WQLR
Encyclopedia
WVFM, known simply as FM 106.5 and formerly WQLR, is a Classic Hits
-leaning Adult Contemporary outlet serving the Kalamazoo, Michigan
radio market. The station's frequency is 106.5 MHz on the FM dial with an ERP of 33 kW. They are owned by Midwest Communications
. WVFM 106.5 is located on a crowded Frequency across south-west lower Michigan. The station covers all of Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area, can be heard well in the Grand Rapids area, and reaches as far north and east as Lansing and Jackson. During summer months the station can be received to Flint and Ann Arbor on occasion.
Music programming on WVFM skews older and more classic rock-oriented than on typical Adult Contemporary stations, with frequently played artists including The Beatles
, Bob Seger
, Carole King
, Fleetwood Mac
, Billy Joel
, and James Taylor
. However, the station still plays current and recent AC chart hits from Bruno Mars
, Taylor Swift
, Lady Antebellum
, Maroon 5
, Katy Perry
, and the like, enough for it to still be considered a mainstream AC, albeit a very gold-based one.
The station competes with Grand Rapids' Clear Channel-owned WSRW-FM
(Star 105.7), a more traditional pop-based AC station whose 265,000-watt signal easily reaches Kalamazoo. WVFM is Kalamazoo's home of the John Tesh
Radio Show, competing with Delilah
on Star 105.7.
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...
-leaning Adult Contemporary outlet serving the Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo, Michigan
The area on which the modern city stands was once home to Native Americans of the Hopewell culture, who migrated into the area sometime before the first millennium. Evidence of their early residency remains in the form of a small mound in downtown's Bronson Park. The Hopewell civilization began to...
radio market. The station's frequency is 106.5 MHz on the FM dial with an ERP of 33 kW. They are owned by Midwest Communications
Midwest Communications
Midwest Communications, Inc. consists of Midwest Communications, Inc. and WRIG, Inc., which collectively own forty-six radio stations. The Company got its start in Wausau, Wisconsin, with WRIG, Inc. and the acquisition by the D.E. Wright family of a 1400 kHz, 250 watt AM facility from the...
. WVFM 106.5 is located on a crowded Frequency across south-west lower Michigan. The station covers all of Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area, can be heard well in the Grand Rapids area, and reaches as far north and east as Lansing and Jackson. During summer months the station can be received to Flint and Ann Arbor on occasion.
Music programming on WVFM skews older and more classic rock-oriented than on typical Adult Contemporary stations, with frequently played artists including 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...
, Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
, Carole King
Carole King
Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...
, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...
, Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
, and James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
. However, the station still plays current and recent AC chart hits from Bruno Mars
Bruno Mars
Peter Gene Hernandez , better known by his stage name Bruno Mars, is an Filipino-American singer-songwriter and record producer. Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii by a family of musicians, Mars began making music at a young age...
, Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
, Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum is an American country pop music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2006. The trio is composed of Charles Kelley , Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott .The group made its debut in 2007 as guest vocalists on Jim Brickman's single "Never Alone", before signing to Capitol...
, Maroon 5
Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. While they were in high school, lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Adam Levine, keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, bass guitarist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick formed a garage band called Kara's Flowers and released one album...
, 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...
, and the like, enough for it to still be considered a mainstream AC, albeit a very gold-based one.
The station competes with Grand Rapids' Clear Channel-owned WSRW-FM
WSRW-FM
WQLX is a radio station broadcasting a hot adult contemporary format. Licensed to Chillicothe, Ohio, USA, it formerly broadcast country music from Hillsboro, Ohio at 106.7 FM. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications and features programing from Premiere Radio Networks...
(Star 105.7), a more traditional pop-based AC station whose 265,000-watt signal easily reaches Kalamazoo. WVFM is Kalamazoo's home of the John Tesh
John Tesh
John Frank Tesh is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. His 10-year-old 'Intelligence for Your Life Radio Show' reaches 14.2 Million listeners/week, and is syndicated by Teshmedia on 400 stations in US, Canada, and the UK...
