I have never been in radio, but I'm sure a few changes could be made in this market. I am a radio geek, if you will, and have been my entire life, I guess.


93.5 WKMJ Mix93 HotAC

97.7 WOLV 97-7 the Wolf Classic Hits

98.8 WGLI 98-7 the Rockin' Eagle -Hard Rock w/Classic Rock tracks played

101.1 WUPY Y101-Superior Country Country

102.3 WHKB K-Bear 102 Country

104.3 WVCN Religion

105.7 WCUP Eagle Country

920 WMPL Talk days/ Sports "Yahoo" Nights/weekends

1400 WCCY Nostalgia

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Three country stations? 102.3 satellite feed can easily be heard on 99.1 WIKB.

1400 is Nostalgia with Tigers baseball games. The signal on 1400 is lost outside of the city after sunset.

Could 1400 WCCY be either Classic Country or oldies to compliment WOLV?
The Tigers should be on an FM signal, I believe. The 1400 is owned by the same people who own TV10ABC/CW5. Might they not simulcast the news at 5:30pm and 11pm? You have the "older" audience.


102.3 is the only country station that's not 100000 watts. With NMU, Findlandia and a college feel to the town, might it not be ok to go CHR/Top 40?

920 WMPL is live 6am-noon and for their 5-6pm news hour. WCCY-1400 is 24/7 on the bird.

ALL FM stations are live in AM drive, 97.7 is live in PM drive. 98.7 and 105.7 seem live or are VT'd very, very well 24/7!

Mix 93 earlier this year was live mid-days on one day I noted, they asked for calls and e-mails. I have e-mailed WOLV concerning programming. In both cases, nothing on e-mails and phone rang and rang, so here I am.

NMU is in Marquette. I think you mean Michigan Tech.

A few Marquette-area stations carry across the lake and can be heard in the Keeweenaw, if I'm not mistaken. When I last visited the U.P. in 1999, I recall hearing Q107 including Houghton in its top-of-hour ID.

The formats are probably right for the region as currently structured. Hot AC is a good position for Mix 93; they get AC and CHR/top 40 listeners by default. If one of the Country stations were to change, I'd probably recommend News/Talk/Sports before Top 40 music.

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Dave & Chuck are two no-talent hacks.

So WCCY is now Standards 24/7? Last I heard they were airing sports at night.

What satellite feed do they use? Is it Dial Global's America's Best Music?

They've been standards "America's Best Music" since ESPN was dropped 3-4 years ago.

I believe ESPN told affils to run all or none and so they went none.
It's "All Star Radio 1400 WCCY" with ABC news on the hour, Tigers games and in football season, Westwood One games on Sunday nights.


I do stand corrected on Michigan Tech. Sorry. (MTU)

Also, WMPL's signal isn't the greatest at night out of town. 206 watts at night.

Radio in Houghton is nothing short of abysmal. I survived on CDs and internet radio when I was there. Yeah, they should have a top 40 station but top 40 up there means sucking worse than Q107. You hit the nail on the head... Tech students are not considered for ratings by the owners. They are more or less an inconvenience for the locals who are aging quickly, hence the radio choices offered. WUPY has a very poor signal into Houghton Hancock which is in the middle of a steep valley.

Post originator wrote:


Actually, the guy who own's WBUP (ABC 10)/WBKP (CW) owns most of the radio signals in the Copper Country. There in lies the problems that you mentioned. Steven Marks has owned WBKB-TV 11 for decades and hasn't learned a freakin' thing about broadcasting in all that time. He makes Ebenezer Scrooge look like Andrew Carnegie. His ONLY concern is about the bottom line and milking his properties for all he can wrap his greedy little hands around and stick in his pockets. He hires people fresh out of college, and sometimes not even college graduates, and pays them wages that would offend migrant workers. As soon as I heard that he bought a cluster of stations in Houghton-Hancock, my first thought was "So long Copper Country radio. Been nice knowing you!" If you're waiting for changes to come to ANY of these stations, you'd be better off biting the bullet and investing in XM-Sirrius, at least until Marks gets it into his head that he's a LAWYER NOT A BROADCASTER.

