WQKL
Encyclopedia
WQKL, known on the air as ann arbor's 107one, is a radio station broadcasting from Ann Arbor, Michigan
. WQKL is a Cumulus
radio station, co-owned with country WWWW-FM
102.9, Sports Talk WTKA
-AM 1050, and WLBY
-AM 1290. Although the station broadcasts with only 3,000 watts of power, it can be heard quite easily in many of the western Detroit suburbs. WSAQ
in Port Huron and WTLZ
in Saginaw both occupy this frequency to the east and north and interference often occurs as you move north-east.
. WPAG-FM originally operated at 98.7 FM during the 1950s but was off the air by the end of the decade. WPAG was granted a license to resurrect its FM station at the current 107.1 frequency in 1967, but it was not until 1969 that the station finally went on the air. Through the end of the 1970s, WPAG-FM 107.1 simulcast the middle of the road format of WPAG-AM during the day but separated programming during the evening hours. Originally WPAG-FM aired folk and rock music from 7 p.m. to midnight; this was changed in 1972 to an eclectic country format including bluegrass, folk, and old Western music. By the mid-1970s, WPAG-FM was also playing beautiful music
on weekends.
By 1980, the population of Ann Arbor had topped 100,000, and due to FCC rules, 107.1 FM would have to come up with a new format to truly distinguish itself from its AM sister. The first decision was to convert the eclectic country shows on WPAG-FM into a full-time format, but after a few months the country format was ditched in favor of automated Top 40. This format was also a failure, and by the summer of 1982, WPAG-FM had reverted to a full-time easy listening/beautiful music format. Through all these changes, the station remained a virtually invisible presence on the Ann Arbor dial.
mogul Tom Monaghan
. The station changed its calls to WAMX and became Mix 107 FM, Ann Arbor's Best Mix, playing a locally programmed mixture of smooth jazz
, new age
music, and soft pop and soul vocals. Interestingly, WPAG-AM's calls were changed to "WPZA" (meaning "pizza," as in "Domino's"). Three years later, the station was acquired by MW Blue Partnership, and the calls and format changed once again, to WQKL as Kool 107, Ann Arbor's Official Oldies Station. One of Kool 107's most memorable on-air liners declared, "Kool 107 plays great oldies because today's music... sucks!" Local radio icon Lucy Ann Lance hosted Kool 107's morning show. Former KOOL 107 PD Dave Anthony and MD Greg Stucki resurfaced in York, PA at 96.1 WSOX in 1998. Anthony has since left the station in 2007 to go to Pittsburgh as Program Director of Froggy network.
In the fall of 1998, Kool 107 dropped virtually all of the pre-1965 music on its playlist and began to supplement the oldies format with hits from 1975-1990, from artists like Barbra Streisand
, Madonna
, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis and the News
, Toto
, Sade
, and The Pointer Sisters. The new Classic Hits
-oriented music mix was tagged "Adult Contemporary Gold," although the station retained the "Kool 107" moniker. By 1999 Cumulus Media
owned the station, and took a further step toward evolving the format to AC by adding Delilah
's syndicated love-songs show for the evening hours. In 2000, Clear Channel Communications
acquired the station from Cumulus Media
. Clear Channel slowly evolved WQKL's format closer and closer to AC over the next several years, and by 2003 the station was playing some current AC chart hits despite remaining primarily oldies-based. Yet the station continued to flounder in the local ratings, with its Arbitron showings ranging from mediocre to awful, and Kool 107 was regularly defeated in the Ann Arbor market by its own Detroit-based Clear Channel AC sister station, WNIC
. Kool 107 also lost Lucy Ann Lance around this time; she eventually surfaced doing the morning show at talk-formatted competitor WAAM
and remained there until she was laid off at the end of 2007 due to budget cuts. She now hosts a late-morning show at WQKL's sister station, 1290 AM WLBY
.
, who was let go from the Wayne State University
-owned station as part of programming changes that resulted in the station dropping all of its daytime music shows in favor of NPR news and talk.
WQKL tags its format as Quality Music From Then & Now. The format is a Triple A/Modern Adult Contemporary mix including artists such as U2
, Jack Johnson
, Coldplay
, Dave Matthews Band
, Alanis Morissette
, Goo Goo Dolls
, Sheryl Crow
, Sting, David Gray
, K.T. Tunstall, Bonnie Raitt
, R.E.M., Peter Gabriel
, Depeche Mode
, The Pretenders
, Tom Petty
, Natalie Merchant
, Bruce Springsteen
, The Beatles
, Tracy Chapman
, and John Mellencamp
.
