WKQI

Infobox Radio station
name = WKQI


city = Detroit, Michigan
area = Detroit, MI-Windsor, ON
branding = Channel 9-5-5
slogan = "Detroit's Hit Music"
airdate = February 12, 1949
frequency = 95.5 MHz HD Radio
95.5 HD-2: Bomb Squad Radio
Dance Top 40 Club Phusion
format = Top 40 (CHR)
power = 100,000 watts
haat = 130 meters
class = B
facility_id = 6592
coordinates = coord|42|28|23|N|83|11|59|W|type:landmark
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns = WCZY-FM (6/17/85-7/20/89)
WCZY (9/9/80-6/17/85)
WLDM (2/12/49-9/9/80)
owner = Clear Channel
webcast = [http://www.channel955.com/cc-common/streaming_new/ Listen live]
website = [http://www.channel955.com/ http://www.channel955.com/]
sister_stations = WDFN, WDTW, WDTW-FM, WJLB, WMXD, WNIC
affiliations =

WKQI, known as "Channel 9-5-5," is a Top 40 (CHR) radio station in Detroit, Michigan, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKQI transmits its signal with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from an antenna 430 feet in height located at the intersection of Greenfield Road and 10 mile Rd. in suburban Oak Park in Oakland County.

History

Easy Listening WLDM and WCZY

The station began operations on February 12, 1949, as WLDM, and for over three decades had a "beautiful music" format. WLDM was also Detroit's first full-time FM stereo station. In the 1960s and early 1970s, WLDM was one of several beautiful music stations in Detroit, and also one of the more successful ratings-wise. After being sold to Combined Communications (which later sold to Gannett Broadcasting in 1981), WLDM changed its call letters to WCZY-FM ("Cozy FM") in 1976.

WCZY-FM's format, under Robert Gaskins, continued to evolve into the number one station in Detroit's 25-54 demographics. Top rated personalities Paul Bryon (Mornings), Bob Martin (Middays), and Al Gauge (afternoons) created a friendly sound that continued the station's dominance of the easy-listening music audience in Detroit. But in 1981, when the Gannett newspaper chain purchased this and the rest of Combined's stations, Gannett staff believed that the station, even with its high advertising rates, was not generating enough revenue. Gannett fired the entire easy-listening air staff and began to move the format in an adult contemporary direction. WCZY's listeners did not accept the more contemporary music, and the former easy-listening powerhouse was soon struggling to make the top ten as well as suffering from decreased revenues.

In 1978, former country station WDEE-AM (1500) was acquired and its call letters changed to WCZY-AM with a similar format. Even though several top rated disc jockeys like Bob Martin were moved to the AM, the poor signal of the station hindered the station from producing the #1 ratings the FM station enjoyed. WCZY-AM changed to to WLQV-AM (Love Radio) with a Christian religious format put in place.

Even with solid competition from two other easy listening stations 96.3 WJR-FM and 97.1 WWJ-FM, WCZY-FM enjoyed two more years of #1 ratings in the adult listening market until in 1980, the Combined Communications chain was bought by the Gannett newspaper chain. Wishing for a heavier commercial load and with no radio ownership experience, the format was changed in 1983 to Top 40 to compete with "Hot Hits" WHYT (the former WJR-FM), eventually taking on the moniker "Z95.5". Dick Purtan was brought in from CKLW as the new morning man, and the entire staff was replaced (Gaskins going to Boston, and Martin to Mobile, Alabama). But the station never came anywhere near the sales or high ratings levels it enjoyed under the leadership of Bob Gaskins and air talent of Bryon, Martin and Gauge. Largely thanks to the popularity of Dick Purtan's morning show, WCZY continued to post top 10 ratings through most of the rest of the 1980s, but the 95.5 MHz frequency has not been number one (12+) since.

All Hits Z95.5

Dick Purtan came over from CKLW to host Cozy FM's morning show in early 1983, and the evolution of WCZY's format away from easy listening and toward rock continued. By the end of 1983, the change from AC to CHR was complete, and the station was poised to do battle with "Hot Hits" WHYT for the CHR audience. In 1984, WCZY rebranded itself "Z95.5." Z95.5 enjoyed a fair amount of ratings success with its CHR format, usually rated in Detroit's top ten Arbitron ratings 12+, though arguably much of the station's high ratings came from Purtan's show. In an attempt to hold on to the station's adult audience, Z95.5 was more of an Adult CHR, avoiding most rap, dance and hard rock songs unless they were successful pop crossovers. Although WCZY's overall 12+ ratings were often better than WHYT's, WHYT was much more popular with teenage and young adult listeners.

For a time, Z95.5 also simulcast its programming again on AM 1500 (WLQV-AM, which once again changed its calls to WCZY-AM, with the station IDing as "Z95.5 and AM 1500") as part of a ploy to "return Dick Purtan to the AM dial." It lasted only a few years before AM 1500 returned to its previous religious format as WLQV.

Q95

Despite respectable ratings for "Z95.5," the station still had trouble making enough money, and so in 1989, WCZY changed its calls to WKQI, "Q95," and tweaked its format from CHR to hot adult contemporary, then a rapidly growing subset of CHR which eliminated most hard rock and rap music. Detroit based AC radio consultant Gary Berkowitz was the original Q95 program director, which also included (in addition to Dick Purtan) air personalities Kevin O'Neill and Michael Waite (formerly of rival WHYT). The station's ratings continued to be respectable throughout the 1990s. Dick Purtan was an investor in the new station and stayed on as Q95's morning host until 1996, when he left for oldies 104.3 WOMC, where he has remained since. Following Purtan's departure, WKQI became "Q95-5, Detroit's Continuous Hit Music Station," hired former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce as the morning show host, and took on a brighter, more contemporary sound, adding alternative-leaning artists such as Alanis Morissette, Joan Osborne and BoDeans which the station had not played previously. or most of the late 1990s, WKQI was a heavily dayparted station, being a fairly conservative Hot AC during the day but taking more of a CHR approach at night, while still shying away from most urban music and rap except for artists with mainstream pop appeal such as Will Smith, Toni Braxton, and Ghost Town DJs.

