History
WLDR-FM signed on in 1966 by Rod Maxson, a well-known businessman in Traverse City along with Robert L. Greaige who was the one with the knowledge of the radio business. Maxson was the owner of Grand Traverse Auto, the city's Ford dealership. With the exception of the nine years in which they played country, WLDR carried some sort of adult contemporary format for its first 38 years, and today. The station's call letters stood for "Long Distance Radio", suitable since they broadcast at 100 kW.
In 1972, Maxson sold a majority of WLDR to one of his salesmen, Don Wiitala, who owned the station for more than 30 years. Wiitala was a beloved broadcaster known for giving the station a home-spun image. WLDR was a station that has many aspects of many full-service stations; the station, although licensed to broadcast 24 hours, signed on in the morning and signed off at night, aired local high school sporting events, had a "tradio" show – Wiitala even sold his old house on the show – and played music Wiitala found suitable for his audience.
Maxson also sold a minority of WLDR to his son, Dave Maxson, who served as the station's news director until he decided to work for the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home. He remains with WLDR to this day though he sold his stake in the station years ago. Rod died in 2005.
Throughout the 1970s, WLDR was coined "Stereo 102". Some say that Wiitala was frugal in the way he ran WLDR; he would go to the local Giantway (a now-defunct grocery/retail outlet with a chain of stores in central and northern Michigan) in Traverse City (now Tom's Food Market and Dunham Sports Outfitters) and buy 45s cheap off the rack. The same tactics were employed in the purchase of LPs. Only obscure record labels would suffice along with artists from a bygone era. The syndicated John Doremus show aired four hours each day. Northern Michigan's first call-in talk show, "Listen to the Mrs." aired weekday afternoons.
In the 1980s, WLDR changed its name to "Sunny 102" to update the station's image.
Throughout the 1990s, WLDR was part of a dying breed: one-station owners. Also, in the age of 24-hour formats, the station signed on at 5 a.m. and signed off at 1 a.m. Although the station promoted a 'family-friendly' image, the station would play a few alternative rock artists, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and U2. However, the station was losing a lot of listeners to Trish MacDonald-Garber's WLXT/Lite 96. Starting in the late 1990s, Wiitala, who was in his sixties, was taking offers for WLDR. In 2000, he sold WLDR to Roy Henderson and his Fort Bend Broadcasting Group, who maintained WLDR's AC format, but changed the station's named from Sunny 102 to Sunny 101.9.
Before he sold WLDR to Henderson, Wiitala allowed WLDR to remain on the air 24 hours, thanks to a new automated hard drive system. The station also started airing the syndicated Delilah show.
When Henderson purchased WLDR, he also purchased several other stations, such as WOUF 92.1 (Beulah), which simulcasts WLDR-FM, WBNZ 99.3 (Frankfort) and WCUZ 100.1 (Bear Lake) with the intention to move the stations closer to Traverse City and boost their power. The move would also allow Henderson to develop new formats for northern Michigan radio, like he did in Texas with his popular "Texas Rebel Radio" format. Because of objections from other broadcasters, many of the moves never happened, although WOUF has moved to 92.3 and boosted power to 50 kW.
