WDTW-FM
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| City of license | Detroit, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | Metro Detroit |
| Branding | 106.7 The D |
| Slogan | "The D Rocks" "The Next Generation of Classic Rock" |
| Frequency |
106.7 HD-2: Pride Radio LGBT-oriented dance music |
| First air date | October 16, 1960 (as WDTM) |
| Format | Classic rock |
| ERP | 61,000 watts |
| HAAT | 155 meters (509 ft) |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 59952 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 42°19′55″N 83°02′42″W / 42.33194°N 83.045°W |
| Callsign meaning | DTW is the IATA airport code for the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport |
| Former callsigns | WDTW (7/11/02-1/25/05) WLLC (10/2/00-7/11/02) WWWW-FM (9/14/92-10/2/00) WWWW (1966-9/14/92) WDTM (1960-1966) |
| Owner | Clear Channel Communications |
| Sister stations | WDFN, WDTW, WJLB, WKQI, WMXD, WNIC |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | thedrocks.com |
WDTW-FM (106.7 FM, "106.7 The D") is an American classic rock formatted radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications. WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations; its secondary channel carries Clear Channel's "Pride Radio" format, which features music (mostly dance) geared toward the LGBT audience. WDTW transmits its signal from an antenna atop the Cadillac Tower in downtown Detroit. WDTW broadcasts free of most interference due to any neighboring channels on this frequency are at least 100 miles away. WDTW can be heard in all of the northern suburbs of Detroit, and north into Genesee and Lapeer Counties.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] WDTM
The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, airing classical and jazz music, like many other FMs of the time. Gordon McLendon purchased the station in 1966, changed the call letters to WWWW ("W4"), and installed a beautiful music format.
[edit] W4 Stereo/W4 Quad/W4 Country
By 1970, McLendon changed W4's format from easy listening to "Solid Gold" (oldies-oriented Top 40) as "W4 Stereo," with an airstaff that included Don Schuster and Detroit radio legend Tom Clay. During its oldies period, W4 was one of the first stations to pick up Detroit radio veteran Casey Kasem's newly syndicated countdown show, American Top 40.
In 1971, "W4" became an album oriented rock station. In 1974, it briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission. In the late 1970s, album-rock W4 was one of the top-rated radio stations in Detroit. It is most remembered today as one of the early radio jobs for Howard Stern. Stern was the morning DJ in 1980. Shamrock Broadcasting purchased W4 in July 1979 and, faced with increasing competition (W4 was one of four Detroit stations broadcasting in the AOR format), Shamrock changed the station's format to country music in 1980. The new management reportedly planned to brand Stern as "Hopalong Howie," which he declined after two weeks, moving to WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C. In the film "Private Parts", Stern announces his departure[1] in the middle of a song claiming he didn't understand country music.
early 1970s
The move to country music paid off. The Detroit market, the nation's fifth largest at the time, was bereft of FM country music stations despite the market containing a sizable percentage of population whose families hailed from the Southern United States and grew up with the genre. "W4 Country's" first years coincided with the rise in popularity of country music as a whole from a genre concentrated in the South and other parts of rural America into one with a nationwide following. At the time of the country format's launch, the immediate Detroit area's only country music station was an AM station, WCXI on 1130 kHz. WWWW became the first FM country station in Detroit since WCAR-FM's and CKLW-FM's brief tries at the format in the mid-1970s, and as a result, WCXI's ratings fell. By the early 1990s, AM 1130 was being used as a simulcast for W4. WCXI also attempted to compete with W4 from 1982 to 1986 with an FM station at 92.3 - coincidentally, the former WCAR-FM - separately programmed from the AM, but the FM station never took off.
"W4 Country" lasted for almost two decades and did reasonably well in the ratings. However, low advertising revenue coupled with increased local competition in the format (from WYCD) led owners AMFM (which became part of Clear Channel in August 2000) to drop the country format on September 1, 1999 at 6pm. The final song played on "W4 Country" was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner."
[edit] "Alice" and "The Drive"
1999-2002
Then, on September 3, 1999 at 2:05pm, after two days of stunting with a 400-Hz tone (which also involved a contest to correctly guess the day and time that the tone would end), the station relaunched as "Alice 106.7," featuring "Rockin' Hits of the '80s and '90s" with "All Right Now" by Free being the first song played.
2002-2006
The WWWW calls remained for another year until the new calls WLLC were adopted on October 2, 2000. (Said as "WLL..See". Emphasis was eventually put on the C due to listeners mistakenly believing the station picked up call letters WLLZ, which used to be for 98.7.) At this same time the WWWW callsign was moved to 102.9 MHz in nearby Ann Arbor by Clear Channel as they relaunched "W4 Country" on that frequency. It had been a rock station prior to that (formerly WIQB).
While WYCD was the chief ratings beneficiary of the death of "W4 Country," ratings for "Alice" remained anemic, and in July 2002, the station changed its calls to WDTW and relaunched as "106.7 The Drive," with not much change in format. "The Drive" featured mainly classic hard rock tracks from the 1970s through the 1990s with some more recent material, with a more upbeat and harder-rocking presentation than classic-rock rival WCSX. Yet, the station's ratings continued to be poor.