In August 2006, it was announced that Clear Channel's radio stations in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek would be traded to Cumulus in exchange for rocker WRQK in Canton, Ohio
, meaning that WQKL and its sister stations would once again be under the Cumulus umbrella. The deal was announced as official in late December 2006. WQKL also now has a competitor in the Triple A format in CIDR 93.9 FM "The River" in Windsor, Ontario
, which in September 2006 reverted to the format and on-air positioner it had used previously from 1994 to 2000. CIDR, however, has performed poorly in both the Windsor and Detroit ratings and has had no impact on the Ann Arbor ratings.
WQKL and Borders Books (headquartered in Ann Arbor) host free live music performances/CD signings and broadcast these performances live on the air. Artists like Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, Ingrid Michaelson, Matt Nathanson, James Taylor, Gomez and Brendan Benson have been featured. These events mainly take place at Borders 01, which is located on Liberty Street in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor. In addition, the station's Christmas-season "Rockin' for the Hungry" food drive (a holdover from the station's days as Kool 107), which benefits Food Gatherers of Washtenaw County, is generally quite successful.
While the station's ratings overall (ages 12+) are fairly average, WQKL has done very well in its target demographic of adults aged 25-54; in spring 2009, both major survey companies ranked the station #1 in this demo, ahead of its country-music powerhouse sister station WWWW-FM and of Detroit's WJR, which usually is Ann Arbor's top-ranked station overall.
Martin Bandyke was let go from WQKL in February 2009 due to budget cuts but, in a surprising move given the current radio climate, was rehired a few weeks later due to immense negative outcry from listeners (who even started a protest group on the social networking website Facebook
) and advertisers. Bandyke's first day back on the WQKL airwaves was scheduled for March 2, 2009. (1)
In the Spring 2009 Ratings WQKL finished #1 with their 25-54 target audience with the two major ratings survey companies.
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...
. WQKL is a Cumulus
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
radio station, co-owned with country WWWW-FM
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...
102.9, Sports Talk WTKA
WTKA
WTKA is a radio station located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that broadcasts on 1050 AM. Day power is 10 kW, night power is 500 W. The station covers most of southeast Michigan....
-AM 1050, and WLBY
WLBY
WLBY, "Ann Arbor's Business Talk Radio", is a business talk radio station brodacasting from Saline, Michigan. They carry nationally syndicated programs such as Dave Ramsey, The Clark Howard Show, and The Ray Lucia Show. The station is also home to former WAAM morning host Lucy Ann Lance weekday...
-AM 1290. Although the station broadcasts with only 3,000 watts of power, it can be heard quite easily in many of the western Detroit suburbs. WSAQ
WSAQ
WSAQ is a country music radio station in Port Huron, Michigan known as Q Country 107. It began broadcasting August 7, 1964 on 107.1 MHz with 6,000 watts, and remains the same today . It broadcasts from the same site as AM 1450 WHLS. Q-Country plays modern country music along with some...
in Port Huron and WTLZ
WTLZ
WTLZ is a radio station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan broadcasting an urban adult contemporary format.WTLZ retains a strong signal south of Saginaw toward Flint, but moving eastward toward the Lapeer County area, WSAQ 107.1 "Q Country" signal tends to overpower WTLZ as they are both on the same...
in Saginaw both occupy this frequency to the east and north and interference often occurs as you move north-east.
WPAG-FM
What is now WQKL can be traced back to WPAG-FM, the FM arm of AM 1050, which is now sports-talk WTKAWTKA
WTKA is a radio station located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that broadcasts on 1050 AM. Day power is 10 kW, night power is 500 W. The station covers most of southeast Michigan....
. WPAG-FM originally operated at 98.7 FM during the 1950s but was off the air by the end of the decade. WPAG was granted a license to resurrect its FM station at the current 107.1 frequency in 1967, but it was not until 1969 that the station finally went on the air. Through the end of the 1970s, WPAG-FM 107.1 simulcast the middle of the road format of WPAG-AM during the day but separated programming during the evening hours. Originally WPAG-FM aired folk and rock music from 7 p.m. to midnight; this was changed in 1972 to an eclectic country format including bluegrass, folk, and old Western music. By the mid-1970s, WPAG-FM was also playing beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
on weekends.
