Posted by Fun Project on February 05, 2013 at 22:52:11:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Madison radio posted by wayback machine on February 05, 2013 at 12:54:22:
Madison is quite rich with stations that held their format for many decades. Rare in media and radio these days.
Did a little poking around to find the reported debut years for each of the big station's CURRENT format. Not when it originally was granted license and 'went on the air' but when it started airing it's current flavor of programming. Some dates are hard to nail down but these are all within a year or two either way:
WZEE - 1974 debuted 'Top 40'
WIBA-FM - Mid 70s as 'Classic Rock' (exact year unknown)
WMGN - 1983 as 'Adult Contemporary.
WWQM - 1981 as 'Country'
WOLX - 1990-1991 as 'Oldies' (exact year unknown)
WJJO - Mid 90's as 'Active Rock'
WMMM - 1991/1992 as 'World Class Rock' / Triple A
That's impressive. Not many markets can claim to have 7 FM full-market signals that have been consistent with their format for 2+ decades.
Others call letters that changed or debuted post 2000 with their current format include WMHX, WJQM, WMAD, WXXM, WZON.