WWIN-FM

Infobox Radio Station
name = WWIN-FM


area = Baltimore, MD
branding = "MAGIC 95.9"
slogan = "Baltimore's R&B Leader"
airdate =
frequency = 95.9 (MHz)
format = Urban Adult Contemporary
erp = 3,000 watts
haat = 91 meters
class = A
facility_id = 54710
owner = Radio One Inc.
sister_stations = WERQ, WOLB, WWIN
webcast = [http://wm-eon.vitalstreamcdn.com/live_eonwmss_vitalstream_com_radioone-wwinfm-fast Listen Live]
website = [http://www.magic959baltimore.com/ www.magic959baltimore.com]
callsign_meaning =

WWIN-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station out of Baltimore owned by Radio One. It is known as "Magic 95.9," playing a great variety of Urban adult contemporary music from the 1960s to present.

History

WWIN-FM's former nickname from the 1970s was "Music 96". Around 1987 the format changed to Contemporary Hit Radio with the call letters to WHTE then WGHT. '"Hot 95.9"' failed to compete with CHR leader WBSB FM "B-104" and all airstaff were fired on June 23,1989. Urban Adult music returned to 95.9 FM as legendary announcers Harold Pompey and Don "Cleo" Brooks created, 1400 AM/95.9 FM WWIN FM "The Best Songs And No Rap". In 1992, after a failed purchase attempt Washington, D.C. station owner Cathy Hughes and her company Almic Broadcasting bought WWIN AM & FM from Broadcast Enterprise Network, Inc. Ragan Augustus Henry, a Philadelphia attorney headed the organization as President and 53% owner. He founded BENI (Broadcast Enterprises National, Inc.) in 1974 as a Black-owned business venture. Almic immediately changed the station's nickname to "Majic 95.9" In the late 90's,"Majic" was changed to "Magic". Later in 1992 Almic Broadcasting changed it's name to Radio One Inc. Personalities on WWIN-FM were Curtis Anderson, Harold Pompey, Tim Watts, Larry Wilson, Alphie, Lee Cross, Ronnie Baker, Mike Roberts, Mike Morange-El, Eric Henson,Larnell King, Anthony, Robin Holden,Lou Thimes Jr., Dave Alan, Trecina "Sunshine" Grey, Denise Edwards,Jacqui Allen, Larwence Gregory Jones, Sonny Andre, and Commediene-Actress Monique. Today WWIN-FM carries two nationally syndicated shows: "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" and "Love, Lust and Lies with Michael Baisden".

Before the locally-owned Belvedere Broadcasting Company bought 95.9 in the early 1980's, the frequency was used by The Baltimore Radio Show, Incorporated, long-time operators of WFBR(AM)1300.

The Radio Show, also a locally-owned company, used the call letters WBKZ(FM)for 95.9 and presented various automated-and-semi-automated music formats, including at least two from the syndication company Drake-Chenault, co-founded by legendary programmer Bill Drake.

The music formats of WBKZ ranged from adult contemporary to nostalgia (music of the pre-rock era mixed with softer recent music). WBKZ pioneered mainstream adult contemporary on FM in the Baltimore market, at least a year (1976) earlier than the evolution of WKTK(FM)105.7 from album rock through pop disco to uptempo adult contemporary. WBKZ predated later adult contemporary-adult Top 40 stations such as WYST(FM)92.3, WWMX(FM)106.5 and the late stages of WBSB(FM)104.3 as it moved from the mass-appeal Top 40 of B104.

Personalities were used even with these "live-assist" formats on WBKZ, most notably long-time Baltimore morning host Lee Case after a change of format at WCBM(AM)680, where Case ruled as the "Morning Mayor" for at least a quarter-century.

The Baltimore Radio Show sold 95.9 to Belvedere in or about 1982 or 1983. Belvedere had operated the Class IV WWIN(AM)1400 for many years, and the company and some of its principals had expermented earlier with FM.

WWIN(AM)was a successful rhythm-and-blues or "soul" music station that saw audience erosion in the late 1970's and early 1980's after the emergence of Plough Broadcasting's WXYV(FM)102.7, known by the slogan V-103. The former WCAO-FM began a rhythmic "disco" automated-voice-tracked format in 1977 and evolved into an r&b station with live personalities. Conjecture suggested that WWIN needed to place all or some of its programming on FM to stay competitive.

The renamed WBKZ as WWIN-FM at first simulcast the programming of 1400 and then evolved into a softer, older-appeal music format based on r&b and eventually known as "urban adult contemporary".

At some point in the mid-to-late 1980's, Belvedere sold WWIN AM&FM to Ragan Henry's organization, and eventually that company moved the FM station to a variation of Top 40 or Contemporary Hit Radio under the callsign WHTE(FM) briefly, and then as WGHT(FM)in 1987. Both callsigns were subordinated to the slogan Hot 95.9.

As noted above, longtime Baltimore radio personality, programmer and manager Don Cleo Brooks and fellow veteran Harold Pompey led 95.9 back to an "urban adult" format after disappointing performance as Hot 95.9. There was simulcasting of FM programming on the fading WWIN(AM) 1400 for some time, and a few years later, both stations were sold to Almic, the predecessor of Radio One.

95.9 entered the Baltimore-area radio fray in the early 1960's, as a simulcast of WISZ(AM)1590, a highly-directional local station licensed to Glen Burnie in northern Anne Arundel County. WISZ(AM/FM)constituted the only full-time country music station in the immediate area of Baltimore, until WPOC(FM)93.1 was converted from easy-listening to a modern country format in 1974 after being purchased by Nationwide Communications, a subsidiary of the well-known insurance company Nationwide.

Within two years of WPOC's successful change, WISZ-FM was sold by its local owners to The Baltimore Radio Show, and that company brought in the first of the adult-contemporary or nostalgia formats using automation under the slogan Z-96.

WWIN-FM shares its call letters with "'WWIN (AM). WWIN AM "Spirit 1400", an Urban Gospel station that also serves Baltimore.

External links

* [http://www.magic959baltimore.com WWIN Website]
*FMQ|WWIN
*FML|WWIN
*FMARB|WWIN