City Kankakee, Illinois Frequency 92.7 MHz Format Oldies | Branding The Valley First air date 1986-01-21 (as WMHG) | |
Broadcast area Southern Chicago market | ||
WVLI (92.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting an oldies format. The station is licensed to Kankakee, Illinois, United States. During its days as WKIF, it also broadcast Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls, Notre Dame Football and other sporting events. WVLI is owned by Milner Broadcasting Enterprises, LLC.
Contents
History
The station went on the air in January 1986 under the call letters of WMHG with a country format. The callsign was changed to WLRT the same year.
Y107 era
In early 1998, Big City Radio Group took over WCBR-FM in Arlington Heights and WLRT in Kankakee (also on 92.7), shortly after acquiring WLRT, the call letters were changed to WBRO. The two stations stunted with a simulcast of their Los Angeles sister station "Y 107", which had a modern rock format.
92.7 Kiss FM era (1998-2001)
In November 1998, WCBR and WBRO launched their new official format, CHR as "92.7 KISS FM." with the first song being "Kiss" by Prince. This would be Chicago's first true CHR station in many years, coinciding with a nationwide boom in the Top-40 format, and proved to be quite successful, even with the two stations' weak signals. In early 1999, the calls were changed to WKIE and WKIF. In summer 1999 Big City purchased a third station, WDEK 92.5 in Dekalb, IL, which had a locally programmed CHR format at the time and began simulcasting it with WKIE and WKIF as a trimulcast. Not long after, the moniker was adjusted to "92 KISS FM"
On January 12, 2001, Clear Channel Communications flipped its full-signal WUBT from rhythmic oldies to CHR as WKSC-FM "Kiss 103.5". At that time, they issued a cease and desist order to Big City Radio insisting they stop using the "Kiss FM" moniker. "92 KISS-FM" continued until January 26, 2001 when the three signals became "Energy 92-7&5", with a format consisting entirely of dance music. The airstaff and voiceover talent Sean Caldwell remained intact.
Energy 92.7 & 5 era (2001-2002)
Energy gained lots of attention via the internet and gained a relatively devoted following in the Chicago area and worldwide via its webcast. Considering their niche format and signal limitations, Energy was competitive in the ratings and in revenues.
Onda 92 era (2002-2004)
In late 2002, Big City Radio, which had overextended itself in obtaining radio stations, declared bankruptcy and began liquidating its properties. WKIE, WKIF and WDEK were sold to Spanish Broadcasting System and WXXY/WYXX (which had a Mexican music format) to the Hispanic Broadcasting Company. On January 5, 2003, Energy became "Onda 92". Onda 92 was never successful in the ratings, and SBS had their own financial problems, so in June 2004 the company sold WKIE, WKIF and WDEK to Newsweb Corporation.
CNN Radio (2004-2008)
At midnight on November 22, 2004, WKIE and WDEK went to simulcast WRZA and became Nine FM, while WKIF was broken off the trimulcast and became CNN Headline News for the Kankakee, Illinois area.
Nine FM (2008-2012)
In December 2008, WKIF switched from CNN Radio to Nine FM, marking a return of the Nine FM franchise to the far south suburbs of Chicago. The station marketed this return in its positioners, mentioning south suburban towns such as Park Forest and announcing that We Play Anything is back on 92.7.
The Valley (2012-present)
On August 2, 2012, WKIF changed their format to oldies, simulcasting WVLI 95.1 FM Kankakee, branded as "The Valley". On December 27, 2012, WVLI FM 95.1 (now WFAV) dropped the simulcast of 92.7 and made its anticipated switch to CHR simulcasting WFAV 103.7 in Gilman, Illinois. On December 29, 2012, WKIF and WVLI swapped call letters, putting WKIF on 95.1 and WVLI on 92.7.