City Luna Pier, Michigan Format Traditional country | Branding 98-3 Nash Icon | |
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Broadcast area Monroe, Michigan
Toledo, Ohio Frequency 98.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) First air date July 16, 1967 (as WVMO) | ||
WMIM (98.3 FM) is a radio station licensed to broadcast from Luna Pier, Michigan, United States. The station serves Monroe, Michigan and the surrounding area, as well as metropolitan Toledo, Ohio, where it competes with WPFX-FM, WCKY-FM and WKKO-FM. It is owned by Cumulus Media.
History
The 98.3 frequency was licensed to Monroe for most of its history. The station signed on in July 1967 as WVMO (Voice of Monroe), founded by John Koehn of Adrian (also the founder of Adrian's WLEN 103.9 FM), and early on was a block-programmed station typical of small markets, featuring blocks of MOR, country music and Top 40 programming. According to a Billboard magazine item from June 1972, the station was on the air from 5:45 am to midnight and played MOR music until 6 p.m., when country DJ Dan Baker took over. WVMO was also an early radio job for Paul W. Smith, now morning host at Detroit's WJR.
In August 1982, WVMO was purchased by Bruce Lesnick of Lesnick Communications, Inc. He grabbed the call letters WTWR - which had recently been relinquished by an FM station in Detroit - and debuted "Tower 98", with an adult contemporary music format, which evolved into Top 40/CHR by the late 1990s. "Tower 98" served as "Monroe's Hit Music Station," with a minimal ratings presence in Toledo, until March 2003, when the station, now under Cumulus ownership, was granted a construction permit to change its city of license to Luna Pier and to move its transmitter south into Lucas County, Ohio, from Monroe County, Michigan.
For a time after the move, the station's playlist was so rhythmic-heavy that it began reporting to Radio & Records as a CHR/Rhythmic outlet rather than CHR/Pop (although it never did totally eliminate mainstream pop and rock music from its rotation), but returned to a CHR/Pop reporting status.
Tower 98 took on the station name change from "Tower 98" to "Tower 98-3" in September 2005. This was when its reporting status went from CHR/Rhythmic back to CHR/Pop. Since the transition from Monroe to Toledo in early 2004, "Tower 98-3" has seen four programming directors: Terri McCormmick, "Train", Brent Carey and Steve Marshall. From Summer '05 to Winter '06, "Tower 98-3" saw its best ratings, defeating rival WVKS in the 18-34 demographic. In September 2007, Cumulus management made Tower 98-3 transition once again to focus on Monroe. Since then, the ratings have fallen to having a minimal presence in Toledo.
On October 1, 2010, WTWR-FM became WMIM, "Monroe's Best Mix, My 98-3", and returned to an AC format.
On September 30, 2014, Cumulus announced that 98.3 would flip to Country, joining the "Nash Icon" network as 98.3 Nash Icon, on October 3 at 5:00pm. The new format will flank market leading sister station WKKO. The current on-air staff of WMIM will remain with the station following the format change. At 11AM that day, after playing Don't Stop Believin' by Journey, WMIM dropped its AC format and began stunting by playing a different genre of music every hour as "98.3 _____ Icon", From 11 to Noon it was classic hits as "98.3 Pop Radio Icon", from Noon to 1PM '70s music as "98.3 Motown Icon", from 1PM to 2:00 pm one hit wonders as "98.3 One Hit Icon", and from 2:00 to 3:00 pm all British bands as "98.3 British Icon". At 5PM the station was introduced as 98.3 Nash Icon. Staff includes newly appointed PD/Morning Drive, Chris King and Toledo radio veterans Johny D and Mark Benson.