WIRX

Infobox Radio station
name = WIRX


city = St. Joseph, Michigan
area = [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WIRX&service=FM&status=L&hours=U]
branding = "Rock 107 WIRX"
slogan = Everything That Rocks
airdate =
frequency = 107.1 MHz
format = Rock
power = 1,200 watts
erp =
class = A
callsign_meaning = Music WIRX (Works)
former_callsigns = WSJM-FM (1965-1969)
owner = Mid-West Family Broadcast Group
sister_stations = WCSY, WCXT, WHIT, WSJM, WSJM-FM, WYTZ
webcast =
website = [http://www.wirx.com/ http://www.wirx.com/]
affiliations =

WIRX (107.1 FM, "Rock 107 WIRX") is a radio station owned by Mid-West Family Broadcasting located in St. Joseph, Michigan.cite web |url=http://www.michiguide.com/dials/rad-g/wirx.html |title=WIRX FM 107.1 St. Joseph |accessyear=2007 |accessmonthday=September 3 |publisher=Michiguide.com |year=2007 |author=Michiguide.com |language=English] cite web |url=http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/sta_det.pl?Facility_id=74005 |title=WIRX Station Search Details |accessyear=2007 |accessmonthday=September 3 |publisher=Federal Communications Commission |year=2007 |author=FCC |language=English]

Since the early 1990s, WIRX has had the format of classic rock (leaning mainstream), including a mix of active rock music at night. Prior to that, the station had a contemporary hits format.

History

The 107.1 frequency was purchased as a music outlet to sister station WSJM-AM in 1964 by Mid-West Family Broadcasting (MWF), which is based in Madison, Wisconsin. The station is still managed on a local level to this day, much as it was when it first came on the air.

It is thought that WSJM-FM was one of the world's first completely automated radio stations, built and designed by Brian Brown in 1963 when Brown was only 10 years old. The station broadcast in a classical format, called "More Good Music (MGM)" and five minute bottom of the hour news feeds from the Mutual Broadcasting System. The heart of the automation was a 8 x 24 telephone stepping relay which controlled two reel-to-reel tape decks, one twelve inch Ampex machine which provided the main program audio and a second RCA seven inch machine which provided "fill" music. The tapes that these machines played were originally produced in the MWF's Madison, Wisconsin production facility by WSJM Chief Engineer Richard E. McLemore (and later in-house at WSJM) with special sub-audible cue tones used to signal the end of a song. The stepping relay was "programmed" by slide switches in the front of the two relay racks which housed the equipment. The news feeds were triggered by a microswitch which was attached to a Western Union clock and tripped by the minute hand of the clock. and then reset the stepping relay. Originally, 20-minute station identification was accomplished by a simulcast switch in the control booth for sister station WSJM-AM, whereupon the disc jockey in the booth would announce "This is WSJM-AM and... (then pressing the momentary contact button) ...WSJM-FM, St. Joseph, Michigan." This only lasted about six months, however, and a standard tape cartridge player was wired in to announce the station identification and triggered by a the Western Union clock.

WSJM-FM began broadcasting in stereo on 107.1 MHz in 1965 and regularly provided stereo remote broadcasts by the Twin Cities Symphony and other events.

References

External links

* [http://www.midwestfamilybroadcasting.com/ Midwest Family Broadcasting]
*FMQ|WIRX
*FML|WIRX
*FMARB|WIRX