Everything about Wvmv totally explained
WVMV, known on-air as "
Smooth Jazz V98.7," is an FM radio station serving the Metropolitan
Detroit area in Southeastern
Michigan. WVMV broadcasts at 98.7 MHZ. Its studios and offices are located in Hunter's Square Office Park at Orchard Lake and 14 mile Road in suburban
Farmington Hills and the stations transmitter is located near Livernois and West Davison in the City of
Detroit. WVMV broadcasts with an
Effective Radiated Power of 50,000 from an antenna 463 feet in height.
History
WBFG/Detroits Wheels
The station signed on the air in
1961 as WBFG ("We Broadcast For God"). The station broadcast
religious programming for nearly two decades. On
July 16,
1980, WBFG was sold and soon changed its calls to WLLZ.
On
August 11,
1980, at 5:07 p.m., WLLZ debuted a new
album oriented rock format; the first song played on the new "Detroit's Wheels" was "Let It Rock" by
Bob Seger. (The WLLZ calls were also rumoured to stand for "We Love
Led Zeppelin" or "Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin".) The new WLLZ became an instant hit. Competing AOR station
WWWW had already switched to
country music, and
WABX 99.5 would change to a
CHR-oriented format in
1982, leaving WLLZ and 101
WRIF to go head-to-head in the AOR format for the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, with WLLZ occasionally beating heritage rocker WRIF in the 12+ ratings. In an
Ann Arbor News article in 1987, Michael Solon, the station's general manager at the time of the rock format's launch, credited WLLZ's success to the perception that the station featured less chatter and took a more mass-appeal, hit-oriented approach to its music than competing stations: "It was a wonderful time, making such a splash with an all-new station. I was no genius. It just figured that if the other stations were awfully chatty and going four songs deep on albums, we'd do well by playing album-music hits."
In 1988, WLLZ also introduced the nation's first weekly sports talk show on an FM rock and roll station, "The Sunday Sports Albom" hosted by
Mitch Albom.
Smooth Jazz V98.7
WLLZ saw its fortunes slip in the early 1990s with the emergence of "alternative" rock groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam who drove many of the 1980s "hair bands" off the charts. A format tweak from AOR to
modern rock in the mid-1990s which put the station in competition with
89x and
The Planet 96.3 for the alternative audience failed to reverse the station's dropping ratings, and on
December 20,
1995, WLLZ became a smooth jazz station, which it has been ever since. The WVMV calls were adopted in February 1996.
For a while, WVMV and
WJZZ were competitors in the Smooth Jazz format. When 105.9 was flipped to an urban format in
August 1996, the WJZZ callsign was also discontinued, and it's now used for a Smooth Jazz station in
Atlanta, Georgia — which, like WVMV, is the second (if one discounts Detroit's previous
new age-format stations,
WVAE 92.3 and
WXCD 102.7) such formatted station to serve its city (
WJZF was the first). Atlanta's
WJZZ broadcasts at 107.5 FM.
Smooth Jazz V98.7 Today
"Smooth Jazz V98.7" usually beats its mainstream
Adult Contemporary competition in the ratings, with a playlist that incorporates a great deal of soft R&B and AC pop. Smooth jazz flautist
Alexander Zonjic is the station's morning drive host, and his music-intensive morning show is highly rated.
WVMV's
HD Radio subchannel features traditional jazz.
Airstaff
The current lineup (as of February 2008) is as follows
- Morning Show: The Alexander Zonjic Morning Show - Alexander Zonjic
with Kevin Sanderson (News)
- Mid-Days: Sandy Kovach
- Afternoon Drive: Dave Koz
- Nighttime: Jon Bond
- Overnights: Aubrey Lee
- Weekend/Fill-ins: Kelly Holmes & George Moore
Current Station Rating
Smoothy Jazz V98.7 currently ranks at #7 in the Detroit market according to the Winter 2008 ratings release.
Smooth Jazz V98.7 Arbitron Radio Ratings (Winter 2008) >
| Spring 2006 |
Summer 2006 |
Fall 2006 |
Winter 2007 |
Spring 2007 |
Summer 2007 |
Fall 2007 |
Winter 2008 |
4.7
(#5) |
4.2
(#8) |
4.3
(#7) |
4.4
(#5) |
4.3
(#8) |
4.9
(#5) |
4.1
(#8) |
4.5
(#7) |
According to a preliminary Arbitron report released April 28, 2008
Sources
Michiguide.com - WVMV History
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wvmv'.
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