WWIN-FM
Encyclopedia
WWIN-FM is an urban adult contemporary
radio station
in Baltimore
owned by Radio One. It is known as "Magic 95.9", playing a great variety of urban adult contemporary music from the 1960s to present. Its transmitter is located along I-695
near Curtis Bay
.
with the call letters to WHTE then WGHT. '"Hot 95.9"' failed to compete with CHR
leader WBSB FM "B-104" and all airstaff were fired on June 23, 1989.
Urban Adult music returned to 95.9 FM as legendary announcers Harold Pompey and Don "Cleo" Brooks created, 1400 AM/95.9 FM WWIN-FM "The Best Songs And No Rap
".
In 1992, after a failed purchase attempt Washington, D.C.
station owner Cathy Hughes
and her company Almic Broadcasting bought WWIN AM & -FM from Broadcast Enterprise Network, Inc. Ragan Augustus Henry, a Philadelphia attorney headed the organization as President and 53% owner. He founded BENI (Broadcast Enterprises National, Inc.) in 1974 as a Black-owned business venture. Almic immediately changed the station's nickname to "Majic 95.9" In the late '90s,"Majic" was changed to "Magic". Later in 1992 Almic Broadcasting changed its name to Radio One Inc. Personalities on WWIN-FM were Curtis Anderson, Harold Pompey, Tim Watts, Larry Wilson, Alphie, Lee Cross, Ronnie Baker, Mike Roberts, Program & Music Director Keith Newman, Mike Morange-El, Eric Henson,Larnell King, Anthony, Robin Holden,Lou Thimes Jr., Dave Alan, Trecina "Sunshine" Grey, Denise Edwards,Jacqui Allen, Larwence Gregory Jones, Sonny Andre, and Commediene-Actress Monique
. Today WWIN-FM carries two nationally syndicated shows: The Tom Joyner Morning Show
and Love, Lust and Lies with Michael Baisden
.
Before the locally-owned Belvedere Broadcasting Company bought 95.9 in the early 1980s, the frequency was used by The Baltimore Radio Show, Incorporated, long-time operators of WFBR(AM)1300.
The Radio Show, also a locally-owned company, used the call letters WBKZ(FM)for 95.9 and presented various automated-and-semi-automated music formats, including at least two from the syndication company Drake-Chenault, co-founded by legendary programmer Bill Drake.
The music formats of WBKZ ranged from adult contemporary to nostalgia (music of the pre-rock era mixed with softer recent music). WBKZ pioneered mainstream adult contemporary on FM in the Baltimore market, at least a year (1976) earlier than the evolution of WKTK(FM)105.7 from album rock through pop disco to uptempo adult contemporary. WBKZ predated later adult contemporary-adult Top 40 stations such as WYST(FM)92.3, WWMX(FM)106.5 and the late stages of WBSB(FM)104.3 as it moved from the mass-appeal Top 40 of B104.
Personalities were used even with these "live-assist" formats on WBKZ, most notably long-time Baltimore morning host Lee Case after a change of format at WCBM(AM)680, where Case ruled as the "Morning Mayor" for at least a quarter-century.
The Baltimore Radio Show sold 95.9 to Belvedere in or about 1982 or 1983. Belvedere had operated the Class IV WWIN(AM) 1400 for many years, and the company and some of its principals had expermented earlier with FM.
WWIN(AM)was a successful rhythm-and-blues or "soul" music station that saw audience erosion in the late 1970s and early 1980s after the emergence of Plough Broadcasting's WXYV(FM)102.7, known by the slogan V-103. The former WCAO-FM began a rhythmic "disco" automated-voice-tracked format in 1977 and evolved into an R&B station with live personalities. Conjecture suggested that WWIN needed to place all or some of its programming on FM to stay competitive.
The renamed WBKZ as WWIN-FM at first simulcast the programming of 1400 and then evolved into a softer, older-appeal music format based on R&B and eventually known as "urban adult contemporary".
At some point in the mid-to-late 1980s, Belvedere sold WWIN AM & -FM to Ragan Henry's organization, and eventually that company moved the FM station to a variation of Top 40 or Contemporary Hit Radio under the callsign WHTE(FM) briefly, and then as WGHT(FM)in 1987. Both callsigns were subordinated to the slogan Hot 95.9.
As noted above, longtime Baltimore radio personality, programmer and manager Don Cleo Brooks and fellow veteran Harold Pompey led 95.9 back to an "urban adult" format after disappointing performance as Hot 95.9. There was simulcasting of FM programming on the fading WWIN(AM) 1400 for some time, and a few years later, both stations were sold to Almic, the predecessor of Radio One.
