City Dannemora, New York Frequency 107.1 MHz HAAT 84 meters First air date June 2008 Sister stations WIRY-FM, WZXP | Branding WBKM ERP 1,000 watts Broadcast area Champlain Valley Format Adult Album Alternative | |
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Slogan Burlington's Kinda Music | ||
WBKM (107.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Album Alternative format. Licensed to Dannemora, New York, it serves the Champlain Valley. The station is currently owned by Radioactive, LLC (controlled by Randy Michaels) and operated under a local marketing agreement by Music Guild International, a Vermont corporation.
History
A construction permit for the station, then allocated to Saranac Lake, New York, was granted to Radioactive on June 6, 2005, after having won it at auction in November 2004; the allocation was later moved to Dannemora. Initially assigned the call letters WDYC on February 15, 2008, the station first signed on that June as WELX, a simulcast of WCLX (102.9 FM), which at that time had an album oriented rock format. The WNMR call letters were introduced on April 6, 2009; within a week, the WCLX simulcast was discontinued, and the station temporarily went silent.
WNMR returned to the air that fall, under a local marketing agreement with Convergence Entertainment and Communications, with a news/talk format. While most programming on WNMR was syndicated (including The Dan Patrick Show, The Michael Smerconish Show, The Dave Ramsey Show, some programming from Bloomberg Radio, Free Talk Live, the Midnight Trucking Radio Network, lifestyle talk programming on weekends, and some Sporting News Radio content on Sundays), a local program, Corm and the Coach, aired in morning drive and was co-hosted by Steve Cormier and Tom Brennan; it had previously aired on WCPV until 2008. Convergence had planned a television simulcast of the show on WGMU. WNMR also carried hourly newscasts from ABC News Radio. However, the station struggled due to poor advertising revenues, leading Corm and the Coach to go on hiatus after the April 7, 2010 broadcast. Five days later, it was announced that Convergence had put WNMR's operations up for sale; on May 1, the station once again left the air.
After Convergence formed a new broadcast subsidiary, CEC Media Group, the station resumed broadcasting in late June with an all-sports format; most programming came from Sporting News Radio, save for a local afternoon show hosted by Rich DeLancey, and, later, Mike O'Meara's one-hour talk show. However, automation problems forced WNMR off the air once more on March 11, 2011. Convergence ended its association with the station in July 2012; Convergence's owner, Jeff Loper, said that the company "had issues with finding people to run the thing successfully."
WNMR went back on air for a short amount of time as 107.1 The Fixx with an Urban contemporary format. Due to disagreements with the owner the station went off air; The Fixx would continue as an Internet radio station. While WNMR was off the air, WRFK, a classic hits station in Barre, could be heard in the Champlain Valley. As of August 2014, the station was back on the air and broadcasting polka music; a teaser ad stated that 107.1 would be the new home for The Barrel. WNMR subsequently broadcast a country music format as Kickin' Country 107.1.
The station changed its call sign to the current WBKM on March 15, 2016. The change came after Radioactive leased the station to Music Guild International a Vermont corporation, (CEO Tony Gallucci) who program an adult album alternative format; they had already operated WBKM as an Internet radio station since 2008.