WKQI

WKQI

Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	Detroit, MI-Windsor, ON
Frequency	95.5 MHz (HD Radio) 95.5 HD-2: Bomb Squad Radio Dance Top 40 Club Phusion
Branding	Channel 9-5-5
Programming
Format	Top 40 (CHR)
Ownership
Owner	Clear Channel
Sister stations	WDFN, WDTW, WDTW-FM, WJLB, WMXD, WNIC
History
First air date	February 12, 1949
Former call signs	WCZY-FM (6/17/85-7/20/89) WCZY (9/9/80-6/17/85) WLDM (2/12/49-9/9/80)
Technical information
Facility ID	6592
Class	B
Power	100,000 watts
HAAT	130 meters
Links
Webcast	Listen live
Website	http://www.channel955.com/

WKQI, known as "Channel 9-5-5," is a rhythmic-leaning Top 40 (CHR) radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKQI transmits its signal with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from an antenna 430 feet in height located at the intersection of Greenfield Road and 10 mile Rd. in suburban Oak Park in Oakland County. It can be heard as far away west as Lansing, Michigan, as far south as Cridersville, Ohio, & as far east as Sandusky, Ohio and London, Ontario. In clear conditions, signals can also be picked up at times in areas northeast of Cleveland, such as Eastlake, Mentor, & Ashtabula. During these times, WKQI gets interfered with Cleveland radio station, WFHM, which is the reason why WKQI can not be heard in Cleveland.

History

Easy Listening WLDM and WCZY

The station began operations on February 12, 1949, as WLDM, and for over three decades had a "beautiful music" format. WLDM was also Detroit's first full-time FM stereo station. In the 1960s and early 1970s, WLDM was one of several beautiful music stations in Detroit, and also one of the more successful ratings-wise. After being sold to Combined Communications (which later sold to Gannett Broadcasting in 1981), WLDM changed its call letters to WCZY-FM ("Cozy FM") in 1976.

WCZY-FM's format, under Robert Gaskins, continued to evolve into the number one station in Detroit's 25-54 demographics. Top rated personalities Paul Bryon (Mornings), Bob Martin (Middays), and Al Gauge (afternoons) created a friendly sound that continued the station's dominance of the easy-listening music audience in Detroit. But in 1981, when the Gannett newspaper chain purchased this and the rest of Combined's stations, Gannett staff believed that the station, even with its high advertising rates, was not generating enough revenue. Gannett fired the entire easy-listening air staff and began to move the format in an adult contemporary direction. WCZY's listeners did not accept the more contemporary music, and the former easy-listening powerhouse was soon struggling to make the top ten as well as suffering from decreased revenues.

In 1978, former country station WDEE-AM (1500) was acquired and its call letters changed to WCZY-AM with a similar format. Even though several top rated disc jockeys like Bob Martin were moved to the AM, the poor signal of the station hindered the station from producing the #1 ratings the FM station enjoyed. WCZY-AM changed to WLQV-AM (Love Radio) with a Christian religious format put in place.

Even with solid competition from two other easy listening stations 96.3 WJR-FM and 97.1 WWJ-FM, WCZY-FM enjoyed two more years of #1 ratings in the adult listening market until in 1980, the Combined Communications chain was bought by the Gannett newspaper chain. Wishing for a heavier commercial load and with no radio ownership experience, the format was changed in 1983 to Top 40 to compete with "Hot Hits" WHYT (the former WJR-FM), eventually taking on the moniker "Z95.5". Dick Purtan was brought in from CKLW as the new morning man, and the entire staff was replaced (Gaskins going to Boston, and Martin to Mobile, Alabama). But the station never came anywhere near the sales or high ratings levels it enjoyed under the leadership of Bob Gaskins and air talent of Bryon, Martin and Gauge. Largely thanks to the popularity of Dick Purtan's morning show, WCZY continued to post top 10 ratings through most of the rest of the 1980s, but the 95.5 MHz frequency did not return to number one (12+) until over a quarter-century later.

All Hits Z95.5

Dick Purtan came over from CKLW to host Cozy FM's morning show in early 1983, and the evolution of WCZY's format away from easy listening and toward rock continued. By the end of 1983, the change from AC to CHR was complete, and the station was poised to do battle with "Hot Hits" WHYT for the CHR audience. In 1984, WCZY rebranded itself "Z95.5." Z95.5 enjoyed a fair amount of ratings success with its CHR format, usually rated in Detroit's top ten Arbitron ratings 12+, though arguably much of the station's high ratings came from Purtan's show. In an attempt to hold on to the station's adult audience, Z95.5 was more of an Adult CHR, avoiding most rap, dance and hard rock songs unless they were successful pop crossovers. Although WCZY's overall 12+ ratings were often better than WHYT's, WHYT was much more popular with teenage and young adult listeners.

For a time, Z95.5 also simulcast its programming again on AM 1500 (WLQV-AM, which once again changed its calls to WCZY-AM, with the station IDing as "Z95.5 and AM 1500") as part of a ploy to "return Dick Purtan to the AM dial." It lasted only a few years before AM 1500 returned to its previous religious format as WLQV.

