WHSB

WHSB
City of license Alpena, Michigan
Broadcast area
Branding 107-7 The Bay
Slogan The Hits of Yesterday and Today; Your Music, Your Station
Frequency 107.7 MHz
First air date 1964
Format Hot Adult Contemporary
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 186 meters
Class C1
Facility ID 15509
Callsign meaning Huron Shore Broadcasters (original owner, 1964)
Affiliations Dial Global
Owner Edwards Communications
Website alpenanow.com

WHSB (107.7 FM, "107-7 The Bay") is a 100,000 watt radio station[1] licensed to Alpena, Michigan broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format. The station, which began broadcasting in 1964, has featured some type of contemporary music format since at least the early 1970s, and is currently the only radio station in northeastern Michigan playing currently charted pop music.

History

In the 1980s, the station went by the names "WhisBee" and "HSB, The Music Station." In the early 1990s, the station adopted the moniker "Bay 108" (a reference to nearby Thunder Bay) and affiliated with "Best Hits, Best Variety", a satellite Hot AC format from ABC Radio. In 1999, WHSB dropped ABC's format in favor of Jones' package and tweaked its identifying moniker from "Bay 108" to the current "107-7 The Bay."

On October 23, 2004, Kerwin Kitzman, a longtime popular WHSB disc jockey, sports play-by-play announcer and sales representative, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 46. A tribute album to Kitzman, Teddy Bear Memories, was recorded at the Spyder Byte recording studio in Alpena,[2] and a memorial fund, the K2 Kids fund, has been set up in his name.

In the fall of 2004 the station was sold to Edwards Communications. Past owners have included Huron Shore Broadcasters (the original owners when the station went on the air in the 1960s), WHSB Inc., Daraka Broadcasting, and Northern Radio Network Corporation (from whom Edwards acquired the station along with sister stations WHAK-AM/FM Rogers City and then-WCLS Oscoda in 2004).

107-7 The Bay currently features local personalities from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and airs Pop Crush with Billy Bush from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Dial Global's Hot AC format the remainder of the time. The station's local personalities include longtime morning host Darrel Kelly, midday host Andy and afternoon drive host Tim Thomas. Special weekend programming on Sundays includes the Hot AC version of American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest. WHSB aired the original version of AT40 with Casey Kasem in years past starting in 1979.

References

  1. ↑ "WHSB FM 107.7 Alpena - Michiguide.com Dials (G)". Michiguide.com. Retrieved 2010-12-04.
  2. ↑ "Spyder Byte Studios, a 24 track digital recording studio". Spyder Byte Studios. Retrieved 2010-12-04.

External links

Coordinates: 45°03′47″N 83°42′58″W / 45.063°N 83.716°W