City Athol, Massachusetts Slogan Independent Radio | Branding The River Frequency 99.9 MHz | |
Broadcast area North County, Pioneer Valley First air date December 4, 1989 (as WCAT-FM) | ||
WFNX (99.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an adult album alternative music format. Licensed to Athol, Massachusetts, United States, it serves the North County and Pioneer Valley areas. The signal for WFNX can be heard in north central Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and southern Vermont. It first began broadcasting in 1989 under the call sign WCAT-FM. The station is owned by Northeast Broadcasting Company.
History
The station first signed on December 4, 1989 as WCAT-FM, a contemporary hit radio station owned by P&S Broadcasting along with WCAT (700 AM, now WFAT). By 1992, the station had shifted to an adult contemporary format, then to hot adult contemporary a year later.
In 1998, P&S sold WCAT-FM and WCAT to CAT Communications Corporation (a company controlled by Jeff Shapiro), who in turn sold the stations to Citadel Broadcasting in 2000. Citadel operated the WCAT stations as part of its Worcester group of stations, even though Arbitron considered the stations to be within the Boston market. That September, WCAT-FM changed to an oldies format; from 2001 until 2002, this was simulcast on the AM sister station. On April 19, 2002, the call letters were changed to WAHL, after Citadel moved the WCAT-FM call sign to a Cat Country-branded station on 106.7 FM in Hershey, Pennsylvania (WCAT-FM is now assigned to 102.3 FM in Carlisle, Pennsylvania).
Citadel sold WAHL and WCAT to Northeast Broadcasting, controlled by Steve Silberberg, in 2003. That October, the station was renamed WNYN-FM and introduced a classic rock format branded as "99.9 The Eagle." In April 2008, the station became WXRG, a simulcast of adult album alternative sister station WXRV in Andover; in late 2011, the simulcast was extended to the AM station, by then WTUB. The call letters were changed to WFNX on May 6, 2013. The WFNX call letters were previously used by an alternative rock station in Boston owned by the Boston Phoenix, first on 101.7 FM (now WBWL) and later as an Internet radio station; after that station shut down along with the Phoenix, Northeast Broadcasting acquired the call sign for 99.9 FM in April 2013.
WFNX and what had become WWBZ dropped the WXRV simulcast in May 2014 and began stunting with a wide range of music while preparing to launch new formats for the stations on June 9, with listeners being asked to vote on which of the songs being played should be included in the new formats. On June 9 at 9 a.m., the station launched its permanent variety hits format, asking listeners to now vote for its nickname; the simulcast on WWBZ ended two hours earlier, when that station introduced a separate oldies format. On July 1, WFNX officially began branding as simply "99-9 WFNX." In May 2016, the station announced that it would end its variety hits format after May 29 and return to simulcasting WXRV, citing a lack of advertiser support; in its announcement, WFNX said it needed ten businesses to advertise on the station on an annual basis to cover its costs.