Broadcast area Chicago, Illinois HAAT 425 meters (1,394 ft) Facility ID 10059 Owner Hubbard Broadcasting Audience share 2.4 Format Adult Contemporary | ERP 5,700 watts Class B Frequency 100.3 MHz City of license Chicago First air date 1947 (as WFMF) Sister stations WTMX, WDRV, WWDV | |
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Branding 100.3 WSHE (primary)
Chicago's New She 100.3 (secondary) | ||
WSHE-FM (100.3 FM, "100.3 WSHE") is a radio station licensed in Chicago, Illinois. The station is currently owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, The station is also broadcast on HD radio. It is currently broadcasting an adult contemporary format but has had a number of owners and utilized a variety of call letters and broadcast a variety of formats since its original incarnation in 1947 as WFMF. Its studios are located at One Prudential Plaza and transmitter facilities atop the John Hancock Center in Downtown Chicago.
Contents
History
The station began operation in 1947 as WFMF, owned by Marshall Field. It was used for over the air background music in the stores; the format was beautiful music. By May 1974, the station changed call letters to WLOO "W-100," later simply known as "FM-100," and continued with beautiful music — mostly instrumental renditions of pop songs along with some soft vocalists. The station was sold to Century Broadcasting in the early 1970s, which also owned AM 820 (then WAIT, later WCZE and WXEZ, now WCPT). During this time, the station also syndicated a version of its format to other stations across the country, known as the "FM 100 Plan", and was syndicated by Darrell Peters.
Through the 1980s, the station continued the easy listening format with more vocalists including more AC artists and less standards artists. In 1988, the call letters changed to WXEZ-FM. The instrumentals were eliminated, and the station evolved to a soft AC format.
On November 16, 1990, the station changed call letters to WPNT-FM, rebranded as "The Point", and evolved to more straight-ahead AC, playing the top 40 hits of the 1960s and 1970s and the AC/soft rock hits of the 1980s, 1990s and current product. By 1993, the station dropped all remaining 1960s and 1970s music, and played strictly 1980s, 1990s and current hits. WPNT simulcast WPNT-FM for a while, but was quickly spun off because the land the transmitters sat on in suburban Elmhurst, Illinois became more valuable than the daytime-only station itself. On 100.3, Steve Cochran hosted morning drive, later to be replaced by Fred Winston.
By 1995, the station was again known as "FM 100", "100.3, Chicago's FM 100" or variation. Between 1995 and 1997, the format was straight ahead Hot AC.
In April 1997, WPNT was sold to Evergreen Media, which was approved that June. The station then became known as "Chicago's 100.3" while the positioner was "Music That Picks You Up & Makes You Feel Good". The station heavily relied on more uptempo Hot AC along with many 1980s golds.
Shortly after Evergreen acquired WPNT, Chancellor and Evergreen merged. At that point, Chancellor owned WNUA (from Chancellor), WRCX (from Evergreen), WLUP (from Evergreen), WLIT (from Viacom), WVAZ (from Evergreen/Broadcast Partners), WGCI-FM (from Gannett), hip hop WEJM (from Broadcast Partners/Evergreen), and WPNT. The newly formed Chancellor had too many FM stations and had to sell 3. So, in the Summer of 1997, WEJM was sold to Crawford Broadcasting Company and it flipped to Gospel. Bonneville International, who had already owned pop/alternative station WTMX, bought WLUP and WPNT. Later, in 2000, they bought classical station WNIB (now WDRV) for $147 million.
Since The Loop had become musically close to WTMX, WLUP flipped to a mainstream rock format. WPNT was also musically close to WTMX; so, on September 1, 1997, at 10 a.m., WPNT became an AC station. The station's call letters were changed to WNND to match the new moniker "Windy 100." The first song on "Windy" was "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart. By December 2002, the station rebranded as "100.3 WNND" and shifted to an 80s/90s hits format. The station also carried the nighttime request and dedication show "Love Notes", hosted by John Symons.
On November 5, 2004, at 7 a.m., WNND adopted a rhythmic-leaning AC format as "100.3 Love FM," with new WILV call letters.
By 2007, the station began focusing on Adult Contemporary music again, and by 2008, the station was once again known as "Chicago's 100.3" as it was prior to becoming WNND in 1997. As of 2010, the station's music mix was still heavy on 1970s and 1980s music, but had more of an upbeat adult contemporary feel.
On June 7, 2010, at 1 p.m., WILV shifted their playlist to focus on 1980s music, but 1970s and 1990s music still has a presence. They also changed their name to "Rewind 100.3" and format to adult hits, leaving only WLIT-FM and WCFS-FM as Chicago's only AC stations. The station would gradually evolve back to adult contemporary.
Bonneville announced the sale of WILV, as well as 16 other stations, to Hubbard Broadcasting on January 19, 2011. The sale was completed on April 29, 2011.
On December 1, 2013, WILV rebranded back to the "Chicago's 100.3" moniker.
On March 2, 2015, WILV relaunched under new WSHE-FM call letters. The on air line-up remained the same as WILV, continuing with Brian Peck hosting mornings, Lisa Kosty in middays, Cara Carriveau in afternoons and Robb Rose on evenings. Musically, the station now focuses on current, upbeat music.
HD Radio
WILV began broadcasting in HD in 2006. On their HD-2 channel, the first format was the previous "Love" format WILV ran from 2004-2006. It changed to a nonstop mixshow format called "Club Love" in 2008 after the station tweaked to its current Gold AC format. On May 20, 2009, the HD-2 channel changed again, this time to "The Mormon Channel" a national HD-2 network run by Bonneville on HD-2 stations in Salt Lake City, Los Angeles and others. By March 2013, it was broadcasting Voice of Russia.
In January 2014, WILV-HD2 became the new home of the "Totally '80s" format formerly heard on sister station WTMX's HD2 channel, as WTMX-HD2 flipped to smooth jazz.
The HD2 sub-channel would later switch back to the "Voice of Russia."