WRIT-FM
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| City of license | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
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| Broadcast area | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Branding | "Oldies 95.7 FM" |
| Slogan | "Milwaukee's ONLY Oldies Station" |
| Frequency |
95.7-2 for Oldies "Mighty 92" |
| First air date | May 10, 1961 |
| Format | Oldies |
| ERP | 34,000 watts |
| HAAT | 186 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 60233 |
| Callsign meaning | Legendary call letters (originally We'Re IT!) |
| Owner | Clear Channel Communications |
| Sister stations | WISN, WKKV, WMIL, WOKY, WRNW |
| Webcast | Listen Live HD2 stream |
| Website | milwaukeeoldies.com |
WRIT-FM (Oldies 95.7 FM) is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, owned by Clear Channel Communications. Branded as "Oldies 95.7", it airs a 60s-70s Oldies format.
The WRIT call sign previously belonged to a Top 40 station on 1340 AM from 1955 to the 1970s. The WRIT name was resurrected at midnight on January 1, 2000, to ring in the new millennium. The oldies format has been on 95.7 since the late 1980s, originally as WZTR.
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[edit] History
The 95.7 frequency signed on May 10, 1961 with the WMIL call sign. They aired a country music/polka format, simulcasting full time with their AM sister station. Following the purchase of both stations by Malrite Broadcasting, on May 12, 1968, the ethnic and polka music programming aired on the AM station shifted to WMIL-FM, allowing the AM station to continue with the country format full-time.[1]
The FM station became WMVM in 1971, airing a beautiful music format. On June 1, 1972, consultant Mike Joseph switched WMVM and its AM sister station to Top 40 under the new calls WZUU and WZUU-FM.[2] Ironically, one of its chief rivals at the time was the original WRIT, as well as WOKY. WZUU's all-currents, no-oldies "Super Hits" format, which featured a tight playlist of 30 current songs, was a forerunner of Joseph's later Hot Hits stations of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
WZUU switched in 1986 to Adult Album Alternative WBGK and in 1987 to Adult Contemporary-formatted "Star 95.7" and the WZTR call sign. WZTR eventually switched to oldies amid heavy AC competition.
The station was known for a long time as "Oldies 95.7", even after it tweaked its format slightly and resurrected the WRIT call sign. In 2003 WRIT dropped the "oldies" designation from its name in favor of "95.7 WRIT". (Some Milwaukee area billboards displayed only "95.7" without the WRIT call letters.)
[edit] Christmas music
On November 17, 2005, WRIT began airing all-Christmas music programming, which lasted until after the holiday, competing with WMYX-FM, WFZH and WRIT's sister station, WOKY. For subsequent holiday seasons, WRIT switched to Christmas music. In 2008, WRIT began playing Christmas music at 3:13 PM on October 31 (Halloween). They first played "Too Late to Turn Back Now" by Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, and then they played "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" by Johnny Mathis. Seven minutes later, crosstown Christmas rival WMYX went all Christmas, also. Presently, its Christmas station rivals are WMYX and WLDB. In 2009, rival WMYX won the Christmas music race by switching over at 7:00 pm on November 13 according to music logs on yes.com. WRIT started playing Christmas about 20 minutes later.
In 2010, WRIT won the Christmas music race, starting to air all-Christmas music on November 18 at 5:15 pm. Their rival, WMYX, started airing all-Christmas music on November 22 at 12:00 am. In 2011 the race started earlier on November 10, with WMYX going at 5pm, followed by WRIT at 5:55pm.[3] .
[edit] Transition to "My 95-7"
On September 1, 2006, WRIT went into stunting mode, playing a wide assortment of songs and directing listeners to 95.7needshelp.com to request and vote for songs online. This is similar to a format flip Clear Channel did with WDTW-FM in Detroit.
The station unveiled their tweaked format on Tuesday September 5 at 6AM, after playing a set of songs containing the word "Magic". They became "Milwaukee's 95.7, The Greatest Top 40 Hits of All Time", under a Classic Hits/Gold AC format. The station has added a few pop music selections from the 1980s to the 1960s and 1970s oldies already being played. In 2007, the station transitioned to the "My 95.7" moniker, and the oldies moved to sister WOKY-AM. WOKY has since switched to Classic Country music.
[edit] Return To Oldies 95.7
At Midnight on December 26, 2010, the station returned to "Oldies 95.7" with an oldies format based on music from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s[4] The station has since enjoyed consistent top 5 ratings finishes (12+) in the market.
[edit] WRIT HD2
On April 25, 2006, Clear Channel announced that WRIT-FM's HD2 subchannel will carry the Classic Dance channel from their Format Lab, focusing on classic dance and disco hits from the 1970s and 1980s.
The format was switched to 50s-60s Oldies in May 2009, branded as The Mighty 92 and featuring heritage jingles from WOKY in the 60's and 70's, along with imaging from WOKY's oldies format, which ran from January 2007-September 2008.
[edit] References
- ^ "WMIL-FM shifts to Polkas; AM, Country " Billboard, May 25, 1968. http://books.google.com/books?id=rAoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA24&dq=wmil&hl=en&ei=3I60TonPH-LCsQLpl7XvAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=wmil&f=false
- ^ "Mike Joseph switches Two Milw. Stations" Billboard, Jun 3, 1972. http://books.google.com/books?id=8ycEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=WMVM&hl=en&ei=Upm0TtyCHoSltwfVhOXyBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=WMVM&f=false
- ^ "WMYX, WRIT go all-Christmas, all the time". Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. 10 November 2011. http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/tvradio/wmyx-writ-go-allchristmas-all-the-time-t330jp4-133656863.html. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
- ^ Tim Cuprisin "Oldies return to Milwaukee radio" OnMilwaukee.com, December 26, 2010. http://onmilwaukee.com/movies/articles/oldiesradio.html
[edit] External links
- WRIT Website
- Milwaukee radio: a retrospective
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WRIT
- Radio-Locator information on WRIT
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRIT
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