By 1980, the population of Ann Arbor had topped 100,000, and due to FCC rules, 107.1 FM would have to come up with a new format to truly distinguish itself from its AM sister. The first decision was to convert the eclectic country shows on WPAG-FM into a full-time format, but after a few months the country format was ditched in favor of automated Top 40. This format was also a failure, and by the summer of 1982, WPAG-FM had reverted to a full-time easy listening/beautiful music format. Through all these changes, the station remained a virtually invisible presence on the Ann Arbor dial.
Mix 107 and Kool 107
In 1989, WPAG-FM was acquired by Domino's PizzaDomino's Pizza
Domino's Pizza, Inc. is an international pizza delivery corporation headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America. Founded in 1960, Domino's is the second-largest pizza chain in the United States and has over 9,000 corporate and franchised stores in 60 countries and all 50 U.S....
mogul Tom Monaghan
Tom Monaghan
Thomas Stephen "Tom" Monaghan is an entrepreneur and Catholic philanthropist and activist who founded Domino's Pizza in 1960. He owned the Detroit Tigers from 1983-1992....
. The station changed its calls to WAMX and became Mix 107 FM, Ann Arbor's Best Mix, playing a locally programmed mixture of 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 ....
, new age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
music, and soft pop and soul vocals. Interestingly, WPAG-AM's calls were changed to "WPZA" (meaning "pizza," as in "Domino's"). Three years later, the station was acquired by MW Blue Partnership, and the calls and format changed once again, to WQKL as Kool 107, Ann Arbor's Official Oldies Station. One of Kool 107's most memorable on-air liners declared, "Kool 107 plays great oldies because today's music... sucks!" Local radio icon Lucy Ann Lance hosted Kool 107's morning show. Former KOOL 107 PD Dave Anthony and MD Greg Stucki resurfaced in York, PA at 96.1 WSOX in 1998. Anthony has since left the station in 2007 to go to Pittsburgh as Program Director of Froggy network.
In the fall of 1998, Kool 107 dropped virtually all of the pre-1965 music on its playlist and began to supplement the oldies format with hits from 1975-1990, from artists like Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, 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...
, Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News
Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...
, Toto
Toto (band)
Toto is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1977. The group currently consists of Joseph Williams , David Paich , Steve Porcaro , Steve Lukather , Mike Porcaro , and Simon Phillips . Toto is known for a musical style that combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, progressive rock, hard...
, Sade
Sade Adu
Helen Folasade Adu OBE , is a British singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. She first achieved success in the 1980s as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.-Biography:Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria...
, and The Pointer Sisters. The new Classic Hits
Classic hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from 1964 to 1989. The term is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format, but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format...
-oriented music mix was tagged "Adult Contemporary Gold," although the station retained the "Kool 107" moniker. By 1999 Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
owned the station, and took a further step toward evolving the format to AC by adding Delilah
Delilah Rene
Delilah Rene Luke , almost always known mononymously as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S...
's syndicated love-songs show for the evening hours. In 2000, 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...
acquired the station from Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
. Clear Channel slowly evolved WQKL's format closer and closer to AC over the next several years, and by 2003 the station was playing some current AC chart hits despite remaining primarily oldies-based. Yet the station continued to flounder in the local ratings, with its Arbitron showings ranging from mediocre to awful, and Kool 107 was regularly defeated in the Ann Arbor market by its own Detroit-based Clear Channel AC sister station, 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...
. Kool 107 also lost Lucy Ann Lance around this time; she eventually surfaced doing the morning show at talk-formatted competitor WAAM
WAAM
WAAM is a radio station in Ann Arbor, Michigan that broadcasts on AM 1600. Known as "WAAM Talk 1600" , WAAM broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power. The station is owned by Coolarity A2, LLC. Until recently, the station broadcast in AM Stereo.-Early History: WHRV:The station signed on as WHRV in...
and remained there until she was laid off at the end of 2007 due to budget cuts. She now hosts a late-morning show at WQKL's sister station, 1290 AM WLBY
WLBY
WLBY, "Ann Arbor's Business Talk Radio", is a business talk radio station brodacasting from Saline, Michigan. They carry nationally syndicated programs such as Dave Ramsey, The Clark Howard Show, and The Ray Lucia Show. The station is also home to former WAAM morning host Lucy Ann Lance weekday...
