WMAL-FM
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City | Woodbridge, Virginia |
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Broadcast area | Washington Metropolitan Area |
Branding | 105.9 FM & AM 630 WMAL |
Slogan | Where Washington Comes To Talk |
Frequency | 105.9 MHz |
First air date | December 25, 1958 (as WXRA) |
Format | Talk |
ERP | Horizontal: 28,000 watts Vertical: 25,000 watts |
HAAT | 198 meters (650 ft) |
Class | B |
Facility ID | 70037 |
Transmitter coordinates | 38°52′28.0″N 77°13′24.0″W / 38.874444°N 77.223333°W |
Callsign meaning | W-"Martin A. Leese" (founder of AM simulcast WMAL) |
Former callsigns | 2009–2011: WVRX 1994–2009: WJZW 1986–1994: WCXR-FM 1981–1986: WPKX-FM 1962–1981: WXRA |
Affiliations | Westwood One Network Premiere Radio Networks Westwood One News |
Owner | Cumulus Media (Radio License Holdings LLC) |
Sister stations | WMAL |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | wmal.com |
WMAL-FM (105.9 FM) – branded 105.9 FM & AM 630 WMAL – is an FM radio station licensed to Woodbridge, Virginia, serving the Washington, D.C. Metro area. WMAL-FM airs a talk radio format and is owned and operated by Cumulus Media.[1] The station's studios are located at 4400 Jenifer Street NW in Washington, two blocks from the city's border with Maryland, and the transmitter site is in Falls Church, Virginia, off Lee Highway. Since September 19, 2011, all of WMAL-FM's programming is simulcast from co-owned WMAL (AM) at 630 kHz.
Contents
Programming[edit]
Weekday mornings on WMAL-AM-FM start with "Mornings on the Mall" with Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter.[2] At 9 a.m., Chris Plante hosts a nationally syndicated show, based at WMAL-AM-FM. And Larry O'Connor hosts late afternoons. The rest of the day, syndicated shows air from Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin and John Batchelor. Red Eye Radio is heard overnight. Weekends feature shows on money, health, real estate and gardening, many of which are paid brokered programming. Most weekday hours feature local news at the beginning of each hour. Westwood One News airs at the beginning of most hours during nights and weekends.
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
Before the current station was founded, an earlier station, called WHIP, existed on 105.9 FM in the Washington area. The station was on the air between 1948 and 1950 and licensed to Silver Spring, Maryland; therefore it is unrelated to the current station, which is licensed to Woodbridge.[3][4][5] There was also a previous station using the call sign WMAL-FM, which went on the air in 1948, as a simulcast of WMAL. But in 1977, that station switched to 107.3 WRQX.[6]
On December 25, 1958, the station that would become today's WMAL-FM first signed on.[7] This station was then known as WXRA, and during most of its early history it ran a mix of country and Southern gospel music daily from 6 a.m. until midnight. Beginning in September 1967 it simulcasted with WPIK, a co-owned station on 730 AM. Although WXRA was run from the same Alexandria studios as WPIK, WXRA's city of license has always been Woodbridge.
Country music and classic rock (1967–1993)[edit]
On December 31, 1967, WXRA began to run a full-time country format in response to listener requests.[8][9] The station was assigned the call sign WPKX-FM on December 9, 1981. It kept the country format but began calling itself "Kix 106". On January 27, 1986, the station changed its call sign to WCXR-FM and instituted its first classic rock format, known as "Classic Rock 105.9".[10] The classic rock format, which was just beginning to take hold in 1986, was considered experimental and debuted to high interest and ratings before eventually falling to more normal levels.[11] The simulcast with 730 AM, now known as WCXR, was broken off around this time.
In 1989, WCXR's owners, the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation, sold ten stations including WCXR to Group W.[12] Just four years later, in mid-1993, Group W sold WCXR to Viacom. This fueled rumors of a format change. Viacom elected to keep the format but fired the station's entire air staff, with company officially taking control on November 1, 1993.[13][14]
Smooth Jazz 105.9 (1994–2008)[edit]
A new smooth jazz format, called "Smooth Jazz 105.9," debuted on September 30, 1994. This was spurred on, at least in part, by the format changes of WLTT (now WIAD) to classic rock and of WJZE (now WBIG-FM) to oldies.[15][16] The call letters became WJZW on October 17.
In February 1997, Viacom sold 10 stations, including WJZW, to Chancellor Broadcasting. To comply with FCC limits on the number of radio stations that can be owned by one company, Chancellor sold WJZW on April 14, 1997, to ABC Radio, which was part of the Walt Disney Company.[17] Citadel Broadcasting bought ABC Radio from Disney in 2007.
True Oldies 105.9 (2008–2009)[edit]
At 3:00 pm on February 29, 2008, after a brief statement was read thanking the staff and listeners of "Smooth Jazz 105.9", Citadel Broadcasting changed the format of WJZW to oldies. All on-air employees were fired as a part of the format shift.[18][19][20] The first song on the new format was "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" by Aretha Franklin. Initially, no local live on-air talent was utilized, with the station instead relying on a satellite delivered service, Scott Shannon's The True Oldies Channel.[21] Imus in the Morning was added as the new morning show.[22] However, the ratings for True Oldies were not satisfactory enough to justify continuing the format.
