WDTW-FM

Infobox Radio station
name = WDTW-FM


city = Detroit, Michigan
branding = 106.7 The Fox
slogan = Welcome To Fox Country
airdate = October 16, 1960
frequency = 106.7 MHz HD Radio
106.7 HD-2: The Mother Trucker
Country/Southern Rock/Country Rock/Americana
format = Country
erp = 61,000 Watts
haat = 155 meters
class = B
facility_id = 59952
coordinates = coord|42|19|55|N|83|02|42|W|type:landmark
callsign_meaning = W DTW, the IATA airport code for the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
former_callsigns = WDTW (7/11/02-1/25/05)
WLLC (10/2/00-7/11/02)
WWWW-FM (9/14/92-10/2/00)
WWWW (?-9/14/92)
WDTM (1960-?)
owner = Clear Channel Communications
sister_stations = WDFN, WDTW, WJLB, WKQI, WMXD, WNIC
webcast = [http://www.foxspacelive.com/cc-common/streaming_new/ Listen live]
website = http://www.foxspacelive.com
affiliations =

WDTW-FM (106.7 FM, "106.7 The Fox") is a country music formatted radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications. WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations; its secondary channel is called "The Mother Trucker" which features a mix of country music, southern rock, country rock and Americana.

History

Early history

The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, and aired Beautiful Music, like many other FMs of the time. Previous owners of the 106.7 frequency included Starr Broadcasting and Gordon McLendon, who pioneered the legendary and long-running Top 40 format at KLIF in Dallas.

W4 - From Easy Listening to Rock to Country

McLendon changed WDTM's call letters to WWWW - "W4" - and later changed the station's format from easy listening to oldies (with an airstaff that included Detroit radio legend Tom Clay).

In 1970, "W4" became an album oriented rock station and briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission in the early 1970s. In the late 1970s, album-rock W4 was one of the top-rated radio stations in Detroit. It is most remembered today as one of future shock jock Howard Stern's earliest radio jobs. Stern was the morning DJ in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Shamrock Broadcasting purchased W4 in July 1979 and, faced with increasing competition (W4 was one of four Detroit stations broadcasting in the AOR format), Shamrock changed the station's format to country music in 1980. The new management reportedly planned to brand Stern as "Hopalong Howie," which he declined after two weeks, moving to WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C.. In the film "Private Parts", Howard Stern announced his departure [http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/issues/84/970207/AE/Story01.html, Retrieved on 2008/04/18.] in the middle of a song claiming he didn't understand country music.

The move to country music paid off. The Detroit market, the nation's fifth largest at the time, was bereft of FM country music stations despite the market containing a sizable percentage of population whose families hailed from the Southern United States and grew up with the genre. "W4 Country's" first years coincided with the rise in popularity of country music as a whole from a genre concentrated in the South and other parts of rural America into one with a nationwide following. At the time of the country format's launch, the immediate Detroit area's only country music station was an AM station, WCXI on 1130 kHz. WWWW became the first FM country station in Detroit since WDEE-FM in the early 1970s, and as a result, WCXI's ratings fell. By the early 1990s, AM 1130 was being used as a simulcast for W4. WCXI also attempted to compete with W4 from 1982 to 1986 with an FM station (92.3, now WMXD) separately programmed from the AM, but the FM station never took off.

"W4 Country" lasted for almost two decades and did reasonably well in the ratings. However, low advertising revenue coupled with increased local competition in the format (from WYCD) led owners AMFM (which became part of Clear Channel in August 2000) to drop the country format on September 1, 1999 at 6pm. The final song played on "W4 Country" was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner."

"Alice" and "The Drive"

Then on September 3, 1999 at 2:05pm, After two days of stunting with a 400-Hz tone (which also involved a contest to correctly guess the day and time that the tone would end), the station relaunched as "Alice 106.7," featuring "Rockin' Hits of the '80s and '90s" with "All Right Now" by Free being the first song played.

The WWWW calls remained for another year until the new calls WLLC were adopted on October 2, 2000. (Said as "WLL..See". Emphasis was eventually put on the C due to listeners mistakingly believing the station picked up call letters WLLZ, which used to be for 98.7.) At this same time the WWWW callsign was moved to 102.9 MHz in nearby Ann Arbor by Clear Channel as they relaunched "W4 Country" on that frequency. It had been a college rock station prior to that (formerly WIQB).

While WYCD was the chief ratings beneficiary of the death of "W4 Country," ratings for "Alice" remained anemic, and in July 2002, the station changed its calls to WDTW and relaunched as "106.7 The Drive," with not much change in format. "The Drive" featured mainly classic hard rock tracks from the 1970s through the 1990s with some more recent material, with a more upbeat and harder-rocking presentation than classic-rock rival WCSX. Yet the station's ratings continued to be poor.

106.7 The Fox

At noon on May 17, 2006, "The Drive" signed off with "Too Late For Love" by Def Leppard followed by an announcement by legendary Detroit TV news anchor Bill Bonds stating that they were “building a brand new radio station” at 106.7 and "letting you, the listeners choose the music." For the next week the listeners who registered at 1067needshelp.com picked first the new radio format, then the station's name, logo, voice of the station and number of commercials per hour. Its logo is similar to Vancouver rocker CFOX-FM.

On May 19, after first playing 2 days of music from many formats, then narrowing it down to just rock and country, it was announced at 3 P.M. that the format was country music. By May 22, the name of the station would be "106.7 The Fox" and the new logo for the station was picked on May 24. And finally on May 26, 2006 the format change appeared complete as the voice of the station and minutes of music per hour were announced. The station still periodically asks for input regarding air staff.

The WWWW callsign itself temporarily returned to Detroit in July of 2006, landing at sister station 1310-AM. But after 2 months the calls were changed back to WDTW. The imaging remained "1310 WDTW" the entire time. It is thought that this temporary switch was done to keep the "WWWW" call letters with Clear Channel when the Ann Arbor station (102.9) was being sold. The sale eventually went through, but Clear Channel gave up its efforts to hang on to the WWWW call letters.

Radio insiders believe the station has adopted a country format only to steal listeners from competitor WYCD, which was starting to challenge Clear Channel's adult contemporary WNIC in revenue and ratings. [cite news| url=http://www.radionewsweb.com/2008-02.html | title=Radio News Web Updates]

Airstaff

The current lineup (as of June 2008) as follows
* Morning Show: The Chad Show - Chad Mitchell & C.J Delong
With Diane Cross (Traffic)
* Mid-Days: Amy James
* Afternoon Drive: Scott Gaines
* Nighttime: Electric Barnyard - Broadway
* Fri Nights: Hick Hop At The Diamondback - Scott Gaines
* Weekend's/Fill-ins: Amanda Cole, Michael J. Foxx & Tyler
* Program Director: John Trapane
* Assistant PD/Music Director: Scott Gaines

Current station ratings

106.7 The Fox currently ranks at #18 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

References

External links

* [http://www.michiguide.com/dials/rad-d/wdtw.html Michiguide.com - WDTW-FM History]
*FMQ|WDTW-FM
*FML|WDTW
*FMARB|WDTW