Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
WMFN
WMFN (640 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Black-oriented news format from the Black Information Network. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting, and under a local marketing agreement with iHeartMedia, specifically its Chicago cluster.
Licensed to Peotone, Illinois, the station currently targets Chicago, specifically the city's South and West Sides, where most of the city's Black population resides. The station's transmitter site is northwest of the intersection of Interstate 57 and (Will/Kankakee) County Line Road south of Peotone.
Though the station in technicality serves the radio market of Will County seat Joliet, along with Morris and Crete, the station's schedule is completely automated with the master feed of BIN and its coverage area de facto serves Chicago and its suburbs, with occasional contributions from personalities from iHeart's WVAZ, WGRB, and WGCI-FM. The station is de facto a full-market satellite station of WVAZ's second HD Radio subchannel, which broadcast BIN before Birach and iHeartMedia entered into the LMA.
The station is a "move in" frequency which originally served West Michigan, and first began broadcasting in Zeeland, Michigan in 1990 under the WBMX call sign, serving Muskegon and Grand Rapids. The station has since been through a number of different formats and call signs, and changed market areas, which is rare for a station.
640 kilohertz is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which KFI in Los Angeles and KYUK in Bethel, Alaska are the dominant Class A stations.
AM 640 was originally a MOR station in 1990 when it signed on as WBMX, using the call sign that had recently been vacated by a popular urban contemporary station in Chicago. The following year, the owners of WROR-FM 98.5 in Boston, Massachusetts, bought the WBMX call letters from 640 in order to debut "Mix 98.5" there; in return, AM 640 received the WROR calls. Its format did not change. In 1993, WROR (AM) was sold and converted to Radio AAHS as WISZ, freeing the WROR calls to be used again in Boston, where they were again placed beginning in 1996.
For a time, the station also played adult standards (Westwood One's AM Only) at night as a continuation of daytimer sister station WMJH 810 AM's format. Since WMJH was known at the time as "Majic 810," WMFN's nighttime standards programming was called "Night Majic."
In 1995, AM 640 became WMFN, taking a sports format branded "West Michigan's Fan". During its sports talk days former NFL linebacker Ray Bentley hosted an afternoon program. In 1999 WMFN adopted a Business News format branded "West Michigan's Financial News". Starting in 2000 WMFN evolved into a News Talk Sports format eventually becoming "Hot Talk 640". In 2005 WMFN's talk format was dropped in favor of an Adult Urban Contemporary format branded "Smooth Vibes AM 640".
Hub AI
WMFN AI simulator
(@WMFN_simulator)
WMFN
WMFN (640 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Black-oriented news format from the Black Information Network. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting, and under a local marketing agreement with iHeartMedia, specifically its Chicago cluster.
Licensed to Peotone, Illinois, the station currently targets Chicago, specifically the city's South and West Sides, where most of the city's Black population resides. The station's transmitter site is northwest of the intersection of Interstate 57 and (Will/Kankakee) County Line Road south of Peotone.
Though the station in technicality serves the radio market of Will County seat Joliet, along with Morris and Crete, the station's schedule is completely automated with the master feed of BIN and its coverage area de facto serves Chicago and its suburbs, with occasional contributions from personalities from iHeart's WVAZ, WGRB, and WGCI-FM. The station is de facto a full-market satellite station of WVAZ's second HD Radio subchannel, which broadcast BIN before Birach and iHeartMedia entered into the LMA.
The station is a "move in" frequency which originally served West Michigan, and first began broadcasting in Zeeland, Michigan in 1990 under the WBMX call sign, serving Muskegon and Grand Rapids. The station has since been through a number of different formats and call signs, and changed market areas, which is rare for a station.
640 kilohertz is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which KFI in Los Angeles and KYUK in Bethel, Alaska are the dominant Class A stations.
AM 640 was originally a MOR station in 1990 when it signed on as WBMX, using the call sign that had recently been vacated by a popular urban contemporary station in Chicago. The following year, the owners of WROR-FM 98.5 in Boston, Massachusetts, bought the WBMX call letters from 640 in order to debut "Mix 98.5" there; in return, AM 640 received the WROR calls. Its format did not change. In 1993, WROR (AM) was sold and converted to Radio AAHS as WISZ, freeing the WROR calls to be used again in Boston, where they were again placed beginning in 1996.
For a time, the station also played adult standards (Westwood One's AM Only) at night as a continuation of daytimer sister station WMJH 810 AM's format. Since WMJH was known at the time as "Majic 810," WMFN's nighttime standards programming was called "Night Majic."
In 1995, AM 640 became WMFN, taking a sports format branded "West Michigan's Fan". During its sports talk days former NFL linebacker Ray Bentley hosted an afternoon program. In 1999 WMFN adopted a Business News format branded "West Michigan's Financial News". Starting in 2000 WMFN evolved into a News Talk Sports format eventually becoming "Hot Talk 640". In 2005 WMFN's talk format was dropped in favor of an Adult Urban Contemporary format branded "Smooth Vibes AM 640".