City Pinconning, Michigan Frequency 100.9 MHz | Branding ESPN 100.9 First air date November 1983 | |
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Broadcast area Bay City-Midland-Saginaw Slogan Your Local Sports Leader | ||
ESPN 100.9-FM (WLUN) is a radio station broadcasting a sports radio format in Pinconning, Michigan, United States, owned by the Michigan Baseball Foundation (owner of the Great Lakes Loons), under the licensee name of Michigan Radio Communications.
Contents
History
WLUN has broadcast a variety of different formats since it first signed on, on November 15, 1983. Formats included country music, adult contemporary, and classic hits. For much of its early history, it was the co-owned sister of WXOX (now WHHQ), originally licensed to Essexville, but over time marketed itself as a Bay City station.
Beginnings in the 1980s
The station was originally signed on by Wegerly Broadcasting Corporation, headed by Robert Naismith, who also served as station general manager. However, the construction permit for the station was first issued in 1982 to Wigwam Bay Broadcasting, who chose the call letters WHFU. The permit would later be sold the call letters changed prior to sign-on.
The station is fondly remembered by some in the Tri-Cities market for its time as Top 40/album rock station WFXZ, "Foxy 101," in the early 1980s. The station then changed format to easy listening in 1984, changing its call letters to WWRM, marketing itself as "Warm 101", taking the call letters and format from another station in Gaylord which had abandoned the format and call letters that year in favor of a Top 40 format.
Three years after this format was adopted, the station went through its first ownership change, separating itself from the AM station. The new licensee, BC Communications, acquired the station on May 20, 1987 for $345,000. The company was owned by Floyd Biernat and Milton Carles.
BC Communications then changed the station's call letters to WLFS, shifted its music focus to soft adult contemporary and marketed itself as "Sunny 101", targeting the Saginaw-Bay City market. However, the station ran into financial troubles by the end of the decade and fell silent.
Return and Rebirth
WLFS remained silent for a period of about two years. It was acquired on March 11, 1991 by P & G Media Corporation for $55,000. Much of the next year was spent getting the station back on the air, as much of the station's property had been liquidated through bankruptcy proceedings. The station returned in 1992 under the new call sign WBTZ, and boasting an album rock format, originating from its new FM sister station, WUVE-FM in Saginaw. Unlike the television market, Saginaw and Bay City were separate radio markets and were allowed under the more restrictive FCC ownership limits at the time (though they would be relaxed within a year). Station business was conducted out of WUVE's facilities on Gordonville Road in Midland.
In 1994, the station changed ownership to WMJK-FM LLC, in a transaction for $222,750. With the change came the change of the station's call letters to mirror that of its new licensee. Concurrently, the station began rebroadcasting a new sister FM station in Saginaw, WMJA, which had signed on in 1992. Both stations, branded as "Magic 101 and 104", then switched to a 70's based format blend of classic rock and oldies.
As WYLZ, 100.9 FM and its former sister station, WILZ, were known together as "Wheelz 104.5 and 101" from 1999 to 2007.
In June 2007, WYLZ was sold by Citadel Broadcasting (along with ten other stations) to The Last Bastion Station Trust, as part of ABC Radio's absorption into Citadel. Upon ending the simulcast, WYLZ switched to a satellite-fed country format ("Mainstream Country" from Dial Global) under the "Thunder Country" moniker. Despite the programming changes, WYLZ continued to air play-by-play of Great Lakes Loons baseball during the summer of 2007. The satellite country format was a stopgap measure to keep the station on the air until it could be sold to a new owner and debut a permanent format. WILZ 104.5 maintains its classic rock format and Citadel ownership.
On March 24, 2008, WYLZ announced it would change formats to all sports radio, with programming from ESPN Radio, under a new moniker, "ESPN 100.9", effective March 25. Also, the Loons acquired the station from Last Bastion, with FCC approval. ([1]). On March 31, 2008 WYLZ changed their call letters to WLUN.
With the debut of WLUN, the sports-talk format returned to the Tri-Cities area for the first time since 1440 AM WMAX discontinued its simulcast of WTRX in Flint.