| City | Dundee, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Northwest Suburban Chicago / Fox Valley |
| Frequency | 103.9 MHz |
| First air date | June 8, 1967 (as WVFV) [1] |
| Format | Silent |
| ERP | 2,550 watts |
| HAAT | 98 meters (322 ft) |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 3135 |
| Former callsigns | WVFV (1967–1980) [2] WCRM (1980–1989) [3] WABT (1989–1996) [3] WZCH (1996–2004) [3] WWYW (2004–2013) [3] |
| Owner | Educational Media Foundation |
WFXF (103.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Dundee, Illinois. Its transmitter is located in Gilberts, Illinois. The station serves the northwestern suburbs of Chicago.
Gilberts is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,879 at the 2010 census, up from 1,279 at the 2000 census. The population continues to grow at a rapid rate: as of 2017 the estimated population was 8,073.
The station began broadcasting on June 8, 1967, holding the call sign WVFV, [1] [2] as the Voice of the Fox Valley. [4] The new station was the creation of Jim French, who operated out of a space above Cardunal Savings and Loan in West Dundee. [2] [4] WVFV's transmitter was built in Gilberts, Illinois. [2] It originally operated from noon to midnight. [4] The station featured a middle-of-the-road format, with a heavy emphasis on big band music, as well as broadcasts of local high school sports and city council meetings. [4] [5] [6] The station was sold in Spring 1970 to Richard Willrett, for $45,000. [2] [7]
Middle of the road is a commercial radio format and popular music genre. Music associated with this term is strongly melodic and uses techniques of vocal harmony and light orchestral arrangements. The format was eventually rebranded as soft adult contemporary.
A big band is a type of musical ensemble that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and dominated jazz in the early 1940s when swing was most popular. The term "big band" is also used to describe a genre of music. One problem with this usage is that it overlooks the variety of music played by these bands.
In February 1972, WVFV switched to a progressive rock format. [5] [8] In 1976, the station was sold to Ralph J. Faucher for $160,000, [2] [9] and its format was changed to adult contemporary. [10] [4]
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that emerged in the late 1960s, in which disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always played. It enjoyed the height of its popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s. The name for the format began being used circa 1968, when serious disc jockeys were playing "progressive 'music for the head'" and discussing social issues in between records. During the late 1960s, as Long playing records began to supplant the single in popularity with rock audiences, progressive rock stations placed more emphasis on album tracks than their AM counterparts. Throughout the 1970s as FM stations moved to more structured formats, progressive radio evolved into Album-oriented rock (AOR).
In Spring 1980, the station was sold to CLW Communications, a subsidiary of AMG International, for $315,000. [11] [2] The station adopted a Christian contemporary format, with an evening block of Christian rock. [12] On May 27, 1980, its call sign was changed to WCRM, [2] standing for "Christian Radio Music". [13] The station's slogan was "Today's Christian Music". [13] WCRM also sold airtime to churches and religious organizations, whose programs primarily aired late mornings. [4] The Christian contemporary format lasted through the decade. [14] [13]
AMG International is a Christian ministry based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, U.S.A. The acronym AMG stands for "Advancing the Ministries of the Gospel". It was founded in 1942 in New York City as the American Committee for the Evangelization of the Greeks by George Georgakis. Shortly thereafter, it became the American Mission to the Greeks. Spiros Zodhiates became its director in 1947. Originally focused on the Greeks, it is now active in more than 40 countries.
Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Christian varies between bands. Many bands who perform Christian rock have ties to the contemporary Christian music labels, media outlets, and festivals, while other bands are independent.
In 1989, the station was sold to Atlantic Morris Broadcasting for $1.5 million. [15] On April 10, 1989, its call sign was changed to WABT, [3] and the station adopted an album-oriented rock/classic rock hybrid format, branded "The Wabbit", with the slogan "The Northwest's Own Rock and Roll". [16] [17] [18] Among the staff at the station was Cara Carriveau (who went by her maiden name Cara Stern and on air name Cara Simms at the time), who began as overnight DJ in 1989, later moving to nights and middays. [19] [20] By 1992, Carriveau had become program director, replacing Randy McCarthy. [19] [18] She remained with WABT until 1995, when she left to become program director of Shadow Broadcast Services, and was replaced by Dan Forthover. [21] [22] [23] In 1995, the station was sold to M & M Broadcasting, owned by former Hammond, Indiana mayor Thomas McDermott, Sr., for $975,000. [24] [25] [26] The station began to be simulcast on 103.9 WWJY in Crown Point, Indiana. [25] [27]
Album-oriented rock (AOR) is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists. AOR evolved from progressive rock radio in the mid-1970s, using research and formal programming to create an album rock format with greater commercial appeal.