Top 40 Wars: WKQI vs. WDRQ

Danny Bonaduce kept WKQI's morning ratings high, but after he departed in 1998, the station began to falter. ABC/Disney-owned rhythmic-based rival WDRQ took advantage of WKQI's weak spots by moving to a more mainstream Top 40 format with a hotter, more energetic presentation than WKQI. By the summer of 2000, Q95-5 had sunk to fourteenth place in the ratings, while WDRQ had charged into the top ten (though WKQI still outbilled DRQ by a fair margin). By 2000, the station was owned by AMFM; Clear Channel took control of the station that year when it merged with AMFM. WDRQ continued to win the CHR battle against WKQI for several more years, but in February 2002, Clear Channel re-launched WKQI as "Channel 9-5-5" and began to move the station in a more rhythmic direction to compete more directly with WDRQ. WKQI soon once again took the ratings lead over DRQ. WDRQ's falling ratings culminated in its format switch to "Variety Hits" as "Doug-FM" on April 1, 2005, which left WKQI to have the CHR market to itself in Detroit. Subsequently, WKQI reclaimed its top 10 showing in Detroit's Arbitron ratings.

Channel 955 Today

WKQI is currently the home of the popular Mojo In The Morning show, which has been on the air since 2000 and is well-known nationally for its funny and sometimes controversial "Phone Scams" and the scandalous "War of the Roses." The morning show has enjoyed ratings success, overcoming former legends of Detroit morning radio including Dick Purtan, Howard Stern, and The Breakfast Club with Jim Harper. Recently (July 2007), Mojo In The Morning commanded the coveted #1 ratings slot for ages 18-34 over long-time market-leaders Drew and Mike on rock station WRIF.

Big Boy is a popular draw at night and is known for his crazy weekly appearances at local clubs. Afternoon drive host Beau Daniels worked at WHYT as "Bo the Jammer" during the station's halcyon days in the late '80s and early '90s. Michelle Taylor and Devediah round out the slate of radio personalities.

Capitalizing on the popularity of MySpace, WKQI rebranded itself as "Detroit's Hit Music Space" in September 2006. This rebranding ended less than one year later as WKQI created its own on-line social networking site called "The Unit" (August 2007) which encourages listeners to create their own pages in a more user-friendly environment than offered by MySpace.

In 2008 WKQI's HD2 subchannel began carrying the Dance Top 40 Club Phusion format, which is part of Clear Channel's Format Lab. It previously had aired a "New CHR" format.

Airstaff

The current lineup (as of January 2008) is as follows

* Morning Show: Mojo In The Morning - Tom "Mojo" Corbello, Spike, Kyra Dillard, Producer Rachel Giordano,
Online Producer Rob Gramm & Shay (Traffic)
* Mid-Days: Michelle Taylor
* Afternoon Drive: Beau Daniels
* Nighttime: The Big Boy Show - Big Boy
* Overnights: Devediah - (Also traffic reporter during Beau's afternoon show)
* Fri Nights: The Friday Night Mixtape - Stylz, DJ Paul Martindale & Various Bomb Squad DJ
* Sat Nights: The Saturday Night Bomb - Nick Craig and DJ Shortstop
* Sun Nights: Sunday Night Extreme - DJ Ryan Richards
* Weekend's/Fill-ins: Nick Craig, Noize, Paris (Ice), Shay & Stylz
* The Bomb Squad: DJ Shortstop, DJ Ryan Richards, DJ Paul Martindale, DJ Who, DJ David B. & DJ Matt Camron
* Special Programming:
** "American Top 40" - Ryan Seacrest
** "Back Trax USA" (1990s version) - Kid Kelly

Past slogans

* "The Easy Listening Station" (Cozy FM)
* "All Hits, All the Time!" (Z95.5)
* "Better Variety, More Music" (Q95)
* "The Best Hits Without the Hard Rock and Rap" (Q95)
* "Detroit's Continuous Hit Music Station" (Q95-5)
* "Today's Best Music" (Q95-5)
* "Detroit's Hit Music Leader" (Q95-5)
* "Detroit's Hit Music" or "Detroit's Hit Music Channel" (Channel 955)
* "Detroit's Hit Music Space" (Channel 955)

Current Station Rating

Channel 9-5-5 cuurently ranks at #5 in the Detroit market according to the Summer 2008 Phase II ratings release.

According to a preliminary Arbitron report released September 16, 2008

Logo Gallery

gallery2|size=100
p1=Czyfm.jpg|c1=Cozy FM logo
1982-1984
p2=Z95-5.jpg|c2=Z95.5 logo
1984-1989
p3=Q95.gif|c3=Q95 logo
1989-1995
p4=Q95-5.jpg|c4=Q95-5 logo
1995-2002
p5=WKQI-FM.gif|c5=Channel 955 logo
2002-2007

Sources

* [http://www.michiguide.com/dials/rad-j/wkqi.html Michiguide.com - WKQI History]

External links

* [http://www.channel955.com/ Channel 9-5-5 official website]
*FM station data|WKQI