Branding Mix 106.9 First air date 1974 | Frequency 106.9 MHz Format Hot Adult Contemporary | |
City Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin Slogan Today's Best Music Mix! | ||
WNNO-FM (106.9 FM, "Mix 106.9") is a Hot AC music formatted radio station. WNNO is a sister station to WDLS-AM. Its station is located in the vacation mecca of Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton, and its signal can be reached out to Portage, Poynette, Baraboo, Lyndon Station, and Adams-Friendship, even as far as the northern Madison Metro area.
History
WNNO-FM originally signed on as WWDA-FM in the late sixties. Owned by Taylor Electric, the call letters supposedly meant "Wonderful Wisconsin Dells Area". The original “studio” was in a trailer, located at the transmitter site along Highway 23, about three miles outside of Wisconsin Dells. Listeners passing by would occasionally honk their horns, to which the on-air jocks would acknowledge the "neighbors driving by". The calls were changed and the permanent studios were built in the early 1970s at 721 Superior Street in downtown Wisconsin Dells, where they would stay for the next 28 years. John Taylor was the station GM, and the WNNO-FM format was Top 40 hits. The station simulcast with WNNO-AM (AM 990). Interesting enough, the call letters WNNO stand for the AM frequency - Nine Nine Oh.
The station was sold to Voss Radio, Inc. in 1977 and continued to simulcast Top 40 hits with WNNO-AM, which had now changed frequency to AM 900. The format changed to “Memory Music” in late 1983-1985 and Chicago Cubs games were also broadcast during this period.
Voss sold the station to Armada Broadcasting in 1985, and the format was changed back to simulcasting Top 40 hits. Mutual News was dropped and the emphasis was on more local events. An interesting note, one of the principal owners of Armada is the nephew of radio legend Gary Owens, and Gary’s liners for WNNO could be heard on-air at this time.
During the early to mid 90s, WNNO-FM was a Top-40 station, and WNNO-AM was simulcasting WNNO-FM or it was otherwise off the air, usually after sunset. WNNO and WNNO-FM had studios together on Superior Street in Wisconsin Dells and would usually be on the air from 6AM-12 midnight.
In the late 1990s WNNO-AM and WNNO-FM were purchased by Magnum Radio Group and studios were moved to Church Street in Wisconsin Dells. By this time, WNNO-AM had become a simulcast of WIBU-AM (1240) Poynette/Portage, which aired Jones Radio Networks' Classic Hit Country format at the time. The calls of WNNO-AM were changed to WDLS, which is now a classic country station; concurrently, WNNO-FM became Hot AC under the name "Mix 106", also using programming from Jones Radio Networks (Now Dial Global)