WJLB

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WJLB

City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	Metro Detroit
Branding	"FM 98"
Frequency	97.9 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	May 24, 1941
Format	Mainstream Urban
ERP	50,000 watts
HAAT	149 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	59592
Transmitter coordinates	42°24′22″N 83°06′44″W / 42.40611°N 83.11222°W / 42.40611; -83.11222
Callsign meaning	'J'ohn 'L'ord 'B'ooth
Former callsigns	WMZK (?-12/3/80) WBRI (?-12/3/80) WJLB (?-?) WLOU (?-?) W49D (5/9/41-?)
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WDFN, WDTW, WDTW-FM, WKQI, WMXD, WNIC
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	fm98wjlb.com

WJLB station vehicle

WJLB ("FM 98") is a mainstream urban radio station in Detroit, Michigan, that broadcasts on 97.9 MHz.

WJLB, along with sister WMXD, broadcast for 20 years in Detroit's Penobscot Building in the heart of the financial district. Clear Channel moved both stations to a building in Farmington Hills in November 2009.

WJLB's transmitter is located in Highland Park near the intersection of Hamilton Avenue and Midland Street, and transmits its signal from an antenna 489 feet in height with an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts.

"FM 98" can be heard far north as Flint and as far west as Lansing on 1-96, and past Jackson west on Interstate 94. WJLB can be heard farther distances at night, as is typical in radio.

History

The station traces its origins to a testing station which began operations on May 7, 1941, with 1,000 watts of power at 44.9 megahertz frequency. On May 24, it officially began broadcasting as W49D, Michigan's second FM radio station. It was owned by John Lord Booth.

97.9 signs on as WMZK

On September 12, 1945, W49D was assigned a full-powered frequency at 96.5 MHz and renamed WLOU. In June 1948, the station moved up to the 97.9 frequency as WMZK, which was a play on the word music, with a format of automated beautiful music. In later years, WMZK alternated between beautiful music and foreign-language programming for various ethnic groups.

WJLB

In 1980, the WJLB callsign migrated back to the FM dial along with an Contemporary Hit Radio and Urban Contemporary format from the 1400 kHz AM frequency. WJLB-AM, which went on the air as WMBC in 1926 and adopted the WJLB callsign in 1939, had been providing programming geared toward Detroit's black community for nearly four decades.

"FM 98 Strong Songs"

Now, the stereo FM station became "FM 98 WJLB, Detroit's Strongest Songs". WJLB-AM 1400 continued to program to the African-American community in Detroit for nearly a quarter-century afterward as WQBH, and is now WDTK, owned by Salem Communications with a conservative news/talk format. Within a few years, WJLB-FM performed well in the Detroit Arbitron ratings, despite picking up competition from several competitors including WHYT (Power 96), which was mostly dance and Top 40 but in 1992 would flip to "96.3 Jamz" and aired a rhythmic contemporary format, and then in 1996 at the 105.9 frequency, the former jazz-formatted WJZZ, which became WCHB-FM "The Beat" and later WDTJ "105.9 Jamz" (now urban AC-formatted WDMK "105.9 Kiss-FM"). FM98 was famous for its specialty Friday mix shows with "Electrifying Mojo" and its Sunday night segue featuring mostly slow R&B and Motown soul tracks.

In April 1994, Booth American Company merged with Broadcast Alchemy to become Secret Communications. In August, Chancellor Media acquired the station from Secret Communications. In 1997, Chancellor Media and Evergreen, which already owned WKQI "Q95.5" and WMGC later merged to form AMFM, Inc. In November 1999, AMFM, Inc. was purchased by Clear Channel Communications. WJLB and sister station WMXD "Mix 92.3" have been under the Clear Channel banner ever since. Over the last several years, WJLB has shifted to a more younger demo playlist with more Hip Hop and less Urban and Old school and House Music which the station was built on in the 1990s and through 2005.

FM98 WJLB currently ranks at #8 (4.5) in the Detroit market according to the November 2010 PPM Ratings release.

WJLB's HD2 side channel features a Motown oldies format known as "The Sounds of Detroit," which changed from a Classic Hip-Hop format in the fall of 2013.

Sources

Michiguide.com - WJLB History

External links

Query the FCC's FM station database for WJLB

Radio-Locator information on WJLB

Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WJLB

v t e Radio stations in the Detroit, Michigan market (excluding Canadian stations)

By FM frequency	88.1 88.1 88.1 88.1 88.3 88.3 88.3 89.1 89.3 89.3 89.5 89.5 89.5 89.5 90.9 91.5 92.3 92.7 93.1 93.5 93.5/98.3/105.5/106.3/107.1¹ 94.3 94.7 95.5 96.3 97.1 97.5 97.9 98.7 99.5 99.9 100.3 101.1 101.9 102.7 103.5 104.3 105.1 105.9 106.7 107.5

By AM frequency	560 680/690 760 910 950 1030 1090 1130 1200 1270 1310 1340 1400 1440 1460 1500 1590

NOAA Weather Radio frequencies	162.425 162.450 162.550

Digital radio	560 950 1130 1200 1270 1340 92.3-2 93.1-1 93.1-2 94.7-1 94.7-2 95.5-1 95.5-2 96.3-1 96.3-2 97.1-1 97.1-2 97.1-3 97.9-1 97.9-2 98.3-1 98.7-1 98.7-2 99.5-1 99.5-2 99.5-3 100.3-1 100.3-2 101.1-1 101.1-2 102.7-1 103.5-1 103.5-2 103.5-3 104.3-1 104.3-2 104.3-3 105.1-1 105.1-2 105.9-1 105.9-2 106.7-1 106.7-2 107.5-1

By callsign	KEC63 KKJA W208BB W224CC W232CA W252BX W260CB W288BK W292DK W296CG WAHS WBFH WBLD WCAR WCHB WCSX WDET-FM WDFN WDMK WDRJ WDRQ WDTE WDTK WDTP WDTW WDTW-FM WDVD WDZH WEXL WFDF WGPR WHFR WHMI-FM WHPR-FM WJLB WJR WKQI WLQV WMGC-FM WMUZ WMXD WNIC WNZK WOMC WOVI WPHS WPON WPZR WRCJ-FM WRDT WRIF WSMF WSDP WSHJ WUFL WVMV WWJ WXOU WXYT WXYT-FM WYCD WYDM

Defunct	WBRB 1430

Michigan radio markets Battle Creek Detroit Flint Grand Rapids Kalamazoo Lansing-East Lansing Muskegon Traverse City-Petoskey Other Michigan radio regions Alpena Ann Arbor Benton Harbor-St. Joseph Houghton The Irish Hills Iron Mountain Jackson Marquette Saginaw-Bay City-Midland Sault Ste. Marie The Thumb Area See also List of radio stations in Michigan Radio stations in Southwestern Ontario Radio stations in Toledo, Ohio ¹ The Detroit K-Love transmitters (such as W296CG) are fed by WMXD-HD2, as stated on their on-air identifications

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