City Spring Arbor, Michigan Branding HOME.fm First air date June 29, 1963 | Broadcast area Jackson, Michigan Frequency 106.9 MHz | |
Slogan Music That Makes You Feel Good! | ||
WSAE (106.9 FM) is a non-commercial radio station located in Spring Arbor, Michigan. The station is owned by Spring Arbor University.
WSAE began broadcasting in 1963 as a 10-watt college station on 89.3 MHz. Power was increased to 1,000 watts in February 1971 and 3,100 watts in April 1977. The station moved to 106.9 MHz in October 1991 with 2,900 watts. In December 1993 WSAE made a final increase to 3,900 watts.
On May 18, 2005 the station switched from a contemporary Christian format to HOME.fm. HOME.fm plays a mixture of mainstream adult contemporary and contemporary Christian music. The former format, known as Power Praise FM, was moved to sister station WJKN-FM, which adopted a Christian Hit Radio format as "The Vibe" (later changed to the current Christian AC format as "The Message"). From Thanksgiving Day through December 31 WSAE broadcasts Christmas music around the clock.
Home.FM originally played such Soft AC artists as Lionel Richie, Amy Grant, and Sade, but the music mix has changed to more of a Hot/Modern AC mix since. Typical mainstream artists heard on the station now include the likes of U2, Jack Johnson, Taylor Swift, Of Monsters and Men, Coldplay, Ingrid Michaelson, Michael Bublé, Regina Spektor and Kelly Clarkson. Mainstream artists make up the bulk of the playlist, but the station does still play a few Christian songs an hour by artists such as Jeremy Camp, Francesca Battistelli, Brandon Heath, Shawn McDonald, Jamie Grace and Needtobreathe.
The station is broadcast throughout South Central Michigan over a network of translators, and holds construction permits for several more. In addition, Home.FM programming is simulcast on sister station WJKN-FM 89.3 in Spring Arbor.
Translators
Former translator stations include: W227BY (93.3 FM, Somerset, now operated out of Jackson as a translator of WSAE's former sister station WJKN/1510, which now carries Catholic programming); W284AH (104.7 FM, Lansing, now owned by West Central Michigan Media Ministries and simulcasting KTGG 1540 as of November 2016); and W243AD (96.5 FM, Adrian, sold in November 2014 to Lenawee Broadcasting Company and since returned to the air simulcasting the new owners' 103.9 FM WLEN). The Chelsea, Lansing and Battle Creek translators are indicated as translators of WSAE's simulcast partner WJKN-FM 89.3 in the FCC databases; the Kalamazoo and Coldwater translators are still indicated as simulcasts of WSAE.