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WDMK
WDMK (105.9 FM, "105.9 Kiss-FM") is a commercial radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States. Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, it broadcasts an urban adult contemporary format. The studios and offices are on Radio Plaza in Ferndale.
The station's transmitter is on Greenfield Road south of 10 Mile Road in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park. WDMK broadcasts in HD Radio: the HD-2 digital subchannel has an urban gospel format known as "The Detroit Praise Network" which is relayed over two FM translators: W252BX (98.3 FM) and W260CB (99.9 FM), both in Detroit.
105.9 FM has always been targeted at Detroit's African-American community, with various genres of black music. The station signed on the air on May 26, 1960. Its original call sign was WCHD, a sister station to R&B-formatted WCHB. WCHB was Detroit's first Black-owned-and-operated radio station, then at 1440 AM (now WMKM) before moving to 1200 AM (now WMUZ-AM), now at 1340 AM (present day WCHB, this station was known as WEXL from 1931-2017). WCHB had been founded by Dr. Wendell Cox and Dr. Haley Bell (hence the WCHB call letters).
WCHD was programmed separately from WCHB, airing a Jazz format. Early jazz announcers on WCHD included Ken Bradley, Jo Ray, and Ed Love (who later hosted a weekend jazz program on public radio station WDET).
On March 18, 1974, WCHD changed its call letters to WJZZ to emphasize its musical format. The station played a mix of traditional and contemporary jazz along with some soft R&B artists such as Sade, Luther Vandross and Anita Baker, becoming a precursor of the format later known as smooth jazz. During the 1980s and early 1990s, WJZZ was one of the nation's most successful commercial jazz outlets and a reporter to Radio and Records magazine's Jazz and later NAC/Contemporary Jazz airplay panels.
By this time, WJZZ and WCHB were owned by Bell Broadcasting. WJZZ was one out of four radio stations in the market (along with WMXD, WMUZ and WRIF) that was used on Barden Cablevision's character generated line-up throughout the 1980s and 1990s (which would later become Comcast).
At the end of 1995, WJZZ had gained a competitor in the smooth jazz format, with the former album rock station WLLZ flipping to the format as WVMV "V98.7" shortly before Christmas 1995. With WVMV taking a more mass-appeal approach to the smooth jazz format by playing more Soft AC and Urban AC vocals, Bell Broadcasting decided to take WJZZ in a different direction.
On August 23, 1996, WJZZ flipped to Mainstream Urban. It took the WCHB-FM call sign and the slogan "105.9 The Beat," in an attempt to go after longtime urban leader WJLB. Radio One acquired WCHB-AM/FM in July 1998, and the following month, WCHB-FM became WDTJ, "105.9 Jamz." WDTJ aired the Russ Parr morning show syndicated from co-owned WKYS in Washington, D.C. "105.9 Jamz" did respectable in the ratings, but could not beat WJLB.
WDMK
WDMK (105.9 FM, "105.9 Kiss-FM") is a commercial radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan, United States. Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, it broadcasts an urban adult contemporary format. The studios and offices are on Radio Plaza in Ferndale.
The station's transmitter is on Greenfield Road south of 10 Mile Road in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park. WDMK broadcasts in HD Radio: the HD-2 digital subchannel has an urban gospel format known as "The Detroit Praise Network" which is relayed over two FM translators: W252BX (98.3 FM) and W260CB (99.9 FM), both in Detroit.
105.9 FM has always been targeted at Detroit's African-American community, with various genres of black music. The station signed on the air on May 26, 1960. Its original call sign was WCHD, a sister station to R&B-formatted WCHB. WCHB was Detroit's first Black-owned-and-operated radio station, then at 1440 AM (now WMKM) before moving to 1200 AM (now WMUZ-AM), now at 1340 AM (present day WCHB, this station was known as WEXL from 1931-2017). WCHB had been founded by Dr. Wendell Cox and Dr. Haley Bell (hence the WCHB call letters).
WCHD was programmed separately from WCHB, airing a Jazz format. Early jazz announcers on WCHD included Ken Bradley, Jo Ray, and Ed Love (who later hosted a weekend jazz program on public radio station WDET).
On March 18, 1974, WCHD changed its call letters to WJZZ to emphasize its musical format. The station played a mix of traditional and contemporary jazz along with some soft R&B artists such as Sade, Luther Vandross and Anita Baker, becoming a precursor of the format later known as smooth jazz. During the 1980s and early 1990s, WJZZ was one of the nation's most successful commercial jazz outlets and a reporter to Radio and Records magazine's Jazz and later NAC/Contemporary Jazz airplay panels.
By this time, WJZZ and WCHB were owned by Bell Broadcasting. WJZZ was one out of four radio stations in the market (along with WMXD, WMUZ and WRIF) that was used on Barden Cablevision's character generated line-up throughout the 1980s and 1990s (which would later become Comcast).
At the end of 1995, WJZZ had gained a competitor in the smooth jazz format, with the former album rock station WLLZ flipping to the format as WVMV "V98.7" shortly before Christmas 1995. With WVMV taking a more mass-appeal approach to the smooth jazz format by playing more Soft AC and Urban AC vocals, Bell Broadcasting decided to take WJZZ in a different direction.
On August 23, 1996, WJZZ flipped to Mainstream Urban. It took the WCHB-FM call sign and the slogan "105.9 The Beat," in an attempt to go after longtime urban leader WJLB. Radio One acquired WCHB-AM/FM in July 1998, and the following month, WCHB-FM became WDTJ, "105.9 Jamz." WDTJ aired the Russ Parr morning show syndicated from co-owned WKYS in Washington, D.C. "105.9 Jamz" did respectable in the ratings, but could not beat WJLB.