Broadcast area Peoria, Illinois Slogan Playing What We Want ERP 3,300 watts City of license Glasford Format Adult Hits | Branding 101.1 Jack FM Frequency 101.1 MHz HAAT 137 meters (449 ft) First air date 1998 Sister stations WPIA, WWCT, WZPN | |
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Owner Mike Rea; (Advanced Media Partners LLC) | ||
WHPI (101.1 FM, "Jack FM") is a radio station for Glasford, Illinois in the Peoria, Illinois radio market. On September 26, 2010 the station began using the adult hits format Jack FM.
History
Neil A. Rhones and Luann C. Dahl applied for a new station on 101.1 MHz at Canton, Illinois, and were granted a construction permit in 1996. The call sign WBDM was assigned to this station. In 1997, Rhones and Dahl asked the Federal Communications Commission to move Canton's 101.1 MHz allocation, with their construction permit, to Glasford, Illinois, claiming that moving the city of license would result in adding 81,024 people to the coverage area while only losing 8,754. The FCC granted the request on August 26, 1996. In June 1999, Rhones and Dahl assigned their construction permit to Two Petaz, Inc., which was based in Nashville, Tennessee and whose president was Bargard H. Walters. The station's call sign was changed to WRVP on July 13, 1999 and the station received its license on January 4, 2000.
The station used the nickname "101.1 The River". The River was born as an AC station and was attempting to compete with heritage 50 kW signal WSWT. This did not last long: just a few months later, the plug was pulled in favor of a simulcast of sister station 98.5 as "98.5 & 101.1 The Party". 98.5 WPPY and 101.1 swapped callsigns on July 27, 2000.
In 2004, 101.1 began simulcasting the Pekin, Illinois station 1140 WVEL (AM), which has long suffered from a weak signal outside of Pekin, and on March 4, 2004, 101.1 dropped the WPPY callsign and became WVEL-FM.
In September 2006 as part of a larger station swap between multiple Peoria groups, Regent Broadcasting sold 101.1 to newly formed Independence Media Holdings. 105.7 was being sold from AAA Entertainment to Regent, and Regent indicated it did not want the Hot AC format currently on 105.7. On September 26, 2006, "Mix 105.7" (WXMP) and its format moved to the weaker 101.1 and changed its name to "Mix 101.1" when the WIXO callsign and its "99X Rocks" format moved from 99.9 to 105.7.
At midnight on the morning of September 19, 2007, the station changed its format to Oldies, branded as "Hippie Radio 101.1". The callsign was changed to WHPI to match the name.
At 9:45pm on September 26, 2010, WHPI changed their format to adult hits, branded as "Jack FM". WHPI has remained jockless since "Jack FM" first signed on and rejects all song requests.
Independence Media Holdings sold WHPI along with its other 3 Peoria-area stations (96.5 WZPN Farmington, 98.5 WPIA Eureka, and 99.9 WWCT Bartonville) to Michael S. Rea's Advanced Media Partners on November 15, 2010.