Radio Show, competing with 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...
on Star 105.7.
History Timeline
- June 1964: Steere Broadcasting launched WKMI-FM with 23,500 watts of power on 106.5 FM, as an FM stereo companion to contemporary-music formatted WKMIWKMIWKMI is a radio station licensed to Kalamazoo, Michigan broadcasting a news-talk format.WKMI is an affiliate of the Grand Valley State Laker football radio network....
1360 AM. It was Kalamazoo's first commercial FM station. According to a Billboard magazine article, the station broadcast from 6 a.m. to midnight and aired an MOR music format incorporating selections from current stereo pop albums, Broadway show tunes, and some light classics. - April 1966: Steere Broadcasting changed WKMI-FM's call letters to WSEO, retaining the easy-listening/MOR music format. Station brass explained that since WKMI-FM had become a popular station in its fewer than two years on the air, the change was made to help the station continue to develop its own identity.
- June 1972: WSEO was purchased by Fairfield Broadcasting, separating the station from WKMI-AM. Call letters changed to WQLR ("Clear") and the station settled into a homegrown Beautiful MusicBeautiful musicBeautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
format which would continue for the next two decades. In the mid-1970s, the station's owners started a Beautiful Music syndication service called KalaMusic after WOMCWOMCWOMC is a Classic Hits radio station broadcasting in the Detroit, Michigan, USA area. WOMC's transmitter and studios are located on Woodward Heights . near Interstate 75 in Ferndale, Michigan. WOMC broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 190,000 watts from an antenna height of 361 feet...
in Detroit copied WQLR's formatics and became a ratings success (1). - Early 1990s: WQLR shifted from Beautiful Music to Adult Contemporary under the name "Q-Lite 106.5."
- March 1999: WQLR dropped its longtime "Q-Lite 106.5" name to become simply "Q106.5."
- April 2002-March 2003: "Q106.5" tweaked its AC format to more of a Hot AC approach, adding music by alternative rock artists such as NickelbackNickelbackNickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger.. The band's current drummer and percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band since 2005....
and Puddle of MuddPuddle of MuddPuddle Of Mudd is an American rock band from Kansas City, Missouri, USA. To date the band has sold over 7 million albums, and have had a string of #1 mainstream rock singles in the United States. Their major-label debut Come Clean has sold over 5 million copies...
. - January 2006: Midwest CommunicationsMidwest CommunicationsMidwest Communications, Inc. consists of Midwest Communications, Inc. and WRIG, Inc., which collectively own forty-six radio stations. The Company got its start in Wausau, Wisconsin, with WRIG, Inc. and the acquisition by the D.E. Wright family of a 1400 kHz, 250 watt AM facility from the...
announced that it would purchase WQLR and its sister stations, WKZO 590 AM and WQSN 1660 AM, from Fairfield Broadcasting for $13.25 million, pending FCC approval and closing. Not included in the same was WKLZ 1470 AM which was subsequently taken off the air. The sale was approved in March 2006. - August 27, 2006: WQLR moves from AC to Variety Hits as "106-5 The Q", using Midwest's Guaranteed Music VarietyGuaranteed Music VarietyGuaranteed Music Variety is the slogan and on-air brand of several radio stations owned by Midwest Communications in the Midwest with a variation on the adult hits format.-Overview:...
format already in use at several of the company's other FM stations. - March 26, 2007 : The WQLR callsign is moved to another Midwest Communications stationWQLRWVFM, known simply as FM 106.5 and formerly WQLR, is a Classic Hits-leaning Adult Contemporary outlet serving the Kalamazoo, Michigan radio market. The station's frequency is 106.5 MHz on the FM dial with an ERP of 33 kW. They are owned by Midwest Communications. WVFM 106.5 is located on...
as part of a drive to help listeners remember the WVFM callsigns for ArbitronArbitronArbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...
listener logs. - 2009: The station shifts to its current Classic Hits-based Adult Contemporary format. Through all the changes, the station has remained highly rated in the Kalamazoo market.