WDTW-FM
Encyclopedia
WDTW-FM is a classic rock
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 carries Clear Channel's "Pride Radio" format, which features music (mostly dance) geared toward the LGBT
audience. WDTW transmits its signal from an antenna atop the Cadillac Tower in downtown Detroit. WDTW broadcasts free of most interference due to any neighboring channels on this frequency are at least 100 miles away. WDTW can be heard in all of the northern suburbs of Detroit, and north into Genesee and Lapeer Counties.
purchased the station in 1966, changed the call letters to WWWW ("W4"), and installed a beautiful music
format.
-oriented Top 40) as "W4 Stereo," with an airstaff that included Don Schuster and Detroit radio legend Tom Clay
. During its oldies period, W4 was one of the first stations to pick up Detroit radio veteran Casey Kasem
's newly syndicated countdown show, American Top 40
.
In 1971, "W4" became an album oriented rock station. In 1974, it briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission. 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 the early radio jobs for Howard Stern
. Stern was the morning DJ in 1980. 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
", Stern announces his departure 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 WCAR-FM
's and CKLW-FM
's brief tries at the format in the mid-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 at 92.3 - coincidentally, the former WCAR-FM - 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
."
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 mistakenly 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 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.
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 two 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.
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.
On April 29, 2009, in a similar move to what had been done at sister station WDFN
, WDTW dropped all on-air talent, and soft-relaunched under the branding of "Detroit's Fox Country".
On September 4, 2009, after three years of struggling with the country format, The Fox was dropped at 12pm in favor of Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
as 106-7, The Beat of Detroit. The last song on The Fox was "Shuttin' Detroit Down
" by John Rich
, followed by "Into The Groove
" by Madonna
. The station also began running 10,000 songs in a row commercial free. In an announcement made by Til Levesque, president and market manager of Clear Channel Radio Detroit, the station described the new sound as "a unique AC (adult contemporary) format, built especially for Detroit, to become 106.7 The Beat." The station will target the 25-54 adult
audience with "an upbeat mix of today's hits and feel-good memories ...", mostly current Rhythmic and Dance hits with a balanced emphasis on recurrents from the 80s and 90s and some 1970s disco hits. The station's format is also similar to that of Detroit's own WDRQ
when it relaunched in 1996 as a Rhythmic AC outlet. Artists include Madonna
, Lady Gaga
, Katy Perry
, Michael Jackson
, Rihanna
, Britney Spears
, Justin Timberlake
, Sean Paul
, and The Black Eyed Peas
. On October 6, 2009, The Beat finished up their 10,000 songs commercial free. The station still offered commercial free hours. WDTW-FM's HD2 channel also changed format shortly afterward, switching from "Mother Trucker" (a hybrid of country music and southern rock) to Pride Radio, which had previously featured on the HD3 channel of CHR/Pop sister station WKQI
(Channel 955).
About a year after WDTW's flip to Rhythmic AC, its playlist and direction switched over to a conventional Rhythmic Top 40
direction by adding more currents and cutting back on the heavy amount of gold. This change was likely due to changes in the Detroit radio landscape involving sister station WKQI's shift to a broader CHR-Pop presentation and competition with CBS Radio
's WDZH, which changed formats from smooth jazz
a month after The Beat was launched. Mediabase switched the station from its Rhythmic AC reporting panel to its Rhythmic CHR reporting panel in September 2010. The Beat's reporting status has since changed again, as Mediabase added the station to its CHR/Pop reporting panel in April 2011, although WDTW-FM remained an adult leaning CHR/Rhythmic rather than CHR/Pop (a la WKTU
in New York) and sister station WKQI is the true CHR/Pop in Clear Channel's cluster. And like WKTU, Nielsen BDS
did not include the station's playlist on their Top 40/CHR panel despite being listed there as well.
Despite being a CHR/Pop reporter at the time, WDTW still featured many Rhythmic AC elements in its music. The station has reintroduced some 1980s and 1990s gold back into rotation to the tune of two or three songs per hour, although 1970s disco music is no longer in rotation; the station even features an hour of "old school" '80s and '90s rhythmic hits at noon each weekday. In addition, it has blended in a few Dance cuts as well. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton's
syndicated Remix Top 30 is on Sunday evenings.
Ratings throughout The Beat's history have been shaky, usually peaking in the mid-3 share range or lower. In the last ratings book as a Rhythmic Top 40, WDTW was ranked #18 with a 2.2 share of the market.