Q95

Despite Z95.5's high ratings, the station still wanted to attract more older listeners in the hope of attracting more advertising dollars, and so in 1989, WCZY changed its calls to WKQI, "Q95," and tweaked its format from CHR to hot adult contemporary, then a rapidly growing subset of CHR which eliminated most hard rock and rap music. Detroit based AC radio consultant Gary Berkowitz was the original Q95 program director, which also included (in addition to Dick Purtan) air personalities Kevin O'Neill and Michael Waite (formerly of rival WHYT). The station's ratings continued to be respectable throughout the 1990s. Dick Purtan was an investor in the new station and stayed on as Q95's morning host until 1996, when he left for oldies 104.3 WOMC, where he has remained since. Following Purtan's departure, WKQI became "Q95-5, Detroit's Continuous Hit Music Station," hired former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce as the morning show host, and took on a brighter, more contemporary sound, adding alternative-pop artists such as Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Joan Osborne, Live, and BoDeans which the station had not played previously. For most of the late 1990s, WKQI was a heavily dayparted station, being a fairly conservative Hot AC during the day but taking more of a CHR approach at night, while still shying away from most urban music and rap except for artists with mainstream pop appeal such as Will Smith, Toni Braxton, and Ghost Town DJs.

Top 40 Wars: WKQI vs. WDRQ

Danny Bonaduce kept WKQI's morning ratings high, but after he departed in 1998, the station began to falter. ABC/Disney-owned rhythmic-based rival WDRQ took advantage of WKQI's weak spots by moving to a more mainstream Top 40 format with a hotter, more energetic presentation than WKQI. WDRQ also gained an advantage on WKQI, which remained a fairly conservative station musically, by emphasizing the then-hot teen-pop movement and stars like Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, and *NSYNC. By the summer of 2000, Q95-5 had sunk to fourteenth place in the ratings, while WDRQ had charged into the top ten (though WKQI still outbilled DRQ by a fair margin).

By 2000, the station was owned by AMFM; Clear Channel took control of the station that year when it merged with AMFM. WDRQ continued to win the CHR battle against WKQI for several more years, but on February 4, 2002, Clear Channel re-launched WKQI as "Channel 9-5-5" and began to move the station in a more rhythmic direction to compete more directly with WDRQ. WKQI soon once again took the ratings lead over DRQ. WDRQ's falling ratings culminated in its format switch to "Variety Hits" as "Doug-FM" on April 1, 2005, which left WKQI to have the CHR market to itself in Detroit. Subsequently, WKQI reclaimed its top 10 showing in Detroit's Arbitron ratings.

Channel 955 Today

WKQI is currently the home of the popular Mojo In The Morning show, which has been on the air since 2000 and is well-known nationally for its funny and sometimes controversial "Phone Scams" and the scandalous "War of the Roses." The morning show has enjoyed ratings success, overcoming former legends of Detroit morning radio including Dick Purtan, Howard Stern, and The Breakfast Club with Jim Harper. Recently (July 2007), Mojo In The Morning commanded the coveted #1 ratings slot for ages 18–34 over long-time market-leaders Drew and Mike on rock station WRIF.

Capitalizing on the popularity of MySpace, WKQI rebranded itself as "Detroit's Hit Music Space" in September 2006. This rebranding ended less than one year later as WKQI created its own on-line social networking site called "The Unit" (August 2007) which encourages listeners to create their own pages in a more user-friendly environment than offered by MySpace.

In 2008 WKQI's HD2 subchannel began carrying the Dance Top 40 Club Phusion format, which is part of Clear Channel's Format Lab. It previously had aired a "New CHR" format. On its HD3 subchannel, WKQI airs Clear Channel's Pride Radio, a station featuring dance and pop music aimed at the gay/lesbian/transgender audience.

Channel 9-5-5 cuurently ranks at #4 (5.4) in the Detroit market according to the May 2009 PPM ratings release.

Controversy

Channel 955 has also attracted controversy for some of its on-air stunts. On October 2, 2007, the day after troubled pop star Britney Spears lost custody of her two sons, then-nighttime jock Big Boy (now "Chunky" at 92.3 Now FM in New York City) announced a "Britney Suicide Watch" contest [1] in which the listener who correctly guessed the day of Spears' death would win $1,000. Although there was no such contest in reality, the stunt drew a large negative outcry, particularly from the suicide prevention community who saw it as trivializing a serious issue for teenagers and young adults in the station's listening audience.

Past slogans

• The Easy Listening Station (Cozy FM)
• All Hits, All the Time! (Z95.5)
• Better Variety, More Music (Q95)
• The Best Hits Without the Hard Rock and Rap (Q95)
• Detroit's Continuous Hit Music Station (Q95-5)
• Today's Best Music (Q95-5)
• Detroit's Hit Music Leader (Q95-5)
• Detroit's Hit Music or Detroit's Hit Music Channel (Channel 955)
• Detroit's Hit Music Space (Channel 955)

Sources

• Michiguide.com - WKQI History

External links

• Channel 9-5-5 official website
• Facility details for Facility ID WKQI ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's FM station database