WKRK

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**WKRK**
Broadcast area	Detroit, Michigan
Branding	Live 97.1 Free FM
First air date	1936
Frequency	97.1 MHz
Format	Hot talk
Class	B
Callsign meaning	W K RocK
Owner	CBS Radio
Website	www.freefm971.com

WKRK, currently branded as Live 97.1 Free FM, is an FM talk radio station broadcasting from Detroit, Michigan. It transmits on a frequency of 97.1 MHz . It is a part of CBS Radio.

1 History
2 Show lineup
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] History

[edit] W8XWJ & WWJ

What is today WKRK was the first FM radio station in Michigan and the seventh in the United States. The station that would become WKRK began broadcasting as an experimental APEX AM station (called W8XWJ) in 1936. In 1940, the station ceased broadcasting while owner the Evening News Association (parent company of WWJ-AM 950 and The Detroit News) waited for the FCC to approve its move to the newly created FM band. Approval came in late October 1940 and on May 10, 1941 the station (renamed W45D) signed on at 44.5 MHz with 3,000 watts of power. When the FCC created the new 88-108 MHz broadcast band, W45D was moved to 96.9 as WENA in September 1945. By 1948, the station had settled on its present 97.1 home as WWJ-FM, originally simulcasting WWJ-AM. In the 1960s and 1970s, WWJ-FM was one of several stations competing for Detroit's Beautiful Music audience along with WLDM 95.5 (now WKQI) and WJR-FM 96.3 (now WDVD).

[edit] WJOI

In 1981, WWJ-FM changed its calls to WJOI (a.k.a. "Joy 97") and continued playing Beautiful Music as while incorporating more soft Adult Contemporary vocals and Oldies into its music mix. In September 1982, WJR-FM flipped to Top 40 as "Hot Hits" WHYT, and by then, WLDM 95.5 had migrated to Adult Contemporary (as WCZY), as had fellow easy-listening stations WNIC and WOMC. With the Beautiful Music format now all to itself, "Joy 97" remained high in the ratings through most of the 1980s. By the early 1990s, however, WJOI had evolved into a very soft Adult Contemporary format, eliminating virtually all of the "elevator music" instrumentals and putting the station in competition with the more popular WNIC (100.3) and WLTI (93.1, now WDRQ) for the Adult Contemporary audience.

[edit] WYST

Having lost the Adult Contemporary battle, WJOI became WYST (a.k.a. "Star 97") in September 1994 and featured a 1970s oldies/classic rock format. Despite positioning itself as "The Greatest Hits of the '70s", WYST included a good deal of 1960s and 1980s material in its rotation and focused almost exclusively on Classic Rock, with little in the way of 1970s adult pop, R&B, or disco. WYST was also Detroit's outlet for syndicated morning show host Don Imus.

[edit] WKRK

In February 1997, Imus' show moved to AM sister WXYT-AM 1270 and was replaced on 97.1 FM by Howard Stern. WYST switched its format to Active Rock, taking the calls WKRK and the on-air identifier "K-Rock" in June of that year. Meant to sound harder than WRIF or Detroit's alternative rock stations, "K-Rock" caught the ears of fans of harder rock and metal. Unfortunately, K-Rock's penchant for making fun of WRIF, mostly for long stretches between songs, turned off many a listener just as quickly. Needless to say, their ratings were anemic, and in late August 1998, WKRK repositioned itself as "Extreme Radio" with its format evolving toward Hot Talk. By March of 1999, the majority of the station's music programming on weekdays was gone and the station soon took on the name "97-1: Detroit's FM Talk Station". This was later changed to simply "97-1 FM Talk". WKRK relaunched as "Live 97.1" in May 2003. In August 2004, WKRK became the flagship radio station for the Detroit Lions (previously broadcast duties had been shared with WXYT).

In October 2005, WKRK added the "Free FM" identifier being used by CBS Radio on many of its hot-talk properties across the country. It was also announced that once Howard Stern left for Sirius Satellite Radio on January 3, 2006, 97.1's new morning host would be Rover.

In September of 2006, Rover's Morning Glory was taken off of the lineup for WKRK, and it's morning spot was replaced by Opie and Anthony due to the low ratings generated by Rover.

[edit] Show lineup

6-9 A.M.: Opie and Anthony
9 A.M.-1 P.M., 2-3 P.M.: Motor City Middays with Jay Towers (formerly of WDRQ) and Michelle McCormick
1-2 P.M.: Real Money (Jim Cramer)
3-7 P.M.: Deminski & Doyle
7-11 P.M.: Parker & The Man (Mark Wilson)
11 P.M.-1 A.M.: The Radio Factor - Bill O'Reilly
1-3 A.M.: LoveLine with Dr. Drew Pinsky
3-6 A.M.: The Tom Leykis Show