WISZ-FM 95.9 entered the Baltimore-area radio fray in the early 1960s, as a simulcast of WISZ/1590, a highly-directional local station licensed to Glen Burnie in northern Anne Arundel County. The AM station began its broadcast life as an Adult Standards formatted local station. It was owned by "Butch" Gregory, a Westinghouse VP, who built some of the equipment himself, much of it to mil-spec standards. The first FM transmitter site was in the backyard of a residence off Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn. A telephone pole held the antenna, with the transmitter in a wooden shed. The first staff was hired from WAYE, the long-time Baltimore "beautiful music" station. R.J. Bennett was the first manager, and Matt Edwards the first Program Director. Within two years the format had changed to "Country" under the direction of Ray Davis, famed for his daily remotes from "Johnny's New and Used Cars" lot in Northeast Baltimore. WISZ-AM-FM constituted the only full-time country music station in the immediate area of Baltimore, until WPOC/93.1 was converted from easy-listening to a modern country format in 1974 after being purchased by Nationwide Communications, a subsidiary of the well-known insurance company Nationwide.
Within two years of WPOC's successful change, WISZ-FM was sold by its local owners to The Baltimore Radio Show, and that company brought in the first of the adult-contemporary or nostalgia formats using automation under the slogan Z-96.
WWIN-FM shares its call letters with WWIN
"Spirit 1400", an Urban Gospel station that also serves Baltimore.
Urban Adult Contemporary
Urban adult contemporary is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have rap music on their playlists. The format was designed by Barry Mayo when he, Lee S. Simonson and Bill Pearson organized Broadcast...
radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
owned by Radio One. It is known as "Magic 95.9", playing a great variety of urban adult contemporary music from the 1960s to present. Its transmitter is located along I-695
Interstate 695 (Maryland)
Interstate 695 is a -long full beltway Interstate Highway extending around Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I-695 is officially designated the McKeldin Beltway, but is colloquially referred to as either the Baltimore Beltway or 695...
near Curtis Bay
Curtis Bay, Baltimore
Curtis Bay is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. The neighborhood is located in a highly industrialized waterfornt area in the southern part of the city, and receives its name from the body of water in which it sits...
.
History
WWIN-FM's former nickname from the 1970s was Music 96. Around 1987 the format changed to Contemporary Hit RadioContemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
with the call letters to WHTE then WGHT. '"Hot 95.9"' failed to compete with CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...
leader WBSB FM "B-104" and all airstaff were fired on June 23, 1989.
Urban Adult music returned to 95.9 FM as legendary announcers Harold Pompey and Don "Cleo" Brooks created, 1400 AM/95.9 FM WWIN-FM "The Best Songs And No Rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
".
In 1992, after a failed purchase attempt Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
station owner Cathy Hughes
Cathy Hughes
Cathy Hughes, born Catherine Elizabeth Woods in Omaha, Nebraska on April 22, 1947, is an African-American entrepreneur, radio and television personality and business executive. Hughes founded the media company Radio One and later expanded into TV One, the company went public in 1998, making...
and her company Almic Broadcasting bought WWIN AM & -FM from Broadcast Enterprise Network, Inc. Ragan Augustus Henry, a Philadelphia attorney headed the organization as President and 53% owner. He founded BENI (Broadcast Enterprises National, Inc.) in 1974 as a Black-owned business venture. Almic immediately changed the station's nickname to "Majic 95.9" In the late '90s,"Majic" was changed to "Magic". Later in 1992 Almic Broadcasting changed its name to Radio One Inc. Personalities on WWIN-FM were Curtis Anderson, Harold Pompey, Tim Watts, Larry Wilson, Alphie, Lee Cross, Ronnie Baker, Mike Roberts, Program & Music Director Keith Newman, Mike Morange-El, Eric Henson,Larnell King, Anthony, Robin Holden,Lou Thimes Jr., Dave Alan, Trecina "Sunshine" Grey, Denise Edwards,Jacqui Allen, Larwence Gregory Jones, Sonny Andre, and Commediene-Actress Monique
Monique
Monique is a female given name, the original form of Monica. It has also been regularly used in English speaking countries since at least the 1950s.-Notable women named Monique:In acting:...
