WTRV

not to be confused with WTVR-TV located at WTRV.com
WTRV
City Walker, Michigan
Broadcast area Grand Rapids, Michigan
Branding 100.5 The River
Slogan Lite and Relaxing
Frequency 100.5 MHz
First air date 1993 (as WQFN)
Format Soft AC
Christmas music (Nov.-Dec.)
ERP 3,000 watts
HAAT 100 meters
Class A
Facility ID 72529
Callsign meaning W The RiVer
Former callsigns WQFN (9/20/1991-6/26/1998)
Owner Townsquare Media
(Townsquare Media of Grand Rapids, Inc.)
Sister stations WFGR, WGRD-FM, WLHT-FM, WNWZ
Webcast Listen Live
Website rivergrandrapids.com

WTRV (100.5 FM, "The River") is a radio station broadcasting a soft, gold-leaning adult contemporary format. The station is licensed to Walker, Michigan, and serves the Grand Rapids, Michigan market. Its signal can be heard as far south as Otsego, Michigan, far east as Ionia, Michigan, and as far north as Fremont, Michigan

For the first decade or so of its existence as WTRV, the station featured a MOR/soft AC format featuring a mix of soft oldies and selected more recent songs, from artists such as Carpenters, Barry Manilow and Barbra Streisand who were no longer played on competitor and former easy listening station WOOD-FM 105.7. WTRV now features a softer, gold-leaning version of the Mainstream AC format formerly heard on sister station 95.7 WLHT, which has shifted to Hot AC since 2009.

At the beginning of 2015, the station scaled back on current/recurrent music and added more softer gold tracks dating back to the 1970s, resulting in selected previously dropped tracks by artists such as the Carpenters and Manilow being re-added into rotation and becoming a younger-skewing version of the original "River" with core artists including Celine Dion, Billy Joel, Elton John, Daryl Hall and John Oates and Rod Stewart. The station's sound now resembles that of gold-based soft AC stations such as WFEZ in Miami, Florida and the former KIFM in San Diego, California.

100.5 FM went on the air in 1993 with the WQFN calls, which had previously been used in Muskegon at the station that is now WMRR. For several years, it was co-owned with Christian broadcaster WFUR and operated out of the WFUR studios. Originally WQFN was a fully automated adult contemporary station, soon flipping to Smooth Jazz fed via satellite from Jones Radio Networks. The smooth jazz format was a moderate ratings success. In 1997, the station was sold and converted to its current call sign and the MOR format, which stood for over a decade. WTRV aired Delilah's syndicated nighttime love-songs show for a time until it moved to sister station WLHT and later to what is now WSRW-FM.

The current WTRV on-air lineup includes Andy Rent mornings, Matt Milhouse middays, program director Tom Cook (also PD of Channel 95-7) afternoons, and John Tesh evenings, with only the morning time slot live. The station is automated during overnights. Former air talents include Kim Carson, Gene Parker, Chuck Latour. The station formerly aired Casey Kasem's American Top 40 - The '80s on Saturday evenings; that program is now heard Sundays on sister station WFGR.

WTRV was the first station in the Grand Rapids market to switch to a format of continuous Christmas music between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. However, in 2007, the station opted to continue with its normal format, with Christmas music mixed in, for the holiday season, while sister hot adult contemporary station WLHT-FM went all-Christmas (which it had never done before) to compete with WOOD-FM. In 2010, the station returned to an all-Christmas music format for the holiday season due to the rebranding of sister adult top 40 station WLHT-FM.

References

Coordinates: 43°00′58″N 85°44′24″W / 43.016°N 85.740°W / 43.016; -85.740

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.