Major format flip in SW Michigan: WQLQ 99.9 FM

[Ben Zonia]

Live 99.9 flipped from CHR to Alternative at 12PM today.

Playlist leans classic alt, it appears. Good mix played in the inaugural hour.

I wonder if sister station 106.1 in Benton Harbor / St. Joe will head in a new direction? Doesn't make much sense to keep alternative on that signal.

Is this the first ever commercial Alternative station in the South Bend market? (I believe the COL for WQLQ is Benton Harbor, but TX site is near Berrien Springs.)

WQLQ can be heard in most areas along & south of a Saugatuck to Kalamazoo line.

https://www.live999radio.com/
https://wqlq.tunegenie.com/

It looks like it's on the Andrews University WAUS 90.7 tower. You can see that tower from Dowagiac. It used to be on the WHFB AM 1060 tower in Fair Plain.

[CJ]

Excited about the new format, but heard a promo for Brooke and Jeffery in the morning still. I hope that won’t be long-term. Also, a little surprised they are still using the “Live” 99.9 identifier. Perhaps more tweaks coming? Good music mix!

[ftballfan]

Live 99.9 will likely now have at least one song from the band Live on their playlist!

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

I honestly never thought we would see a format flip back to Alternative ever again. The format is almost extinct in some markets. My guess is that this area benefits from such a format due to the influx of young professionals.

[hunterw]

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I honestly never thought we would see a format flip back to Alternative ever again. The format is almost extinct in some markets. My guess is that this area benefits from such a format due to the influx of young professionals.

Might be cause They are on the fringe range of being able to get q101 from Chicago.

[format this]

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I honestly never thought we would see a format flip back to Alternative ever again. The format is almost extinct in some markets. My guess is that this area benefits from such a format due to the influx of young professionals.

Might be cause They are on the fringe range of being able to get q101 from Chicago.

Not to mention on the fringe (at least BH is) of 94.5 WKLQ.


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[Ben Zonia]

Surprisingly, I've never been able to pick up a listenable signal from WKLQ along I-94 in the Benton Harbor area.

Consider that WKLQ 94.5 has been short spaced for 60 years or more, to WKTI 94.5 Milwaukee, and WCEN 94.5 Mt. Pleasant/Hemlock. Under the newer 73.213 rules, they should hold on to their tower site for dear life. WKTI has a lot of "flat" lake terrain and tropo effects across Lake Michigan. Plus any other crowding from new stations and translators over the last 40 years, from Docket 80-90 and beyond. And the usual falling off of elevation near the Lake, which shields WKLQ's signal from inland.

WKLQ fell into the old Section 73.213 short spacing zones from 1964 to the early 1980s, for just 10 kW/500 feet, even after moving to a tower further East.

[48125er]

Reminds me of 99.5 in Fort Wayne, 94.5 fades around Coloma for me on I-196, on 131 it fades out when the freeway ends in portage.

[Ben Zonia]

I just looked up stations near Benton Harbor on fccdata.org. You can do it on FMQuery on the FCC.gov website but it takes longer and requires more entries and choices.

At least 3/4 of the Chicago frequencies have cochannels and first adjacent channels fairly nearby. Keep in mind that even low power stations and translators interfere with weak signals far beyond the predicted service areas of the lower power facilities. Almost every frequency is cluttered up compared to the golden age of clear as a bell FM signals, the 1960s to about 1985 when all the Docket 80-90 stations started coming on the air.

I didn't believe it would actually happen in the late 1980s, but the "AMization of the FM band" and the "small islands of service in seas of interference" used in NAB Comments and Petitions to Deny for 40-50 years, is already here.

[BFSEsq]

Excited about the new format, but heard a promo for Brooke and Jeffery in the morning still. I hope that won’t be long-term. Also, a little surprised they are still using the “Live” 99.9 identifier. Perhaps more tweaks coming? Good music mix!

This music mix looks awesome! Really cool stuff. I'll have to check this out. I love that I've been finding a few surprises in terrestrial radio lately with stations that are actually switching to the kind of alt music that I like! I thought those days were done, too.

I will agree that it seems bizarre that they not only kept their morning show, they haven't changed their name and logo or anything. That kind of rebranding is usually pretty standard with new music.