City of license | Bay City, Michigan |
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Broadcast area | Saginaw-Bay City-Midland |
Branding | 96 WHNN |
Slogan | "Greatest Hits of All Time" |
Frequency | 96.1 MHz |
Format | Classic Hits |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 311 meters |
Class | C |
Facility ID | 37458 |
Transmitter coordinates | 43°33′10″N 83°41′24″W / 43.55278°N 83.69°W |
Former callsigns | WBCM-FM (?-?) |
Owner | Cumulus Media |
Sister stations | WILZ, WIOG, WKQZ |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | whnn.com |
WHNN is an FM radio station serving the Saginaw-Bay City-Midland area and Flint with its classic hits format. It broadcasts on FM frequency 96.1 and is under ownership of Cumulus Media. The station's powerful 100,000-watt frequency blankets a large chunk of the central and eastern Lower Peninsula, from Mount Pleasant to the Thumb and from south of Flint to West Branch, but its signal toward the southwest is inhibited by co-channel WMAX-FM in Holland, Michigan.
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History
Super Win and Sunny 96
As WBCM-FM in the late 1960s and early 1970s, 96.1 FM broadcast a beautiful music format. In 1974 the calls were changed to WHNN and the station adopted a Top 40 format as "Super Win." Many listeners remember that for several years, WHNN boasted "a winner an hour, sometimes even more". At least once an hour they would award a prize to a designated caller, and announce the current tally of prizes awarded by gibing the winners name, hometown and announcing that he or she was "super-Win winner number 12,384 or whatever number the current count was. Many of the prizes were fast food meals or car washes, but occasionally better prizes such as concert tickets or meals at high end restaurants were awarded. When the hourly prizes were phased out in 1979, WHNN announced it was in "the interest of public safety" as they didn't want to overwhelm the phone company's resources.
WHNN evolved into an AOR station in 1976. In 1981, despite being the top rated station in the area at the time, the station changed format from AOR to adult contemporary, with the first song being Gino Vannelli's "Living Inside Myself". Station owners stated at the time that this was because they could not sell enough ad time. As a popular AC station during the 1980s, the station was known as "Sunny 96, Lite Rock, Less Talk."
WHNN Today
WHNN switched to the current oldies format in the fall of 1990 following a period of stunting with various versions of Richard Berry's song "Louie, Louie" including the hit version by The Kingsmen. In recent years, WHNN, like many stations of its kind, has evolved from "traditional" oldies to a "classic hits" direction focusing on pop, rock and soul hits from roughly 1965-1990 in the hope of reaching younger demographics, and has dropped most if not all pre-1965 music from its playlist. Unlike other classic hits stations which are essentially hit-based versions of Classic rock, WHNN is a Top 40 Classic Hits station.
Through the changes to the music, the station's ratings have remained high. Syndicated shows heard on WHNN during weekends include Casey Kasem's American Top 40 (aired Sunday mornings; mainly the 1970s package, but the station also airs shows from the early 1980s on occasion) and Into the '70s with legendary WLS jock John Landecker.
WHNN garnered attention in the fall of 2006 when it switched to a format of all Christmas music, in response to crosstown AC competitor 106.3 WGER's announcement that they would not go all-Christmas that year. The switch also brought all-Christmas music radio to Flint, owing to continued dominance of the market's AC station, 107.9 WCRZ (which continues with its regular format during the holiday season). WHNN switched to all-Christmas again in early November 2007; WHNN had originally planned to switch to all-Christmas on Thanksgiving Day but moved up the change when WGER opted to return to playing continuous Christmas music ahead of schedule. WGER has since switched to a Hot AC direction as "Mix 106.3" and no longer goes all-Christmas for the holiday season, but MacDonald Broadcasting's AC combo of WSAM 1400 AM and WSAG 104.1 FM ("The Bay") has taken up the Christmas music mantle in recent years to challenge WHNN.
Cumulus Media acquired Citadel Broadcasting and WHNN in 2011. WHNN's Flint area sales offices are expected to relocate to 6317 Taylor Drive in Flint as a result; the sale also included WHNN's current studios on Champagne Drive in Saginaw.
In addition to its Tri-Cities sister stations, WHNN's other sister stations in its listening area are 92.7 WDZZ, 95.1 WFBE, 1330 WTRX, 1570 WWCK and 105.5 WWCK-FM, all licensed to Flint.
Controversy
WHNN was recently[when?] involved in a scandal when popular morning jock John W. Burke, better known as "Johnny Burke", was suspended without pay for making offensive comments on the stations website regarding Flint public schools. In light of the recent[when?] events with Don Imus, who once worked with Burke, Citadel Broadcasting (who owned WHNN at the time) made the decision to pull Burke from the air for several days.[citation needed]
Sources
External links
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WHNN
- Radio-Locator information on WHNN
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WHNN
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