WJLB

WJLB

City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	Metro Detroit [1]
Branding	FM98 WJLB
Slogan	"The D's Hip-Hop & R&B"
Frequency	97.9 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	May 24, 1941
Format	Urban Contemporary
ERP	50,000 watts
HAAT	149 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	59592
Transmitter coordinates	42°24′22″N 83°06′44″W
Callsign meaning	John Lord Booth
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, is a Clear Channel-owned Urban Contemporary radio station in Detroit that broadcasts on 97.9 Megahertz (MHz) frequency. The station is known on-air as "FM98 WJLB". This is the station that began the career of Urban radio legend and video jock, Donnie Simpson. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, WJLB was the home of radio legend John Mason.

WJLB, along with sister WMXD, had broadcast for 20 years in Detroit's Penobscot Building, which is located in the heart of Detroit's Downtown Financial District. Clear Channel moved both stations to their corporate consolidated owned 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.

'FM98' can be heard far north as Flint and as far west as Lansing on Interstate 96, but begins to mix with WGRD (also at 97.9) in Grand Rapids farther west. WJLB can be picked up further at night in such places as Saginaw, Battle Creek and Toledo.

History

Early History

97.9 FM, The station that became WJLB began operation in around May 7, 1941, as a testing station 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.

WLOU/WMZK Years

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

FM98 is Born

In 1980, the WJLB calls migrated back to the FM dial along with an Urban contemporary format from the 1400 kHz AM frequency. WJLB-AM, which went on the air as WMBC in 1926 and adopted the WJLB calls in 1939, had been providing programming geared toward Detroit's black community for nearly four decades. 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 ("Welcome Queen Back Home," named for longtime air personality and eventual station owner Martha Jean "The Queen" Steinberg), and is now WDTK, owned by Salem Communications with a conservative news/talk format. Within a few years, WJLB-FM had soared into the upper reaches of the Detroit Arbitron ratings and has been there ever since, 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 Segway featuring mostly Slow R&B and Motown Soul tracks.

In April 1994, Booth American Company merged with Broadcast Alchemy to become Secret Communications. Later in the year in the month of 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.

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

Airstaff

The current lineup (as of July 2010) includes CoCo, Foolish and Mr. Chase In The Morning with CoCo, Foolish, Mr. Chase & Tracey McCaskill (News). Middays are hosted by Cheron. Afternoon drive is hosted by Bushman. Evening shift is hosted by Dr. Darrius.

WJLB is also known for Mixin Impossible Weekends during holidays, which includes DJ Kim James, DJ Blast, DJ Fingers, Don Q., DJ Polo and DJ Mo Beatz. Guest DJs include DJ Jinx, Dj Scratch, and DJ James O Steen.

Other notable programming includes The A List - Bushman and Ya Bigg Dog Blast on Friday nights. Weekend's/Fill-ins include Big Tigger, DJ Kim James, Deborah Smith Pollard, Jazzy T., and Ya Bigg Dogg Blast. WJLB's mixshow DJ crew is named The 7 Deadly Technics, which includes DJ Kim James, DJ Blast, DJ Fingers, Don Q., DJ Polo & DJ Mo Beatz.

FM98 Former personalities

• Donnie Simpson
• John Mason
• The Wizard
• Electryfying "Mojo"

Sources

• Michiguide.com - WJLB History

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WJLB
• Radio-Locator information on WJLB
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WJLB