WDTW-FM (106.7 FM, "106-7 The Beat Of Detroit") is a Rhythmic Adult Contemporary 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 is called "The Mother Trucker" which features a mix of country music, southern rock, country rock and Americana. WDTW transmits its signal from an antenna atop the Cadillac Tower in downtown Detroit.

History

WDTM

The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, airing classical and jazz music, like many other FMs of the time. Gordon McLendon purchased the station in 1966, changed the call letters to WWWW ("W4"), and installed a Beautiful Music format.

W4 Stereo/W4 Quad/W4 Country

By 1970, McLendon changed W4's format from easy listening to "Solid Gold" (oldies-oriented Top 40) as "W4 Stereo," with an airstaff that included 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 and briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission in the early 1970s. 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 WDEE-FM in the early 1970s (with the possible exception of Windsor's CKLW-FM, which also played country for a time in the mid- and late 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 (92.3, now WMXD) 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."

"Alice" and "The Drive"

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 stationrelaunched 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 college 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.

106.7 The Fox

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 2 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".The country format is still available on WTDW HD-2 available via HD Radio.

106.7 The Beat Of Detroit

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 a 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 new format is patterned after sister stations WKTU/New York City, WISX/Philadelphia, WMIA/Miami, WZJZ/Fort Myers, Florida, KSYU/Albuquerque, New Mexico and KPLV/Las Vegas. Each of these stations have managed to do well with this formatic approach. The sound is also similar to that of Detroit's own WDRQ when it relaunched in 1996 as a Rhythmic AC outlet. Artists include Madonna, Michael Jackson, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Sean Paul, S.O.S. Band and Black Eyed Peas. On October 6, 2009 The Beat finished up their 10,000 songs commercial free. The station will still offer commercial free hours, and commercial free Mondays.

106-7 The Beat Of Detroit currently ranks at #20 (2.0) in the Detroit market according to the October 2009 PPM ratings release.

Airstaff

The on air lineup is TBD.

References

1. http://www.rice.edu/projects/thresher/issues/84/970207/AE/Story01.html, Retrieved on 2008/04/18.
2. "WDTW-FM Drops Country For Dance as "The Beat" from The Detroit News (September 4, 2009)

External links

• Michiguide.com - WDTW-FM History