WUFL (FM)
WUFL (93.1 MHz) is an FM radio station licensed to Detroit, Michigan. Owned by Family Life Broadcasting, it broadcasts a contemporary Christian radio format, with some Christian talk and teaching programs. Its studios are located in the Fisher Building in New Center, while its transmitter is located at the intersection of 10 Mile and Greenfield Road in suburban Oak Park.
- Detroit, Michigan
- United States
- Detroit, Michigan
- United States
Family Life Radio
- Family Life Broadcasting
- (Family Life Broadcasting System)
July 9, 1947
- WJBK-FM (1947–1969)
- WDEE-FM (1969–1971)
- WDRQ (1971–1985)
- WLTI (1985–1996)
- WDRQ (1996–2023)
"Family Life"
70040
B
26,500 watts
204 meters (669 ft)
History[edit]
Top 40 (1947-1964)[edit]
The station, originally owned by Storer Broadcasting, first signed on as WJBK-FM in the summer of 1947. The station initially broadcast only six hours per day but implemented 24-hour operations in October 1947. From 1947 to 1966, WJBK-FM programming was strict 100% duplication of the co-owned AM station WJBK, and the FM side continued to simulcast through several programming changes. WJBK was Detroit's first top 40 station, playing hit music from 1956 to 1964.
Easy listening (1964-1969)[edit]
After 1964, WJBK-FM fully and then partially simulcast the AM's new easy listening and then MOR format, and its brief return to Top 40 in 1969. Starting in 1966, WJBK-FM began to introduce separate stereo programming for about 50% of the broadcast day, due to new FCC rules which restricted AM/FM simulcasting.
Country (1969-1971)[edit]
In late 1969, WJBK-AM-FM became WDEE AM & FM (The Big D) and implemented a country format with a Top 40-style presentation. The AM side quickly returned to high ratings; however, WDEE-FM remained virtually invisible. According to a Billboard magazine article in February 1970, WDEE-FM was on the air from 6 am to midnight, duplicating the AM programming from 5 pm to midnight and during the day airing separate stereo country programming syndicated by Bellingham, WA-based International Good Music.
Talk (1971-197?)[edit]
In 1971, WDEE-FM was sold to Bartell Media Corporation, changed its call sign to WDRQ, and became Detroit's first FM talk radio station. As a stunt to draw attention to the new station and about-to-be launched format, the station ran a weekend-long documentary, The History of Detroit Radio,[2] covering the then-current and past scene of Detroit radio (with special emphasis given to rock and roll stations) put together by longtime radio enthusiast and former Oakland Press radio columnist Arthur R. Vuolo, Jr.
Top 40 (197?-1979)[edit]
Ultimately, the news/talk format proved to be unsuccessful and WDRQ switched to Top 40 as The Super Q. Bartell at the time owned such legendary AM Top 40 stations as KCBQ in San Diego and WOKY in Milwaukee. Like those stations, WDRQ used consultant Buzz Bennett's fast-paced "Q" format. Like its rival, CKLW The Big 8, WDRQ featured a tight playlist which leaned toward R&B and soul records, but unlike The Big 8, WDRQ was not bound by Canadian content regulations requiring them to play a certain percentage of Canadian music in their rotation, which enabled them to play only the top hits and enabled them to make strong ratings inroads against CKLW. By 1977, WDRQ was the number one Top 40 station in Detroit.
WDRQ also became intimately involved in Detroit. It organized its listeners to gather on a Saturday and clean up Detroit parks, and gave free concerts at Belle Isle Park, including one with Detroiter Bob Seger. PD Jerry Clifton kept the excitement level much higher at WDRQ than other stations by having some sort of festival each weekend and mercilessly promoted the upcoming weekend promotion during the week.
CKLW and WDRQ also became personal rivals. CKLW put up a billboard at the cost of several thousand dollars bragging about their latest dominant Arbitron ratings on a major street that all jocks, newsmen and office personnel of WDRQ would see as they pulled into the parking lot of WDRQ. WDRQ did a "black bag" visit to CKLW on a hot Sunday when the jock and board operator were the only one at the station, but because of the hot day, the CKLW jock propped the door open for a breeze, allowing the WDRQ staff to browse around.
Top 40 (1980-1982)[edit]
WDRQ returned to a mainstream Top 40 format at the beginning of 1980 and made a brief return to the top 10 that spring, but the big story in Detroit radio that year was the meteoric rise of album-rocker WLLZ, and WDRQ's ratings once again began to drop and reached an all-time low of 1.4 in the Winter 1982 Arbitron ratings.
Urban (1982-1985)[edit]
In response to this, WDRQ shifted its format to urban contemporary in March 1982, and immediately saw the format change pay off, climbing to a 3.0 share in the Spring 1982 ratings report and to a 6.6 in Summer 1982. "Continuous Music—93FM WDRQ" was a success, and the opening of Beverly Hills Cop features an advertisement for this version of WDRQ on a city bus. Bartell sold the station to Amatuoro Broadcasting in the early 1980s, who later sold it to Keymarket Communications. The original incarnation of Viacom later purchased the station in a trade with Keymarket for a station that Viacom owned in Memphis in the mid-1980s that Keymarket wanted.
Adult contemporary (1985-1996)[edit]
In April 1985, owner Amaturo Radio Group dropped the urban format of WDRQ and changed the call sign to WLTI (initially known as W-Lite, later 93.1 Lite FM).[3] The station initially aired a soft adult contemporary package from Transtar called Format 41 (so named because it consisted of songs meant to appeal to female listeners in their early 40s), described by Amaturo president Monte Lang in an April 20, 1985 Billboard article as "targeted at listeners who prefer Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond and leaning toward easy listening." Despite the success Amaturo had had with Format 41 with its own WJQY in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami market, the Detroit market was already crowded with adult contemporary stations and WLTI failed to attract an audience until the station added local personalities around 1987. DJs such as the morning drive team of Eddie Rogers and Pat Holiday (both veterans of CKLW) – whose show featured comedic "celebrity" drop-ins by the spoofed likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Clint Eastwood and Eddie Murphy, as well as original characters like Mr. Action, enabled the station to hold its own in competition against the other AC stations in the market, including WNIC. Through the early 1990s, the station's music became more contemporary, and the "easy listening" artists were gradually phased out.