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, primarily focusing on commercially successful blues rock and hard rock popularized in the 1970s album-oriented rock format. The radio format became increasingly popular with the baby boomer demographic by the end of the 1990s.
Cara Carriveau is currently a nationwide radio personality after spending three decades on the air in Chicago, most recently on air at 100.3 WSHE, and host of the podcast Cara's Basement.
In 1996, the station was sold to Z-Spanish Network, along with WWJY, for $3.6 million, [28] [29] and it adopted a Spanish language format, [30] airing regional Mexican music. [31] [32] On June 7, 1996, its call sign was changed to WZCH. [3] In 2000, Z-Spanish Network was acquired by Entravision Communications. [33] On December 29, 2000, WZCH began airing a Spanish CHR format branded "Super Estrella", as part of a simulcast with 99.9 WRZA in Park Forest, Illinois. [31] [34] [35] In May 2004, NextMedia Group purchased the station from Entravision Communications for $5 million. [34] [36] By the end of the month, WZCH was stunting with television theme songs. [37]
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in the Americas and Spain. It is a global language and the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese.
Regional Mexican is a Latin music radio format, typically including Banda, Conjunto, Corridos, Duranguense, Grupero, Huapango, Mariachi, New Mexico music, Norteña, Ranchera, and Tejano music. It is the most popular radio format targeting Hispanic Americans in the United States.
Entravision Communications Corporation is an American media company based in Santa Monica, California. Entravision primarily caters to the Spanish-speaking Hispanic community and owns television and radio stations and outdoor media, in several of the top Hispanic markets. It is the largest affiliate group of the Univision and UniMás television networks. Entravision also owns a small number of English-language television and radio stations.
On Tuesday June 1, 2004, the station adopted a rhythmic oldies format branded as "Y1039, The Beat of the Burbs", with the new call sign WWYW. [38] [39] The following year, the station gradually reformatted as an oldies station branded as "Y103.9, The Greatest Hits of All Time". [40] [41] [42] This worked to fill the void left by the format flip of WJMK from oldies to Jack-FM.
Y103.9 featured local hosts such as Jim Shea, Jeff James, Jeff Davis, Shawn Powers, Marci Beeks, Carla Coulter, and Ken Cocker. [43] [44] [45] [46] Weekend programing included a Saturday night all 1970s music show with Jeff James. [47]
By 2011, airtime of live and local hosts was greatly reduced, leaving only Marci Beeks at middays, and Jeff James and Carla Coulter's weekend shows as live and local. [45] [48] [49] The remainder of the schedule was filled with Tom Kent's syndicated programming. [49] [45] In January 2013, Marci Beeks left the station, and it's weekday programming was entirely from Tom Kent's network. [49]
On February 25, 2013, at 2:00pm the station dropped its oldies and classic hits format, and adopted a classic rock format branded "103.9 The Fox". [50] The last song as Y103.9 was Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye, while the first song on 103.9 The Fox was Foxy Lady by Jimi Hendrix. [51] [52] The station's call sign was changed to WFXF on March 4, 2013. [3]
WFXF shares facilities with sister station WZSR in Crystal Lake, Illinois. The studios for both stations are located behind McHenry County College on U.S. Route 14. [53] On-air staff included Alex Quigley, [54] formerly of Q101, Pat Capone, [55] formerly of The Loop, and Eddie Volkman, formerly of B96. [56]
In February 2019, it was announced that Alpha Media will purchase WFXF and 105.5 WZSR for $4,669,011, with WFXF to be immediately resold to Educational Media Foundation for $900,000. [57]
In preparation for the sale, the airstaff announced their final day on The Fox would be on April 5. [58] The Fox's final promotion, an "Adult Easter Egg Hunt" at McHenry County College, was rescheduled from April 19 to April 6. [58] [59] The station was set to flip to EMF's Air 1 network on the following Monday, the 8th, with new callsign WAWY already reserved. [58] However, after the final song played on The Fox, the station was taken silent.
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