, branded as "106.7 The D". The final song on "The Beat" was "End of the Road
" by Boyz II Men
, while the first song on "The D" was "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
" by AC/DC
. The station describes the new format as "The Next Generation of Classic Rock", meaning the station includes more 1980's rock (along with the usual 1960's and 1970's rock tracks), as well as early 1990's rock material.
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
formatted radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
. WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
operations; its secondary channel carries Clear Channel's "Pride Radio" format, which features music (mostly dance) geared toward the LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
audience. WDTW transmits its signal from an antenna atop the Cadillac Tower in downtown Detroit. WDTW broadcasts free of most interference due to any neighboring channels on this frequency are at least 100 miles away. WDTW can be heard in all of the northern suburbs of Detroit, and north into Genesee and Lapeer Counties.
WDTM
The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, airing classical and jazz music, like many other FMs of the time. Gordon McLendonGordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
purchased the station in 1966, changed the call letters to WWWW ("W4"), and installed a beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
format.
W4 Stereo/W4 Quad/W4 Country
By 1970, McLendon changed W4's format from easy listening to "Solid Gold" (oldiesOldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
-oriented Top 40) as "W4 Stereo," with an airstaff that included Don Schuster and Detroit radio legend Tom Clay
Tom Clay
Tom Clay was an American radio personality and disc jockey.Clay was born Thomas Clague in New York, and in the 1950s he was popular in the Detroit area on WJBK-AM both as a DJ, and for his on-air comic characterizations; he became a local celebrity...
. During its oldies period, W4 was one of the first stations to pick up Detroit radio veteran Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
's newly syndicated countdown show, American Top 40
American Top 40
American Top 40 is an internationally syndicated, independent radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds and Ron Jacobs. Originally a production of Watermark Inc...
.
In 1971, "W4" became an album oriented rock station. In 1974, it briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission. 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 the early radio jobs for Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
. Stern was the morning DJ in 1980. 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
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk 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.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
In the film "Private Parts
Private Parts (1997 film)
Private Parts is a 1997 American biographical comedy film produced by Ivan Reitman and released by Paramount Pictures. Written by Len Blum and Michael Kalesniko, the film is an adaptation of the 1993 best-selling book of the same name by radio personality Howard Stern, who stars as himself. It...
", Stern announces his departure in the middle of a song claiming he didn't understand country music.
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
stations despite the market containing a sizable percentage of population whose families hailed from the Southern United States
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central 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
WDFN
WDFN is a sports-talk radio station in the Detroit, Michigan, market. It broadcasts in the AM radio band at 1130 kHz. WDFN is owned by Clear Channel Communications, and until the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, was the flagship station for the Detroit Pistons....
on 1130 kHz. WWWW became the first FM country station in Detroit since WCAR-FM
WMXD
WMXD is a Clear Channel-owned Urban AC FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, that broadcasts on the frequency of 92.3 MHz. WMXD, which bills itself as "Today's R&B and the Best Old School Jamz," is consistently a very highly rated station in Detroit's Arbitron ratings reports,...
's and CKLW-FM
CIDR-FM
CIDR-FM is the callsign for a radio station, broadcasting at 93.9 FM in Windsor, Ontario. The station broadcasts a adult album alternative format using the brand name 93-9 The River. It is owned and operated by Bell Media. It is one of the few commercial adult album alternative stations in Canada...
's brief tries at the format in the mid-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 at 92.3 - coincidentally, the former WCAR-FM - separately programmed from the AM, but the FM station never took off.
WYCD
WYCD is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is the only country music station in the Detroit area. WYCD's offices and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan...
) 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
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
, followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry", a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships...
."
"Alice" and "The Drive"
relaunched as "Alice 106.7," featuring "Rockin' Hits of the '80s and '90s" with "All Right Now
All Right Now
"All Right Now" is a rock single by the English rock band Free. The song, released in mid-1970, hit #2 on the UK singles chart and #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. "All Right Now" originally appeared on the album Fire And Water, which Free recorded on the Island Records label, formed...
" by Free being the first song played.
