WBTI

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For the television station in Cincinnati, Ohio that formerly used the WBTI callsign, see WSTR-TV.

WBTI

City of license	Lexington, Michigan
Broadcast area	Lexington, Sarnia, Port Huron
Branding	96.9 WBTI
Slogan	Today's Hit Music; Ten Songs in a Row
Frequency	96.9 MHz
First air date	1991
Format	Adult Top 40
ERP	3,000 watts
HAAT	100 meters
Class	A
Facility ID	25989
Former callsigns	WHYT (8/22/97-11/17/97) WBTI (6/15/91-8/22/97) WYDG (2/1/91-6/15/91)
Owner	Radio First
Website	wbti.net

WBTI (96.9 FM) is an Adult Top 40 radio station in Lexington, Michigan. It broadcasts on 96.9 MHz with 3,000 watts and is owned by Radio First. This is the third owner in the station's 15-year history.

WBTI's transmitter is located south of Lexington off Gardener Line Road in Sanilac County.

History

WBTI first went on the air in July 1991, owned by Timothy D. Martz of Martz Communications. Martz was a broadcaster with ambitions of purchasing or building a series of American radio stations with the intent of providing quality radio that would also be of value to Canadian citizens. The station boasted a CHR format and the moniker "B96.9, The Killer Bee". Though licensed to Lexington, almost a half hour north of Port Huron, the station maintained its studios and offices in downtown Port Huron, where it would compete with WPHM, WHLS, WSAQ, WIFN, and WGRT.

However, Martz's ownership of the station would be brief, as the station was sold to Hanson Communications, licensee of WPHM, for $325,000 the following year. Satisfied with the Top 40 format already on the air, Hanson Communications opted to leave it alone at first, but the station shifted in the summer of 2002 to a hot adult contemporary format, which it maintained until recently.

Station management has been clever in recent years with their on-air legal ID's, doing their best to keep "WBTI-FM Lexington" to the bare minimum (once per hour per FCC regulations) and using "WBTI Port Huron" several times per hour.

In keeping with an ongoing trend among Hot AC radio stations across the United States, WBTI has recently dropped most '80s and '90s music from rotation and transitioned to an Adult Top 40 sound, reimaging from The Best of the '80s, '90s and Today to Today's Hit Music. This is a return to the station's roots, as it featured such a format throughout the 1990s and until 2002. The change helps differentiate the station more distinctly from rival mainstream AC stations WGRT, CFGX-FM and WTGV-FM.

Radio personalities Bob O'Dell and J.D. loved the fishbowl aspect of the building. The window allowed for traffic and passers by to interact with the talent.

Sources

Michiguide.com - WBTI History

External links

Query the FCC's FM station database for WBTI

Radio-Locator information on WBTI

Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WBTI

v t e Radio stations in the Thumb area

By FM frequency	88.1 88.3 89.1 89.3 90.7 91.3 91.9 92.1 92.5 96.9 97.7 102.1 102.3 103.1 103.7 105.5 107.1

By AM frequency	660 1070 1230 1340 1360 1380 1450 1530 1590

By callsign	CHOK W288BT WBGV WBTI WCZE WDTR WGRT WHLS WHLX WHYT WIDL WKYO WLCO WLEW WLEW-FM WMIC WMPC WNFA WNFR WORW WPHM WQUS WSAQ WSGR-FM WSMB WTGV-FM

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Coordinates: 43°12′32″N 82°32′10″W / 43.209°N 82.536°W / 43.209; -82.536

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