in both the Grand Rapids and Muskegon markets to broadcast in HD Radio, as it does today. Its HD2 subchannel originally carried the Dance Top 40 Club Phusion format but switched to urban in late 2009. The HD2 is a rebroadcast of Clear Channel's iHeartRadio hip-hop/R&B format known as "The Beat."

False Confessions controversy

During February 2008, WSNX's program "Puddin' Playhouse" gave away tickets to a Kanye West concert as presents for Valentine's Day through a contest called "False Confessions". In the contest, callers had to make prank calls to family members and make fake confessions to them (for example, one girl had to admit to her grandmother that she was a lesbian). If the caller could get the family member to say "I still love you", the caller would receive the tickets.

One caller was told she would win the tickets if she could (falsely) tell her husband that he was not actually the father of their 9-year-old son. During the call, the husband let slip that he had been having an affair with the caller's sister. This caused a large amount of outrage among the show's viewers and at least one person reportedly threatened to sue the radio station over it. However, no lawsuit took place and the Puddin' Playhouse program continued until its host Justin Barclay left the station in December 2009 for WDZH "AMP Radio" in Detroit.

Sources

• Michiguide.com - WSNX-FM History
• The EOB Show Myspace Page
• The Freakshow Myspace Page

External links

• WSNX official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WSNX
• Radio-Locator information on WSNX
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WSNX