[edit] 106.7 The Fox
2006-2009
At noon on May 17, 2006, "The Drive" signed off with "Too Late For Love" by Def Leppard followed by an announcement by legendary Detroit TV news anchor Bill Bonds stating that they were “building a brand new radio station” at 106.7 and "letting you, the listeners choose the music." For the next week the listeners who registered at 1067needshelp.com picked first the new radio format, then the station's name, logo, voice of the station and number of commercials per hour. Its logo is similar to Vancouver rocker CFOX-FM.
On May 19, after first playing two days of music from many formats, then narrowing it down to just rock and country, it was announced at 3 P.M. that the format was country music. By May 22, the name of the station would be "106.7 The Fox" and the new logo for the station was picked on May 24. And finally on May 26, 2006 the format change appeared complete as the voice of the station and minutes of music per hour were announced.
Radio insiders believe the station has adopted a country format only to steal listeners from competitor WYCD, which was starting to challenge Clear Channel's adult contemporary WNIC in revenue and ratings.[2]
On April 29, 2009, in a similar move to what had been done at sister station WDFN, WDTW dropped all on-air talent, and soft-relaunched under the branding of "Detroit's Fox Country".
[edit] 106.7 The Beat Of Detroit
On September 4, 2009, after three years of struggling with the country format, The Fox was dropped at 12pm in favor of Rhythmic Adult Contemporary as 106-7, The Beat of Detroit. The last song on The Fox was "Shuttin' Detroit Down" by John Rich, followed by "Into The Groove" by Madonna. The station also began running 10,000 songs in a row commercial free. In an announcement made by Til Levesque, president and market manager of Clear Channel Radio Detroit, the station described the new sound as "a unique AC (adult contemporary) format, built especially for Detroit, to become 106.7 The Beat." The station will target the 25-54 adult audience with "an upbeat mix of today's hits and feel-good memories ...", mostly current Rhythmic and Dance hits with a balanced emphasis on recurrents from the 80s and 90s and some 1970s disco hits.[3] The station's format is also similar to that of Detroit's own WDRQ when it relaunched in 1996 as a Rhythmic AC outlet. Artists include Madonna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Sean Paul, and The Black Eyed Peas. On October 6, 2009, The Beat finished up their 10,000 songs commercial free. The station still offered commercial free hours. WDTW-FM's HD2 channel also changed format shortly afterward, switching from "Mother Trucker" (a hybrid of country music and southern rock) to Pride Radio, which had previously featured on the HD3 channel of CHR/Pop sister station WKQI (Channel 955).
About a year after WDTW's flip to Rhythmic AC, its playlist and direction switched over to a conventional Rhythmic Top 40 direction by adding more currents and cutting back on the heavy amount of gold. This change was likely due to changes in the Detroit radio landscape involving sister station WKQI's shift to a broader CHR-Pop presentation and competition with CBS Radio's WDZH, which changed formats from smooth jazz a month after The Beat was launched. Mediabase switched the station from its Rhythmic AC reporting panel to its Rhythmic CHR reporting panel in September 2010. The Beat's reporting status has since changed again, as Mediabase added the station to its CHR/Pop reporting panel in April 2011, although WDTW-FM remained an adult leaning CHR/Rhythmic rather than CHR/Pop (a la WKTU in New York) and sister station WKQI is the true CHR/Pop in Clear Channel's cluster. And like WKTU, Nielsen BDS did not include the station's playlist on their Top 40/CHR panel despite being listed there as well.
Despite being a CHR/Pop reporter at the time, WDTW still featured many Rhythmic AC elements in its music. The station has reintroduced some 1980s and 1990s gold back into rotation to the tune of two or three songs per hour, although 1970s disco music is no longer in rotation; the station even features an hour of "old school" '80s and '90s rhythmic hits at noon each weekday. In addition, it has blended in a few Dance cuts as well. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton's syndicated Remix Top 30 is on Sunday evenings.
Ratings throughout The Beat's history have been shaky, usually peaking in the mid-3 share range or lower. In the last ratings book as a Rhythmic Top 40, WDTW was ranked #18 with a 2.2 share of the market.
[edit] 106.7 The D Rocks
On November 4, 2011, at 10 AM, WDTW changed their format to classic rock, branded as "106.7 The D".[4] The final song on "The Beat" was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men (also the last song played on 105.1 The Groove WGRV 10 years ago), while the first song on "The D" was "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" by AC/DC. The station describes the new format as "The Next Generation of Classic Rock", meaning the station includes more 1980's rock (along with the usual 1960's and 1970's rock tracks), as well as early 1990's rock material. WDTW-FM is the second Clear Channel FM in Detroit to have flipped formats in 2011; WNIC was the first in August since that station shifted from adult contemporary to hot adult contemporary (they rebranded under Fresh 100.3 in December 2010, but Mediabase kept it on the AC panel for more than a month while Nielsen BDS kept it on the AC panel for eight months).
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/issues/84/970207/AE/Story01.html, Retrieved on 2008/04/18.
- ^ "Radio News Web Updates". http://www.radionewsweb.com/2008-02.html.
- ^ "WDTW-FM Drops Country For Dance as "The Beat" from The Detroit News (September 4, 2009)
- ^ http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/54164/106-7-detroit-is-beaten-away-with-rock/#.TrQN9mDRrvs
[edit] External links
- 106.7 The D
- Michiguide.com - WDTW-FM History
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WDTW
- Radio-Locator information on WDTW
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WDTW
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