.
ann arbor's 107one
On June 26, 2004, "Kool 107" signed off for good and ann arbor's 107one was born. WQKL's ratings have since improved noticeably. Current 107one morning show host Martin Bandyke is a longtime veteran of Detroit's WDETWDET
WDET-FM is a public radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Licensed to Wayne State University in the city's Cass Corridor neighborhood, about a mile south of the New Center neighborhood, WDET broadcasts original programming as well as shows from National Public Radio, Public Radio International and...
, who was let go from the Wayne State University
Wayne State University
Wayne State University is a public research university located in Detroit, Michigan, United States, in the city's Midtown Cultural Center Historic District. Founded in 1868, WSU consists of 13 schools and colleges offering more than 400 major subject areas to over 32,000 graduate and...
-owned station as part of programming changes that resulted in the station dropping all of its daytime music shows in favor of NPR news and talk.
WQKL tags its format as Quality Music From Then & Now. The format is a Triple A/Modern Adult Contemporary mix including artists such as U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson (musician)
Jack Johnson was born May 18, 1975 is an American folk rock singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a...
, Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
, Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...
, Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...
, Goo Goo Dolls
Goo Goo Dolls
The Goo Goo Dolls are a Grammy-nominated American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by vocalist and guitarist John Rzeznik and vocalist and bass guitarist Robby Takac. Since the end of 1994, Mike Malinin has been the band's drummer, a position previously held by George Tutuska...
, Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, Sting, David Gray
David Gray (musician)
David Gray is an English singer-songwriter. He released his first studio album in 1993 and received worldwide attention after the release of White Ladder six years later...
, K.T. Tunstall, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, R.E.M., Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
, Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan , Martin Gore , Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke...
, The Pretenders
The Pretenders
The Pretenders are an English rock band formed in Hereford, England in March 1978. The original band consisted of initiator and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde , James Honeyman-Scott , Pete Farndon , and Martin Chambers...
, Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
, Natalie Merchant
Natalie Merchant
Natalie Anne Merchant is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.-Early life:...
, Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, and John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp, previously known by the stage names Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock that eschews synthesizers and other artificial sounds...
.
In August 2006, it was announced that Clear Channel's radio stations in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek would be traded to Cumulus in exchange for rocker WRQK in Canton, Ohio
Canton, Ohio
Canton is the county seat of Stark County in northeastern Ohio, approximately south of Akron and south of Cleveland.The City of Caton is the largest incorporated area within the Canton-Massillon Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, meaning that WQKL and its sister stations would once again be under the Cumulus umbrella. The deal was announced as official in late December 2006. WQKL also now has a competitor in the Triple A format in CIDR 93.9 FM "The River" in Windsor, Ontario
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor is the southernmost city in Canada and is located in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, Ontario, although administratively separated from the county government. Separated by the Detroit River, Windsor...
, which in September 2006 reverted to the format and on-air positioner it had used previously from 1994 to 2000. CIDR, however, has performed poorly in both the Windsor and Detroit ratings and has had no impact on the Ann Arbor ratings.
Programming
WQKL is known for "New Music Mondays" and "Featured Artist Fridays". During Featured Artist Fridays, the station plays a certain artist once an hour through the whole day to celebrate a new album, an artists' birthday, an event in music history or an artist coming to the area. Featured Artist Friday tends to avoid playing the same everyday songs from the artist and focus on new tracks, album tracks, covers they've done, demos and live music.WQKL and Borders Books (headquartered in Ann Arbor) host free live music performances/CD signings and broadcast these performances live on the air. Artists like Barenaked Ladies, Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, Ingrid Michaelson, Matt Nathanson, James Taylor, Gomez and Brendan Benson have been featured. These events mainly take place at Borders 01, which is located on Liberty Street in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor. In addition, the station's Christmas-season "Rockin' for the Hungry" food drive (a holdover from the station's days as Kool 107), which benefits Food Gatherers of Washtenaw County, is generally quite successful.
While the station's ratings overall (ages 12+) are fairly average, WQKL has done very well in its target demographic of adults aged 25-54; in spring 2009, both major survey companies ranked the station #1 in this demo, ahead of its country-music powerhouse sister station WWWW-FM and of Detroit's WJR, which usually is Ann Arbor's top-ranked station overall.
Martin Bandyke was let go from WQKL in February 2009 due to budget cuts but, in a surprising move given the current radio climate, was rehired a few weeks later due to immense negative outcry from listeners (who even started a protest group on the social networking website Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
) and advertisers. Bandyke's first day back on the WQKL airwaves was scheduled for March 2, 2009. (1)
In the Spring 2009 Ratings WQKL finished #1 with their 25-54 target audience with the two major ratings survey companies.