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Broadcast area | Chicago metropolitan area |
Frequency | 92.7 MHz |
Branding |
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Programming | |
Format |
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Ownership | |
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History | |
First air date | March 10, 1960 [1] |
Former call signs | |
Technical information [4] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 15520 |
Class | A |
ERP | 1,800 watts |
HAAT | 116 meters (381 ft) |
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Public license information | |
Website |
WCPY (92.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to Arlington Heights, Illinois, and serving the Chicago area. WCPY airs a Polish language format during the daytime, as "Polski FM", while airing a dance hits format at night known as "Dance Factory FM".
The station is owned by Rhythm Enterprises LLC. WCPY transmits on a tower with WPPN and WPNA-FM in nearby Buffalo Grove at 1,800 watts.
The station began broadcasting on March 10, 1960, holding the call sign WNWC ("North West Communities"). [1] [5] [6] In July 1961, the station was purchased by Bob Atcher and Thomas Hogan. [5] [7] WNWC would air a wide variety of non-rock music. [5] It aired four hours of country music a day before increasing it to 12 hours a day in November 1963. [8] In 1965, Lester Vihon purchased the station for $110,000. [5] By 1966, it was airing hard rock evenings. [9] The station was off the air temporarily in June 1966, after a tornado toppled its tower. [9] In early 1968, the station was sold to auto dealer Walter Mack for $150,000. [5] [10]
In April 1968, the station's call sign was changed to WEXI, and was branded "Stereo Excitement". [2] [11] WEXI aired easy listening music during the day and a progressive rock format overnight. [12] [13] Shortly thereafter, it adopted a top 40 format. [14] [5] In November 1970, the station adopted a beautiful music format, with the slogan "Spreading Clean Air over Chicagoland". [14] [5] [15]
In autumn 1972, the station was sold to Community Broadcasters for $230,000, and its call sign was changed to WWMM. [16] [2] WWMM aired contemporary middle of the road music, along with some talk programs. [5] [17] [18] Among the shows on WWMM in this period was "Love in the Afternoon", a sex talk program hosted by Jonathan Kingsley. [18] By 1976, the station had adopted a jazz format. [5] [19] In 1976, the station was sold to Northwest Community Broadcasting for $500,000. [20] [2] By 1977, WWMM was airing a MOR-adult contemporary format, with the slogan "Radio for the Great Northwest". [21] [22] [23]
In spring of 1981, the station was sold to Radio Communications Group and its call sign was changed to WTCO. [2] [3] [5] WTCO aired a country music format. [5] [24] In 1982, the station was sold to Darrell Peters Productions for $550,000. [25] [26]
Darrell Peters Productions applied to change the station's call sign to WSEX on September 26, 1982, but the application was rejected. [27] An application to reconsider was submitted, and the call sign change was approved on January 24, 1983. [27] [28] [29] [3] WSEX aired an adult contemporary format called "Love Songs & More". [30] In January 1986, the station adopted a "Top 10" format, playing songs that had reached the top 10 within the past five years. [31] [32] [33]
The station became "Chicago's Bear", and its call sign was changed to WCBR-FM on January 9, 1989. [3] [34] WCBR-FM aired an adult album alternative format. [35] [36] [37] As the 90's progressed, it began to air brokered programming nights and weekends. [37] WCBR-FM also aired Chicago Wolves hockey. [37] [38]
In 1998, the station was sold to Big City Radio for $17 million. [39] Many of the brokered programs that were on WCBR-FM moved to 94.3 WJKL in Elgin. [39] Purchased by Big City Radio at the same time was 92.7 WLRA in Kankakee. [40] When Big City Radio took control of the two stations, they stunted with a simulcast of their Los Angeles sister station 107.1 KLYY, which aired a modern rock format. [41] WLRA's call sign was changed to WBRO shortly thereafter. [42]
On November 14, 1998, at Noon, WCBR and WBRO launched their new official format, CHR as "92.7 Kiss FM", with the first song being "Kiss" by Prince. [43] [44] [45] This would be Chicago's first true CHR station in many years and proved to be quite successful, even with the two stations' weak signals. [43] [38] [44] In late December 1998, the station's call sign was changed to WKIE, while WBRO's call sign was changed to WKIF. [3] [42] Big City Radio also purchased WDEK 92.5 in DeKalb, Illinois, which was airing a locally programmed CHR format at the time, and switched it to a simulcast of WKIE and WKIF in early 1999. [46] Not long after, the moniker was adjusted to "92 Kiss FM". [47] Melissa Forman hosted mornings on 92 Kiss FM, before moving to 93.9 WLIT-FM in 2001. [48] [49]
On January 12, 2001, Clear Channel's WUBT changed formats from rhythmic oldies to CHR as WKSC-FM "Kiss 103.5". [50] At that time, Clear Channel filed suit against Big City Radio, alleging the "Kiss FM" branding used by WKIE and its simulcasts violated its national trademark. [50] [51] However, Big City Radio had already planned on changing the formats of these stations. [51] On January 26, 2001, 92 Kiss-FM signed off, and the three stations adopted a dance hits format as "Energy 92.7&5". [51] [52] The station's airstaff remained intact. [53] [54] The new format was designed by 92 Kiss FM's program director, Chris Shebel, who has stated that the dance hits format is something he had dreamed of doing for a long time. [51]
In late 2002, Big City Radio, became insolvent and began the process of selling all of its radio stations. [55] In early 2003, WKIE, WKIF and WDEK were sold to Spanish Broadcasting System for $22 million. [56] On January 6, 2003, the three stations adopted a Spanish contemporary format as "Onda 92". [57] [58] [59] [60]
In 2004, Spanish Broadcasting System sold WKIE, WKIF and WDEK to Newsweb Corporation for $28 million. [61] [62] At 9 a.m. November 29, 2004, WKIE and WDEK began simulcasting with its new adult hits sister station 99.9 WRZA in Park Forest, Illinois, as "Nine FM", with the slogan "We Play Anything". [63] [64] The first song on the Nine FM simulcast was "With or Without You" by U2. [63] Sky Daniels was the original program director for Nine FM. [63] When he left in 2005, he was replaced by Matt DuBiel. [64]
In 2006, Chris Chudzik began leasing air time for a dance music show called Dance Factory. [65] [66] Initially airing overnight on Saturdays, [65] the program was expanded to seven nights a week on May 14, 2007. [66] Dance Factory has continued to air overnight on the station, even as its daytime format has changed. [67] [68]
Newsweb Corporation dropped the Nine FM programming on all three signals on October 20, 2008, and replaced it with a simulcast of sister station WCPT from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. [69] [67] The Nine FM format moved to WKIF 92.7 in Kankakee. [70] On October 27, 2008, the station changed its callsign from WKIE to WCPT-FM, to go with the format. [3]
On June 2, 2014, WCPT-FM and 99.9 WCPQ broke away from the progressive talk simulcast and changed their daytime format to Polish, branded as "Polski FM". [68] [71] WCPT-FM then swapped callsigns with 92.5 WCPY in DeKalb, which remained part of the progressive talk simulcast. [3] [71] In 2018, 99.9 WCPQ was sold to Bible Broadcasting Network, and it adopted a Christian format as WYHI. [72] Polski FM was then briefly simulcast on 640 WMFN in the summer of 2018. [73] In October 2024, Newsweb sold WCPY to Mina Georgalas' Rhythm Enterprises LLC for $3 million; three of the company's members are associated with the "Polski FM" programming. [74]
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