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Great Lakes Vet

Q107 is impossible to get in Houghton and Hancock proper. You have a better shot at it once out of the valley and closer to the eastern shore of Keweenaw Bay. Oddly, reception improves the farther north you get on the peninsula, as it angles eastward. WUPY is also basically defeated by the Portage Canal valley and by the hill to the west of Baraga.

WGLI started life as a straight-up current rock station, then later added a lot of classic rock to its mix. It's generally harder and newer than WOLV's playlist, and has much more "live and local" content.

I barely listened to WKMJ; the "Hot AC" playlist they had was not much of an improvement over elevator music the last time I tuned in. As far as I can tell, the only reason they're in business is they have Michigan Tech sports.

Could Top 40 work in da Keweenaw? Sure could. I don't see any of the established players switching up anytime soon though, so it'd have to be on a new stick. The Keweenaw Bay tribe has been the big investors in local radio recently; they'd be the most likely to make that happen.

I became a BIG fan of internet radio when I went to school at Michigan Tech, which was a neat trick considering it was still in its infancy in the late '90's. And yeah, there was a fair amount of trading CDs and other non-RIAA supported activity.

WMTU was always hit and miss, and up until they put up their current tower, the 100 watt signal barely covered Houghton and Hancock. Full disclosure: I actually had a show on there for a semester, and it seemed to do pretty well, but it was a bear getting up early enough to do it.

When I lived in Hancock (thus more favorably pointed towards Marquette and points south), I could tease 107.7 in on my stereo on good days. When MIX 106.3 in Escanaba came on the air, I could occasionally get that one in too, and I listened every chance I got. That station was damned impressive in its early days.

[quote="zoomer69"][quote="swiat"]

Radio in Houghton is nothing short of abysmal. I survived on CDs and internet radio when I was there. Yeah, they should have a top 40 station but top 40 up there means sucking worse than Q107. You hit the nail on the head... Tech students are not considered for ratings by the owners. They are more or less an inconvenience for the locals who are aging quickly, hence the radio choices offered. WUPY has a very poor signal into Houghton Hancock which is in the middle of a steep valley.[/quote]

I became a BIG fan of internet radio when I went to school at Michigan Tech, which was a neat trick considering it was still in its infancy in the late '90's. And yeah, there was a fair amount of trading CDs and other non-RIAA supported activity.

WMTU was always hit and miss, and up until they put up their current tower, the 100 watt signal barely covered Houghton and Hancock. Full disclosure: I actually had a show on there for a semester, and it seemed to do pretty well, but it was a bear getting up early enough to do it.



When I lived in Hancock (thus more favorably pointed towards Marquette and points south), I could tease 107.7 in on my stereo on good days. When MIX 106.3 in Escanaba came on the air, I could occasionally get that one in too, and I listened every chance I got. That station was damned impressive in its early days.[/quote]

I went to NMU from 86 to 90 so I kind of get what your saying. Overnight their were only two stations: one country and one oldies. Their was an AM rock station that only lated one year, 88/89. Even though they went off the air at midnight they had an great playlist, (when was the last time You heard Pere Ubu on WRIF, besides their old overnight program. It was gone way to soon.

We always see people pushing for Tiger baseball on a strong FM. The problem is, can you sell it and can you broadcast it with out dumping your core audience 162 times a year. The Packers and Lions are 16 events most often on a Sunday. Even Michigan or MSU football is generally a Saturday event a dozen times a year.

Does anyone remember when 93.5 (then WZRK) broadcast the Packer games over the air with a telephone call feed? I think they were too cheap to get a satellite feed. The infamous Super 8 Green Bay commercials from a 20 year old tape that had been humidity damaged was one of my favorites too.

I was curious if there are many Canadian stations that you can easily pick up in the Keweenaw and Marquette areas.

I can think of two off the bat. 91.5 CKPR and a weaker 105.3 the Giant. CKPR is HotAC and the Giant is Classic Hits.


105.3 years ago was Hot 105, a nice CHR.

Years before, 580 CKPR had a very, very nice signal into Western UP, until they left the air for FM.