WVMV

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WVMV
City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	Smooth Jazz V 98.7
Slogan	Detroit's Home for Smooth Jazz
Frequency	98.7 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 98.7 HD-2: WVMV-2 Traditional Jazz
First air date	1961
Format	Smooth Jazz / New Adult Contemporary
Power	50,000 watts
HAAT	141 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	25448
Transmitter Coordinates	42°23′42″N, 83°08′58″W
Callsign meaning	V98.7
Former callsigns	WLLZ (1980-1996) WBFG (1961-1980)
Owner	CBS Radio
Sister stations	WOMC, WWJ, WXYT, WXYT-FM, WYCD
Webcast	Listen live
Website	www.wvmv.com

This article is missing citations or needs footnotes. Using inline citations helps guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (December 2007)

WVMV, known on-air as "Smooth Jazz V98.7," is an FM radio station serving the Metropolitan Detroit area in Southeastern Michigan. WVMV broadcasts at 98.7 MHZ. The stations transmitter is located near Livernois and West Davison in the City of Detroit. WVMV broadcasts with an Effective Radiated Power of 50,000 from an antenna 463 feet in height.

[edit] History

[edit] WBFG/Detroits Wheels

The station signed on the air in 1961 as WBFG ("We Broadcast For God"). The station broadcast religious programming for nearly two decades. On July 16, 1980, WBFG was sold and soon changed its calls to WLLZ.

On August 11, 1980, at 5:07 p.m., WLLZ debuted a new album oriented rock format; the first song played on the new "Detroit's Wheels" was "Let It Rock" by Bob Seger. (The WLLZ calls were also rumored to stand for "We Love Led Zeppelin" or "Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin".) The new WLLZ became an instant hit. Competing AOR station WWWW had already switched to country music, and WABX 99.5 would change to a CHR-oriented format in 1982, leaving WLLZ and 101 WRIF to go head-to-head in the AOR format for the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, with WLLZ occasionally beating heritage rocker WRIF in the 12+ ratings. In an Ann Arbor News article in 1987, Michael Solon, the station's general manager at the time of the rock format's launch, credited WLLZ's success to the perception that the station featured less chatter and took a more mass-appeal, hit-oriented approach to its music than competing stations: "It was a wonderful time, making such a splash with an all-new station. I was no genius. It just figured that if the other stations were awfully chatty and going four songs deep on albums, we would do well by playing album-music hits."

In 1988, WLLZ also introduced the nation's first weekly sports talk show on an FM rock and roll station, "The Sunday Sports Albom" hosted by Mitch Albom.

[edit] Smooth Jazz V98.7

WLLZ saw its fortunes slip in the early 1990s with the emergence of "alternative" rock groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam who drove many of the 1980s "hair bands" off the charts. A format tweak from AOR to modern rock in the mid-1990s which put the station in competition with 89x and The Planet 96.3 for the alternative audience failed to reverse the station's dropping ratings, and on December 20, 1995, WLLZ became a smooth jazz station, which it has been ever since. The WVMV calls were adopted in February 1996.

For a while, WVMV and WJZZ were competitors in the Smooth Jazz format. When 105.9 was flipped to an urban format in August 1996, the WJZZ callsign was also discontinued, and it is now used for a Smooth Jazz station in Atlanta, Georgia — which, like WVMV, is the second (if one discounts Detroit's previous new age-format stations, WVAE 92.3 and WXCD 102.7) such formatted station to serve its city (WJZF was the first). Atlanta's WJZZ broadcasts at 107.5 FM.

[edit] Smooth Jazz V98.7 Today

"Smooth Jazz V98.7" usually beats its mainstream Adult Contemporary competition in the ratings, with a playlist that incorporates a great deal of soft R&B and AC pop. Smooth jazz flautist Alexander Zonjic is the station's morning drive host, and his music-intensive morning show is highly rated.

WVMV's HD Radio subchannel features traditional jazz.

[edit] Airstaff

The current lineup (as of February 2008) is as follows

• Morning Show: The Alexander Zonjic Morning Show - Alexander Zonjic
  with Kevin Sanderson (News)
• Mid-Days: Sandy Kovach
• Afternoon Drive: Dave Koz
• Nighttime: Jon Bond
• Overnights: Aubrey Lee
• Weekend/Fill-ins: Kelly Holmes & George Moore

[edit] Current Station Rating

Smoothy Jazz V98.7 currently ranks at #5 in the Detroit market according to the Spring 2008 Phase I ratings release.

According to a preliminary Arbitron report released May 29, 2008

[edit] Sources

• Michiguide.com - WVMV History

[edit] External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WVMV
• Radio Locator information on WVMV