City Milwaukee, Wisconsin Branding B93.3 | Broadcast area Southeastern Wisconsin First air date June 1958 (as WQFM) | |
Slogan The 80s to Today
Milwaukee's Home for the Holidays (Nov.-Dec.) Frequency 93.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) | ||
WLDB (93.3 FM) is a commercial radio station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, broadcasting on 93.3 FM. Owned and operated by the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, a partnership between Shamrock Communications and All Pro Broadcasting, WLDB airs an adult contemporary music format branded as "B93.3". Its studios are located in Menomonee Falls and the transmitter site is in Milwaukee's North Side near Estabrook Park.
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Additionally the station simulcasts sister AM station WZTI (1290) and their oldies format using their second HD Radio subchannel, a signal simulcast on W262CJ (100.3), an analog translator originating from the same site as WLDB's transmitter.
History
The original call letters were WQFM, beginning in 1958. The station had various formats, including classical music, big band music, jazz and ethnic programming before a short-lived automated Top 40 format. For many years, starting in 1973, this was Milwaukee's dominant album oriented rock station. They competed with the eclectic free-form WZMF until 1979, and WLPX until 1983.
"93QFM" was the top rock station in town for over a decade, but faced its stiffest competition in 1987, when WBCS dropped their country music format and became hard-rocker "Lazer 103". They shifted to a more heavy metal/hard rock direction, similar to that of Lazer, then switched to a more "adult" rock feel in 1992, then became heavier again. In addition, the station had a seemingly endless succession of morning shows over the years, including an ill-fated attempt at airing Wisconsin native Jonathon Brandmeier's show from WLUP in Chicago, which backfired when WLUP shuffled their on-air lineup, moved Brandmeier to afternoons, putting Kevin Matthews in morning drive. At one point, WQFM put together one short-lived morning show that consisted of people who had never done radio, which included Lori Minetti, the hostess of the Wisconsin Lottery's Money Game television show.
After years of poor and hasty decisions and falling ratings, the owners of WQFM pulled the plug on March 1, 1996, and flipped the station to smooth jazz as WJZI.
WJZI's smooth jazz format never dominated the local ratings, but remained competitive in the middle portion of the Arbitrons. In the winter of 2005, the station tied for 9th place with WJMR among listeners 25 to 54, but rose to 7th place in the winter of 2006.
On March 5, 2007, WJZI began a transition in its format, gearing the station towards a slightly younger female demographic. This involved adding more adult contemporary music. De-emphasizing the smooth jazz music that was a staple of the station, WJZI changed its branding to "Smooth 93.3," as it slowly began to make the transition to full-fledged soft rock.
By June 18, 2007, the transition was complete, with revamped on-air imaging, station logo and website ("The All New Smooth 93.3"). A new morning show would also be added, featuring Milwaukee radio veteran Ellen Stout and station program director Stan Atkinson; that change was seen as a counter-move to the morning show changes on competing AC station WKTI-FM.
As a response to WJZI's flip to AC, competing station WFMR changed its format from classical music to smooth jazz on June 26, one week after WJZI's move. That station changed their call letters to the similar WJZX. On July 30, 2007, WJZI adopted new positioning, as they changed their call letters to WLDB, with the new moniker "B93.3", matching the imaging used by a popular station with the same format in Philadelphia, WBEB, but using the decimal number to avert confusion with Sheboygan's country-formatted WBFM, which brands as "B93.7" and has fringe reception in the central reaches of Ozaukee County. The station's weather forecasts are prepared and delivered by WDJT-TV's First Alert Weather staff.
In June 2009, WLDB tweaked its format from soft AC to mainstream AC, playing music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the 2000s. This type of format was on WKTI before it flipped to an adult hits format and changed the calls to WLWK-FM in November 2008. WLDB's tweak positions itself to compete with Hot AC WMYX-FM, although "The Mix" plays more new music than old. As of 2011, the station played music from the 1970s through the present. The station's schedule all weekend between 5 PM on Fridays and 5 AM on Mondays consisted solely of 80s music.
The station rebranded as "Trending Radio 93-3" at 6:07 PM on April 1, 2015, after playing You Gotta Be by Des'ree, a title playing as a pun for a skit which followed where the station's former bee mascot was swatted to cue the branding change. The first song on "Trending Radio" was Let's Get It Started by The Black Eyed Peas. The playlist was then tightened towards more of a current-day bent focusing on competing more with WMYX, along with WXSS and WRNW to a lesser extent.
On February 23, 2016, at 3 p.m., after playing Royals by Lorde, WLDB returned to its former adult contemporary format and "B93.3" branding, though lacking the "bee" elements and mascot. The first song after the relaunch was Don't Stop Believin' by Journey.
In previous years, the station usually has only had intermittent Christmas music in the period between Thanksgiving and mid-December, then fully Christmas until just after that day. In 2016, the station went all-Christmas on November 17, beating WRIT-FM (95.7) for the first time.
Previous uses of the WLDB call letters
The WLDB call letters were previously used from 1955 to 1974 on 1490 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The station was owned and operated by husband and wife Leroy and Dorothy Bremmer, hence WLDB.