WWWW-FM
WWWW-FM - "W4 Country" - is a country music radio station based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, broadcasting on 102.9 MHz.-Early years:The 102.9 frequency began operations in or on March 1, 1962 as WOIA and was co-owned with WOIB-AM 1290 in Saline, Michigan. Originally, WOIA and WOIB simulcast a middle of...
in nearby Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
by Clear Channel as they relaunched "W4 Country" on that frequency. It had been a rock station prior to that (formerly WIQB).
While WYCD
WYCD
WYCD is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is the only country music station in the Detroit area. WYCD's offices and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan...
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
WCSX
WCSX is a Detroit-based FM radio station broadcasting a classic rock format. WCSX's transmitter is located in suburban Oakland County in Royal Oak Township near the intersection of 8 Mile Rd. and Wyoming Avenue. WCSX transmits its signal from an antenna 951 feet in height with an effective radiated...
. Yet, the station's ratings continued to be poor.
106.7 The Fox
Def Leppard
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement. Since 1992, the band have consisted of Joe Elliott , Rick Savage , Rick Allen , Phil Collen , and Vivian Campbell...
followed by an announcement by legendary Detroit TV news anchor Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds
Bill Bonds is an American television anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Born in 1933, Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.-Early career:...
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
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
, then the station's name, logo, voice of the station and number of commercials per hour. Its logo is similar to Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
rocker CFOX-FM
CFOX-FM
CFOX-FM is a Canadian radio station in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. It broadcasts at 99.3 MHz on the FM band with an effective radiated power of 75,000 watts from a transmitter on Mount Seymour in the District of North Vancouver. Studios are located in Downtown Vancouver,...
.
On May 19, after first playing two 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
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk 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.
Radio insiders believe the station has adopted a country format only to steal listeners from competitor WYCD
WYCD
WYCD is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is the only country music station in the Detroit area. WYCD's offices and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan...
, which was starting to challenge Clear Channel's adult contemporary WNIC
WNIC
WNIC is an American radio station based in Detroit, Michigan broadcasting at 100.3 MHz FM. WNIC's studios and offices are located in Farmington Hills, MI. WNIC's transmitter is located near Schoolcraft and Livernois Avenue in the City of Detroit on the near west side. WNIC broadcasts with an...
in revenue and ratings.
On April 29, 2009, in a similar move to what had been done at sister station WDFN
WDFN
WDFN is a sports-talk radio station in the Detroit, Michigan, market. It broadcasts in the AM radio band at 1130 kHz. WDFN is owned by Clear Channel Communications, and until the end of the 2008-09 NBA season, was the flagship station for the Detroit Pistons....
, WDTW dropped all on-air talent, and soft-relaunched under the branding of "Detroit's Fox Country".
106.7 The Beat Of Detroit
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
Rhythmic adult contemporary is a format used on stations in the United States and Canada. It usually gears toward an older audience, ages 25 to 54. Stations using this format play disco from the 1970s and early 1980s, dance/pop music, adult-friendly hip hop/old school tracks, R&B, dance/freestyle...
as 106-7, The Beat of Detroit. The last song on The Fox was "Shuttin' Detroit Down
Shuttin' Detroit Down
"Shuttin' Detroit Down" is the title of a song co-written and recorded by American country music singer John Rich, one half of the duo Big & Rich. The song addresses the issue of the government bailouts of financial institutions, and has received heavy rotation on Michigan radio stations, as well...
" by John Rich
John Rich
John Rich may refer to:* John Tyler Rich, US Congressman* John Rich , television and film director* John Rich , American musician* John Rich , 18th century theater manager and father of English Pantomime...
, followed by "Into The Groove
Into the Groove
"Into the Groove" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from the 1985 film Desperately Seeking Susan. It was featured on the 1985 re-issue of her second studio album, Like a Virgin, and released on July 23, 1985 by Sire Records as the album's fourth single outside North America...
" by Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
. The station also began running 10,000 songs in a row commercial free. In an announcement made by Til Levesque, president and market manager of Clear Channel Radio Detroit, the station described the new sound as "a unique AC (adult contemporary) format, built especially for Detroit, to become 106.7 The Beat." The station will target the 25-54 adult
audience with "an upbeat mix of today's hits and feel-good memories ...", mostly current Rhythmic and Dance hits with a balanced emphasis on recurrents from the 80s and 90s and some 1970s disco hits. The station's format is also similar to that of Detroit's own WDRQ
WDRQ
WDRQ is an FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan. The station is branded as 93.1 Doug FM. Doug FM broadcasts from the Fisher Building just north of downtown Detroit and transmits its signal from an antenna 669 feet in length located at the intersection of Ten Mile and Greenfield Roads in suburban...
when it relaunched in 1996 as a Rhythmic AC outlet. Artists include Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
, Katy Perry
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her first year of high school, she began to pursue a...
, Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
, Rihanna
Rihanna
Robyn Rihanna Fenty , better known as simply Rihanna, is a Barbadian recording artist. Born in Saint Michael, Barbados, Rihanna moved to the United States at the age of 16 to pursue a recording career under the guidance of record producer Evan Rogers...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
, Sean Paul
Sean Paul
Sean Paul Ryan Francis Henriques , who performs under stage name Sean Paul, is a Jamaican pop rap and reggae singer.-1973–1996: Early life:...
, and The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
. On October 6, 2009, The Beat finished up their 10,000 songs commercial free. The station still offered commercial free hours. WDTW-FM's HD2 channel also changed format shortly afterward, switching from "Mother Trucker" (a hybrid of country music and southern rock) to Pride Radio, which had previously featured on the HD3 channel of CHR/Pop sister station WKQI
WKQI
WKQI — branded Channel 955 — is a commercial pop/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...
(Channel 955).
About a year after WDTW's flip to Rhythmic AC, its playlist and direction switched over to a conventional Rhythmic Top 40
Rhythmic Contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary, also known as rhythmic top 40, rhythmic contemporary hit radio or rhythmic crossover, is a music radio format that includes a mix of EDM, upbeat rhythmic pop, hip-hop and R&B hits. Rhythmic contemporary rarely uses rock music or country music in its airplay, but it may...
direction by adding more currents and cutting back on the heavy amount of gold. This change was likely due to changes in the Detroit radio landscape involving sister station WKQI's shift to a broader CHR-Pop presentation and competition with CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
's WDZH, which changed formats from smooth jazz
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
a month after The Beat was launched. Mediabase switched the station from its Rhythmic AC reporting panel to its Rhythmic CHR reporting panel in September 2010. The Beat's reporting status has since changed again, as Mediabase added the station to its CHR/Pop reporting panel in April 2011, although WDTW-FM remained an adult leaning CHR/Rhythmic rather than CHR/Pop (a la WKTU
WKTU
WKTU is a radio station based in New York City that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New...
in New York) and sister station WKQI is the true CHR/Pop in Clear Channel's cluster. And like WKTU, Nielsen BDS
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...
did not include the station's playlist on their Top 40/CHR panel despite being listed there as well.
Despite being a CHR/Pop reporter at the time, WDTW still featured many Rhythmic AC elements in its music. The station has reintroduced some 1980s and 1990s gold back into rotation to the tune of two or three songs per hour, although 1970s disco music is no longer in rotation; the station even features an hour of "old school" '80s and '90s rhythmic hits at noon each weekday. In addition, it has blended in a few Dance cuts as well. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton's
Sean Hamilton
Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton is an American radio personality. He is the host of the Weekend Top30 Countdown and the Remix Top40 Countdown heard in over 280 cities in the United States and throughout the world. He can also be heard live weekday afternoons on WKTU in New York City...
syndicated Remix Top 30 is on Sunday evenings.
Ratings throughout The Beat's history have been shaky, usually peaking in the mid-3 share range or lower. In the last ratings book as a Rhythmic Top 40, WDTW was ranked #18 with a 2.2 share of the market.
106.7 The D Rocks
On November 4, 2011, at 10 AM, WDTW changed their format to classic rockClassic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...
, branded as "106.7 The D". The final song on "The Beat" was "End of the Road
End of the Road
"End of the Road" is a 1992 Grammy Award-winning, number-one song recorded in May 1992 by Boyz II Men for the Motown label. Written and produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Antonio "L.A." Reid and Daryl Simmons. It is Boyz II Men's most successful single and replaced Diana Ross and Lionel...
" by Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...
, while the first song on "The D" was "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
"For Those About to Rock " is a song by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC. The song was first released on AC/DC's eighth studio album For Those About to Rock We Salute You in 1981, and later as a single in 1982. The single's B-side contains an edited live version of "Let There Be Rock", recorded...
" by AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
. The station describes the new format as "The Next Generation of Classic Rock", meaning the station includes more 1980's rock (along with the usual 1960's and 1970's rock tracks), as well as early 1990's rock material.