WMJI

WMJI

File:WMJI logo.png
Cleveland, Ohio
Broadcast area	Greater Cleveland Northeast Ohio
Frequency	105.7 (MHz) (HD Radio)
Branding	Majic 105.7 WMJI
Programming
Format	Analog: Classic hits HD1: Classic hits (analog simulcast) HD2: Oldies
Ownership
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WAKS, WGAR-FM, WMMS, WMVX, WTAM
History
First air date	December 6, 1948 (as WTAM-FM)
Former call signs	1987-1988: WMJI-FM 1982-1987: WMJI 1972-1982: WWWM 1965-1972: WKYC-FM 1956-1965: KYW-FM 1948-1956: WTAM-FM
Call sign meaning	W-"MaJIc"
Technical information
Facility ID	73268
Class	B
ERP	16,000 watts
HAAT	344 meters
Transmitter coordinates	41°23′2.00″N 81°41′44.00″W
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	WMJI.com

WMJI (105.7 FM) — branded Majic 105.7 WMJI — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting a classic hits format. The station serves Cleveland, Akron and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio.

The station was best known during the 1990s as an oldies station, playing songs from the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. In recent years, they have switched to more of a Classic Contemporary format, playing songs mainly from the '60s and '70s with a few early/mid '80s songs mixed in (shifting the '50s and some early '60s songs to their secondary HD Radio feed, 105.7 HD-2).

Clear Channel Communications has owned WMJI since 1999. Studios are located at the Clear Channel complex in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, while the station's transmitter resides in nearby Parma.

History

The station was founded by NBC on December 6, 1948 as WTAM-FM, and it simulcast the programming of sister station WTAM. Both radio stations were also paired with WNBK-TV (later WKYC-TV), which signed on that same year. When NBC traded its radio and television holdings in Cleveland with Westinghouse's in Philadelphia on February 13, 1956, it became KYW-FM, taking the callsign of Westinghouse's radio station.

When the NBC-Westinghouse trade was reversed on June 19, 1965, the station reverted to NBC ownership. The call letters were changed to WKYC-FM to match those of the AM station, which kept the popular "KY" slogan and identity Westinghouse brought into Cleveland. NBC eventually sold off WKYC and WKYC-FM in 1972 to Ohio Communications, owned by Nick Mileti and Jim and Tom Embrescia. The station became WWWM, and it identified itself as "M105."

"M105" originally was an easy-listening station not unlike its AM sister WWWE, minus the sports coverage and talk shows found on the AM side. But by 1975, "M105" was passed into different ownership, and the format was changed to album-oriented rock. The station used the slogan, "The Home of Continuous Music" and was programmed by long-time programmer Eric Stevens, and competed aggressively with later-sister station WMMS for ratings.

WWWM and WBBG were sold to Robinson Communications, headed by famed jeweler Larry "J.B." Robinson, in 1981. The station changed to an adult contemporary format as WMJI on July 7, 1982, nicknamed "Majic 105.7." The station was sold to Jacor Communications of Cincinnati along with AM station WBBG on September 19, 1984. John Lanigan began his morning show with former WHK newscaster John Webster on September 17, 1985, coming over from WGAR. He replaced husband-and-wife team Dan Deely and Kim Scott after they resigned, citing that the job had put strains on their marriage.

When WBBG dumped its big band format on October 29, 1987, it simulcast WMJI's programming for a time - and took the WMJI calls - until it was sold off. Therefore, 105.7-FM technically was WMJI-FM for several months in 1988. When 1260 became WRDZ with a religious format, the FM station simply became WMJI. Jacor Communications soon LMA'ed WMJI to Legacy Broadcasting, headed by former Malrite executive Carl Hirsch in 1988, with Legacy buying WMJI outright in 1990.

That same year, the station soon adjusted their format to rock 'n roll oldies featuring much of the music made famous by Top 40 legends WHK and WIXY. WHK, which dropped the rock and roll format in the mid 1960s, had re-established itself as an oldies station in the 1980s, but had dropped that format by November 1988. WIXY was (ironically) the previous identity of former sister station WBBG, and held the same studio space that WIXY once did. In addition, much of WMJI's music library already consisted of former WIXY tapes and jingles.

An oldies station on FM seemed a natural. John Gorman, formerly program director of legendary Cleveland rock station WMMS, was brought in to redesign WMJI as a 100% rock oldies format. Under his guidance, the station immediately posted major ratings increases and became one of the top performing stations in Cleveland.

Gorman also reunited with former WMMS artist and co-creator of the station's "Buzzard" mascot, David Helton to create a new logo and early print ads and billboards for WMJI. The "Majic 105.7" font was chosen by Gorman as a tribute to Boston's WRKO/680 AM logo in 1967, which, under the direction of Program Director Mel Phillips, was an influence on Gorman's programming.

WMJI owner Legacy Broadcasting was later renamed OmniAmerica in 1994, and sold the station to Nationwide Communications in 1997. By then, WMJI had established consistent ratings dominance in the Cleveland market under Program Director Denny Sanders, a market legend who replaced John Gorman (who relocated to CBS in Detroit). The station was led by its highly-rated morning show featuring Lanigan, Webster, and local comedian Jimmy Malone. Webster left the station amid a health scare in 1997, while the "Lanigan & Malone Show" has remained intact ever since. During this period, WMJI achieved the highest total weekly listenership of any Cleveland radio station in the decade of the 1990s. It later became the FM flagship for Cleveland Browns broadcasts in 1999 through 2001.

In August 1998, Nationwide Communications merged operations with Jacor, reuniting WMJI with its' former owner (and also was paired up with WTAM again, bringing the two stations' original relationship full circle). This was followed in May 1999 by Clear Channel Communications' $6.5 billion purchase of Jacor and its 454 stations, including WMJI. Denny Sanders departed WMJI in 2001, and is currently General Manager of Telos Systems, a Cleveland-based international broadcast equipment design company.

In May 2009, WMJI temporarily called themselves "Cavs 105.7" as the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Orlando Magic in the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Not only was "Majic" removed from the station's name, but the word "magic" was censored from songs played on the station for the duration of the Cavs-Magic series. Following the series, WMJI went back to their usual branding and ceased censoring the word "magic".[1]

Other "Majic" Stations

The popularity of WMJI in the late 1990s allowed Clear Channel to "franchise" WMJI's format and "Majic" nickname on several FM oldies stations and one AM station, mostly in the Midwest. These stations included, at its height: WYNT in Marion, WIMJ in Findlay, WMJK in Sandusky, WZOM in Defiance (then also branded as "Majic 105.7"), WMKJ in Louisville and WKEQ in Somerset.

Of those stations, only WYNT still uses the "Majic" name and shares a similar logo to WMJI, although they changed formats to adult contemporary.

Early in November 2006, WTHZ-FM in Lexington, North Carolina, a station owned by "Davidson County Broadcasting", changed formats to "Majic 94.1" - replete with a similar logo to WMJI's. This continued until March 2010, when the station changed formats.

External links

• WMJI Official Web Site
• WMJI Timeline from Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives
• Facility details for Facility ID WMJI ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's FM station database