WHNN
| City of license | Bay City, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Saginaw-Bay City-Midland |
| Branding | My 96.1 |
| Slogan | The Best Variety From Yesterday And Today |
| Frequency | 96.1 MHz |
| First air date | 1947 (as WBCM-FM) |
| Format | Adult Contemporary |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 311 meters |
| Class | C0 |
| Facility ID | 37458 |
| Transmitter coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Former callsigns | WBCM-FM (1947-1973) |
| Owner | Cumulus Media (Radio License Holding CBC, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WILZ, WIOG, WKQZ |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | my961.com |
WHNN is an FM radio station serving the Saginaw, Bay City, Midland and Flint, Michigan areas. It broadcasts on FM frequency 96.1 and is under ownership of Cumulus Media. The station's powerful 100,000-watt frequency blankets a large chunk of the central and eastern Lower Peninsula, from Mount Pleasant to the Thumb and from Pontiac to West Branch, but its signal toward the southwest is inhibited by co-channel WMAX-FM in Holland, Michigan.
Contents
History
Super Win and Sunny 96
WBCM-FM was one of Michigan's pioneer FM stations, initially signing on in 1947. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, 96.1 FM broadcast a beautiful music format. On August 27, 1973 the calls were changed to WHNN and the station adopted a Top 40 format as "Super Win." Many listeners remember that for several years, WHNN boasted "a winner an hour, sometimes even more". At least once an hour they would award a prize to a designated caller, and announce the current tally of prizes awarded by giving the winners name, hometown and announcing that he or she was "super-Win winner number 12,384 or whatever number the current count was. Many of the prizes were fast food meals or car washes, but occasionally better prizes such as concert tickets or meals at high end restaurants were awarded. When the hourly prizes were phased out in 1979, WHNN announced it was in "the interest of public safety" as they didn't want to overwhelm the phone company's resources.
WHNN evolved into an AOR station in 1976. In 1981, despite being the top rated station in the area at the time, the station changed format from AOR to adult contemporary, with the first song being Gino Vannelli's "Living Inside Myself". Station owners stated at the time that this was because they could not sell enough ad time. As a popular AC station during the 1980s, the station was known as "Sunny 96, Lite Rock, Less Talk."
Oldies 96
WHNN switched to an oldies format in the fall of 1990 following a period of stunting with various versions of Richard Berry's song "Louie, Louie" including the hit version by The Kingsmen. As time went on, WHNN, like many stations of its kind, evolved from "traditional" oldies to a "classic hits" direction focusing on pop, rock and soul hits from roughly 1965-1990 in the hope of reaching younger demographics, and dropped most if not all pre-1965 music from its playlist. Unlike other classic hits stations which are essentially hit-based versions of Classic rock, WHNN became a Top 40 Classic Hits station. Through the changes to the music, the station's ratings remained high.
WHNN garnered attention in the fall of 2006 when it switched to a format of all Christmas music, in response to crosstown AC competitor 106.3 WGER's announcement that they would not go all-Christmas that year. The switch also brought all-Christmas music radio to Flint, owing to continued dominance of the market's AC station, 107.9 WCRZ (which continues with its regular format during the holiday season). WHNN switched to all-Christmas again in early November 2007; WHNN had originally planned to switch to all-Christmas on Thanksgiving Day but moved up the change when WGER opted to return to playing continuous Christmas music ahead of schedule. WGER has since switched to a Hot AC direction as "Mix 106.3" and no longer goes all-Christmas for the holiday season, but MacDonald Broadcasting's AC combo of WSAM 1400 AM and WSAG 104.1 FM ("The Bay") has taken up the Christmas music mantle in recent years to challenge WHNN. WHNN, however, continued to be Flint's only Christmas music station.
Cumulus Media acquired Citadel Broadcasting and WHNN in 2011. WHNN's Flint area sales offices are expected to relocate to 6317 Taylor Drive in Flint as a result; the sale also included WHNN's current studios on Champagne Drive in Saginaw.
In addition to its Tri-Cities sister stations, WHNN's other sister stations in its listening area are 92.7 WDZZ, 95.1 WFBE, 1330 WTRX, 1570 WWCK and 105.5 WWCK-FM, all licensed to Flint.
WHNN Today
On January 15, 2016, shortly before 5pm (EST), WHNN flipped to adult contemporary as "My 96.1". The last song on 96 WHNN was "Changes" by David Bowie, while the first song on My 96.1 was "It's My Life" by Bon Jovi.[1] While morning hosts Johnny Burke and Blondie were fired with the change, the rest of the airstaff is expected to stay.[2] Johnny and Blondie later established their own morning show via periscope and their website. The station launched "My 96.1" by running commercial-free throughout that weekend.
This leaves Adult Hits/Classic Hits hybrid WMJO the only remaining station in the Saginaw-Bay City market playing hits from the 1970s and 1980s. In the Flint market, classic rock WRSR of Owosso and oldies WCXI in Fenton continue to play music from the 1960s and 1970s. In the Thumb, oldies WKYO also plays some of the hits formerly heard on WHNN.
