Coast FM in the mid 90s

[Deleted User 15835]

Growing up, my family didn't travel much but every summer we made a trip from Monroe County up to Traverse City, for a little more then a week. It was a good time.

Anyway, I remember Coast FM. They had a smooth jazz format, some of it was local I think but some of it satellite fed. It was on 95.5 WLJZ 94.5 WJZJ and 93.9 WAVC. I remember listening to it quite a bit on my Walkman, it was sort of the soundtrack to the vacation. Then they ditched it for the zone but luckily 92.9 picked up the format for a time. Too bad the format as a whole is pretty much extinct.

[radioandtventhusiast]

Was the satellite format similar to what V98.7 had?

[organman95]

The 94.5 tower was (maybe still is?) over in Hebron Township. I remember when it was 94.3. Used to drive near it going to my grandparents' house back in the '90s. Always created a bit of interference with any station when driving close by it. When Del changed to 94.5, the interference problem disappeared.

[Ben Zonia]

The original tower for 94.3 was on Freedom Rd with 3 kW at much lower elevation. Tvbobn put it on the air as WFGE “Fudgie”, referring to tourists and the Mackinac Island Fudge they often buy.

[audiophile]

The 94.5 tower was (maybe still is?) over in Hebron Township. I remember when it was 94.3. Used to drive near it going to my grandparents' house back in the '90s. Always created a bit of interference with any station when driving close by it. When Del changed to 94.5, the interference problem disappeared.

IIRC WFGE used an RCA "firebox". Self-oscillation often caused it to catch fire.

I was asked by another engineer if I wanted to maintain it because his drive was too far. RCA Firebox? NO THANKS!

[Ben Zonia]

The Hebron site was an old forest lookout site. The forest tower is apparently no longer there. It is the highest terrain in the local area, but not as high as in neighboring areas 10 or 20 miles away to the West and South. The Hebron tower was far enough to be fully spaced as a Class C3 on 94.5. When Section 73.215 was implemented, the tower site fit under the new rule for a short spaced Class C2 with some fancy footwork and reference coordinates on Bois Blanc Island. But it can't be a full 50000 watt/150 meter HAAT facility because of short spacing to WCEN-FM 94.5 and what is now WCMV-FM Leland on 94.3. With the antenna COR up to the highest height available on the tower, it can be little more than 40000 watts nondirectional. To be 50000 watts, they had to move the COR twenty feet down. That 20 feet affects the signal path to the South, and South of Gaylord, at Mile Marker 267, it was solid and changed like a switch to WCEN-FM there with 40000 watts, whereas 50000 watts at the 20 feet lower height starts to break up now several miles further North, with mixing of WCEN-FM and WYPV signals for several miles rather than a quick switch where it changes. So, at least in some areas, 50000 watts is not better than 40000 watts, unless it was at the higher COR, and that would overlap WCEN-FM and WCMV-FM without an unpredictably designed Directional Antenna. As former part owner of WBRB 1430, the late Gilda Radner, used to say, "there's always something".

[MWmetalhead]

David Lee - better known for his rock radio and monster truck rally voiceovers (he is heard on WMMS in Cleveland at present) - was the imaging voice for 95.5 / 94.5 The Coast.

His reads sounded surprisingly good on that smooth jazz formatted station!

[organman95]

I didn't listen enough to Coast to remember the voiceover(s). I was a young kid then. I mostly remember it as WJZJ "The Zone"

[tvbobn]

The 94.5 tower was (maybe still is?) over in Hebron Township. I remember when it was 94.3. Used to drive near it going to my grandparents' house back in the '90s. Always created a bit of interference with any station when driving close by it. When Del changed to 94.5, the interference problem disappeared.

IIRC WFGE used an RCA "firebox". Self-oscillation often caused it to catch fire.

I was asked by another engineer if I wanted to maintain it because his drive was too far. RCA Firebox? NO THANKS!

Not quite sure what a RCA "firebox" is but it wasn't at WFGE.

We purchased a brand new Energy Onix transmitter when the WFGE was built in 1993.

Del liked the Energy Onix some much that he bought several more for his other stations that he owned in those days!

[audiophile]

This was before it was on air. Apparently, that never happened - so good move on your part.

[ChrisWL1980]

I remember "Fudgy 94" and its Hot AC format. The music sounded almost exactly like what Q95 in Detroit was playing at that time. I think it was satellite fed but I'm not sure who the provider was. . That was in the fall of 1994. A year later they were on 94.5 with the smooth jazz. I don't think 93.9 was on yet, not sure about 95.5. IIRC 93.9 had an AAA format as "The River" (just like 93.9 in Windsor/Detroit) when they first signed on.
I believe Coast FM used the Jones Radio Networks SJ format, which is the same one 92.9 would use in 2001 when they flipped to The Breeze (it was also used by 92.7/92.9 WJZL in Lansing, who switched to the Broadcast Architecture feed when the Jones format was discontinued). The JRN format is beloved by Smooth Jazz aficionados for playing more contemporary jazz and less pop/R&B than large-market stations like V98.7.

[MWmetalhead]

I remember the satellite-fed AAA format on WAVC, but before that, it was in a simulcast with 100.7 Oscoda as "Superstation CLS". Format was mostly automated Adult Contemporary. Calls of WAVC used to be WCLX.

I believe AAA formatted WAVC Mio and Alternative formatted WNTX in Allegan had common ownership for a spell.

[ChrisWL1980]

You're right - I had completely forgotten about the WCLS/WCLX simulcast. Jones satellite Soft AC, if I'm not mistaken. "Decades 101" WQON in Grayling used that same format for a time.
How many different formats has 93.9 gone through? CLS, AAA, The Zone, Coast FM, Big Country, The Bear (plus a lengthy silent period) all preceded the religious programming they have now. I may be leaving some out. I seem to recall at one time in the late '90s when 93.9 was silent (I think this was after the AAA era but before The Zone) and I was able to very faintly pick up Windsor/Detroit's River in Gaylord.

[Realist]

I remember the satellite-fed AAA format on WAVC, but before that, it was in a simulcast with 100.7 Oscoda as "Superstation CLS". Format was mostly automated Adult Contemporary. Calls of WAVC used to be WCLX.

I believe AAA formatted WAVC Mio and Alternative formatted WNTX in Allegan had common ownership for a spell.

Yep and 100.7 switched to country after that. 4 radio stations based in Iosco County and 2 were country. Real dumb move. Thank God they wised up and flipped to classic rock

[ChrisWL1980]

I remember the satellite-fed AAA format on WAVC, but before that, it was in a simulcast with 100.7 Oscoda as "Superstation CLS". Format was mostly automated Adult Contemporary. Calls of WAVC used to be WCLX.

I believe AAA formatted WAVC Mio and Alternative formatted WNTX in Allegan had common ownership for a spell.

Yep and 100.7 switched to country after that. 4 radio stations based in Iosco County and 2 were country. Real dumb move. Thank God they wised up and flipped to classic rock

They also simulcast 107.7 The Bay for a period. I think that was before the "Thunder Country" era.
Pretty stupid to think they could take on live and local powerhouses WATZ and WKJC with canned satellite programming.