105.9 The Edge (2009–2011)[edit]
On August 26, 2009, at 10 a.m., WJZW changed its format back to classic rock, this time as "105.9 The Edge".[23] The last song played on "True Oldies" was "Windy" by The Association, while the first song on "The Edge" was "Livin' on the Edge" by Aerosmith.[24] The format shift made 105.9 as the DC market's only classic rock station, though WBIG-FM broadcast a lighter "classic hits" format. Just after midnight on September 17, 2009, the station changed its call letters to WVRX. On July 7, 2010, WVRX added a local morning drive program with Washington/Baltimore radio veterans Kirk McEwen and Mike O'Meara called "Kirk and Mike".[25]
Talk radio simulcast (2011–present)[edit]
Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.[26] Days later, on September 19, 2011, at noon, the station flipped to a simulcast of co-owned talk station 630 WMAL.[27] With a media market as concerned with news and politics as Washington, management believed the AM station's news/talk format would be strengthened by simulcasting on the powerful FM signal of 105.9. The last songs on "105.9 The Edge" were "The Song Is Over" by the Who and "Hello, Goodbye" by the Beatles.[28] The station filed a request to change its call sign to WMAL-FM, which became official on September 26, 2011.[29]
On June 13, 2019, it was announced that WMAL would switch to ESPN Radio on July 1, 2019, leaving the news/talk format exclusive to WMAL-FM.[30][31]
References[edit]
- ^ "WMAL Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
- ^ "Mornings on the Mall". 105.9 FM and AM 630—Where Washington Comes To Talk | WMAL-AF. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
- ^ Cosper, Alex. "Washington, DC-Baltimore Area Radio History". Playlist Research. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
- ^ "DC Area FM Stations: 1939, 1948 and 1950". Retrieved June 8, 2010.
- ^ "U.S. FM Stations, Summer 1958". Retrieved June 8, 2010.
- ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook 1978 page C-39" (PDF). Retrieved May 31, 2018.
- ^ "Broadcasting Yearbook 1963 page B-194" (PDF). Retrieved May 31, 2018.
- ^ "WXRA-FM on Full". Billboard: 26. January 7, 1967. Retrieved June 7, 2010.
- ^ "Mid-September WPIK's Country Switchover Date". Billboard: 39. September 9, 1967.
- ^ Holland, Bill (February 8, 1986). "Metroplex Outlet Tries 'Classic Rock'". Billboard. 98 (6). Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ Freeman, Kim (October 25, 1986). "Classic Rock Thrives in 18 Months". Billboard. 98 (43).
- ^ Fabrikant, Geraldine (April 21, 1989). "Westinghouse Sets Deal To Buy 10 Radio Stations". New York Times. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Yorke, Jeffrey (July 13, 1993). "WCXR Clings to Classic Rock". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Yorke, Jeffrey (October 26, 1993). "Staff Wipeout at WCXR-FM". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Yorke, Jeffrey (January 17, 1995). "WJZW-FM: A Jump for Jazz". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ "''R&R'' edition of October 7, 1994" (PDF). Retrieved May 31, 2018.
- ^ Fisher, Marc (April 15, 1997). "3 More Area Radio Stations Change Hands; Sales Will Add To Conglomerate Trend". Washington Post. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ^ Venta, Lance (February 29, 2008). "WJZW Washington Becomes True Oldies 105.9". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved February 4, 2010.
- ^ Fybush, Scott (March 3, 2008). "This Week's Bloodbath: Citadel". NorthEast Radio Watch.
- ^ Fisher, Marc (March 9, 2008). "Smooth Jazz: Gentle Into That Good Night?; As the Genre Declines, Stations Switch To New Formats in D.C. and Nationwide". Washington Post. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
- ^ "Radio Stations". Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel. Archived from the original on July 28, 2008. Retrieved December 19, 2008.
- ^ Farhi, Paul (March 1, 2008). "Strapped Owner Fires WMAL Host Chris Core". Washington Post. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
- ^ Venta, Lance (August 26, 2009). "True Oldies 105.9 Washington Becomes Classic Rock 105.9 the Edge". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 6, 2016.CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
- ^ "105.9 The Edge – Classic Rock That Rocks!". theedge1059.com. Retrieved January 12, 2011.
- ^ "Cumulus now owns Citadel Broadcasting". Atlanta Business Journal. September 16, 2011. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
- ^ Venta, Lance (September 19, 2011). "WMAL Washington Adds FM Simulcast". radioINSIGHT. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
- ^ "105.9 The Edge Becomes WMAL-FM - Format Change Archive". September 19, 2011. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
- ^ Call Sign – Query – FCC (accessed September 20, 2011)
- ^ "ESPN and Cumulus will launch a new D.C. ESPN Radio station". Awful Announcing. June 14, 2019. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
- ^ "WMAL-A-F/Washington, D.C. To Split Simulcast, AM To Flip To Sports As ESPN 630, The Sports Capitol". All Access. Retrieved June 14, 2019.
External links[edit]
- WMAL Online
- Smooth Jazz 105.9 HD2
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WMAL
- Radio-Locator information on WMAL
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WMAL