City Munford, Tennessee Frequency 98.9 MHz | Branding 98.9 The Vibe Format Classic hip-hop | |
Broadcast area Memphis metropolitan area First air date 1958 (as KTMO)
September, 2006 (as WKIM) | ||
WKIM (98.9 FM, "98.9 The Vibe") is a classic hip-hop formatted radio station licensed to Munford, Tennessee and serving the Memphis area. It is owned by Cumulus Media. The station's studios are located at the Memphis Radio Group building in East Memphis, and the transmitter site is in Cordova, Tennessee.
History
The station was originally located in Kennett, Missouri, and used the call sign KTMO prior to its move-in in 2001. The station then would target Memphis with a Smooth Jazz format as Smooth Jazz 98.9 WJZN. In November 2004, the station changed to a Rhythmic Contemporary format as WMPW, "Power 99", putting it in direct competition with rivals Urban WHRK, fellow Rhythmic Contemporary Hit KXHT and Mainstream Top 40 rival WHBQ-FM.
On September 15, 2006, at 2 PM, WMPW flipped to a female-leaning adult hits format as 98.9 Kim FM under new call letters of WKIM. The first song on "Kim FM" was Like a Prayer by Madonna. After several books of substandard ratings and programming, the station abruptly flipped formats to hot AC about more than a year later. The change was still unsuccessful at the station, and on March 31, 2010, at 5 PM, the format was flipped to 1990s hits as Gen X 98.9. The first song on "Gen X 98.9" was Losing My Religion by R.E.M. As of September 26, 2010, the station has added some current hits, making it a 1990s/hot AC hybrid format reminiscent of The Pulse (Sirius XM) before the Sirius/XM Radio merger in 2009.
On April 25, 2011, the station flipped formats to news/talk, branded as "News/Talk 98.9".
On February 27, 2015, at Noon, WKIM flipped to classic hip-hop, branded as "98.9 The Vibe." The first song on "The Vibe" was "Hip Hop Hooray" by Naughty by Nature. WKIM was one of two stations in the market airing the format; WIVG ("Bumpin' 96") was the other (they have since flipped back to alternative).