. Today WWIN-FM carries two nationally syndicated shows: The Tom Joyner Morning Show
Tom Joyner
Thomas "Tom" Joyner is an American radio host, host of the nationally syndicated The Tom Joyner Morning Show, and also founder of REACH Media Inc., the Tom Joyner Foundation, and BlackAmericaWeb.com.-Early life:...
and Love, Lust and Lies with Michael Baisden
Michael Baisden
Michael Baisden is an American author, motivational speaker, host of the TV One talk show Baisden After Dark, and host of his own nationally-syndicated radio show.-Career:...
.
Before the locally-owned Belvedere Broadcasting Company bought 95.9 in the early 1980s, the frequency was used by The Baltimore Radio Show, Incorporated, long-time operators of WFBR(AM)1300.
The Radio Show, also a locally-owned company, used the call letters WBKZ(FM)for 95.9 and presented various automated-and-semi-automated music formats, including at least two from the syndication company Drake-Chenault, co-founded by legendary programmer Bill Drake.
The music formats of WBKZ ranged from adult contemporary to nostalgia (music of the pre-rock era mixed with softer recent music). WBKZ pioneered mainstream adult contemporary on FM in the Baltimore market, at least a year (1976) earlier than the evolution of WKTK(FM)105.7 from album rock through pop disco to uptempo adult contemporary. WBKZ predated later adult contemporary-adult Top 40 stations such as WYST(FM)92.3, WWMX(FM)106.5 and the late stages of WBSB(FM)104.3 as it moved from the mass-appeal Top 40 of B104.
Personalities were used even with these "live-assist" formats on WBKZ, most notably long-time Baltimore morning host Lee Case after a change of format at WCBM(AM)680, where Case ruled as the "Morning Mayor" for at least a quarter-century.
The Baltimore Radio Show sold 95.9 to Belvedere in or about 1982 or 1983. Belvedere had operated the Class IV WWIN(AM) 1400 for many years, and the company and some of its principals had expermented earlier with FM.
WWIN(AM)was a successful rhythm-and-blues or "soul" music station that saw audience erosion in the late 1970s and early 1980s after the emergence of Plough Broadcasting's WXYV(FM)102.7, known by the slogan V-103. The former WCAO-FM began a rhythmic "disco" automated-voice-tracked format in 1977 and evolved into an R&B station with live personalities. Conjecture suggested that WWIN needed to place all or some of its programming on FM to stay competitive.
The renamed WBKZ as WWIN-FM at first simulcast the programming of 1400 and then evolved into a softer, older-appeal music format based on R&B and eventually known as "urban adult contemporary".
At some point in the mid-to-late 1980s, Belvedere sold WWIN AM & -FM to Ragan Henry's organization, and eventually that company moved the FM station to a variation of Top 40 or Contemporary Hit Radio under the callsign WHTE(FM) briefly, and then as WGHT(FM)in 1987. Both callsigns were subordinated to the slogan Hot 95.9.
As noted above, longtime Baltimore radio personality, programmer and manager Don Cleo Brooks and fellow veteran Harold Pompey led 95.9 back to an "urban adult" format after disappointing performance as Hot 95.9. There was simulcasting of FM programming on the fading WWIN(AM) 1400 for some time, and a few years later, both stations were sold to Almic, the predecessor of Radio One.
WISZ-FM 95.9 entered the Baltimore-area radio fray in the early 1960s, as a simulcast of WISZ/1590, a highly-directional local station licensed to Glen Burnie in northern Anne Arundel County. The AM station began its broadcast life as an Adult Standards formatted local station. It was owned by "Butch" Gregory, a Westinghouse VP, who built some of the equipment himself, much of it to mil-spec standards. The first FM transmitter site was in the backyard of a residence off Ritchie Highway in Brooklyn. A telephone pole held the antenna, with the transmitter in a wooden shed. The first staff was hired from WAYE, the long-time Baltimore "beautiful music" station. R.J. Bennett was the first manager, and Matt Edwards the first Program Director. Within two years the format had changed to "Country" under the direction of Ray Davis, famed for his daily remotes from "Johnny's New and Used Cars" lot in Northeast Baltimore. WISZ-AM-FM constituted the only full-time country music station in the immediate area of Baltimore, until WPOC/93.1 was converted from easy-listening to a modern country format in 1974 after being purchased by Nationwide Communications, a subsidiary of the well-known insurance company Nationwide.
Within two years of WPOC's successful change, WISZ-FM was sold by its local owners to The Baltimore Radio Show, and that company brought in the first of the adult-contemporary or nostalgia formats using automation under the slogan Z-96.
WWIN-FM shares its call letters with WWIN
WWIN (AM)
WWIN is an Urban Gospel formatted radio station in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.-External links:*...
"Spirit 1400", an Urban Gospel station that also serves Baltimore.