WLMI

For the former WLMI in Kane, Pennsylvania, see WVTT.

WLMI (92.9 FM) is a radio station in the Lansing, Michigan market, broadcasting a classic hits format.

The station began broadcasting in 1965 as WCER-FM at 92.7 licensed to Charlotte, and is best known as the longtime home of one of the nation's pioneering classic rock radio stations, WMMQ (which now operates at 94.9).

After WMMQ moved to 94.9 FM in 1997, 92.7 became WVIC (94.9 was for many years WVIC-FM) and broadcast intermittently for the next several years. When it was on the air, WVIC aired fully automated classical music with no announcers and oddly placed legal station IDs, and with no commercials except for public-service announcements. Oddly, the station actually did show up in the Lansing Arbitron ratings during this time.

From 2001 to 2005, the station was WQTX, airing sports talk as "The Ticket." Shows such as "The Sports Page" with Jack Ebling and Tom Crawford (now at crosstown WILS), "The Sports Inferno" with Mike Valenti (now at WXYT, Sports Talk radio in Detroit), and "Mad Dog & Company" with David "The Mad Dog" DeMarco and longtime producer Brock Palmbos (now at crosstown WVFN) helped to push "The Ticket" ahead of crosstown rival, WVFN in the ratings.

In October 2005, WQTX flipped to Smooth Jazz, adopting Jones Radio Networks' smooth jazz format, leaving the Sports Talk format to former simulcast partner 92.1 WTXQ. In April 2006, 92.1 FM abandoned the Sports Talk format for good as it flipped to Oldies, taking the WQTX calls formerly used on 92.7. WJZL eventually shifted its frequency to 92.9. Following the demise of Jones' Smooth Jazz network in September 2008, WJZL switched over to Broadcast Architecture's "Smooth Jazz Network" programming.

The station operated for many months on 92.9 at reduced power until November 16, 2007, when it was able to broadcast at 5,400 watts. Until the station went to full power, its weak signal was prone to severe fading and co-channel interference from WJZQ-FM in Cadillac, Michigan, even into Clinton County, which is located just north of Lansing. WJZL now has a much stronger signal in the immediate Lansing area and can be heard listenably to Jackson in the south, Howell in the east, and Hastings in the west. The station, along with WJXQ, WVIC, and WQTX has been sold from Rubber City Radio to Midwest Communications.

The station changed its call letters to WLMI on 10/1/10. On November 15, 2010, WLMI started using its call letters on air for the first time, and changed its format to Christmas music as "Lansing's Home for the Holidays."

On December 27, 2010, WLMI changed its format to classic hits. The format moved from sister station 92.1 WQTX, which began stunting toward the station's new Country format; however, WLMI is locally programmed, as opposed to WQTX, which used a satellite feed outside of its morning show. The new format was originally a classic hits/oldies hybrid mixing rock, pop and R&B hits from the 1960s through the 1980s. A format tweak in the spring of 2015 saw the dropping of most 1960s titles and the addition of some pop and rock hits from the 1990s and 2000s.

References

• Michiguide.com - WLMI History

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WLMI
• Radio-Locator information on WLMI
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WLMI