WBFM
 | |
| Broadcast area | Sheboygan County |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 93.7MHz |
| Branding | Sheboygan's Country, B-93.7 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Country music |
| Affiliations | Compass Media Networks |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WHBL,WHBZ,WXER | |
| History | |
First air date | 1972 |
Former call signs |
|
Former frequencies | 97.7 MHz (1972–1993) |
Call signmeaning | Its branding of B-93 FM |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 9968 |
| Class | A |
| ERP | 6,000watts |
| HAAT | 77 meters |
Transmitter coordinates | 43°43′14″N87°44′4″W/ 43.72056°N 87.73444°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | b93radio.com |
WBFM(93.7FM) is acountry musicstationlicensed toSheboygan, Wisconsin.WBFM is owned and operated byMidwest Communicationsunder the sub-branding ofSheboygan Radio Group,which owns seven radio stations in NortheastWisconsinand three other radio stations in the Sheboygan market. It shares studios withWHBL,WXER,andWHBZon Washington Avenue in Sheboygan, with the station's transmitter and antenna based behind the studios.
History
[edit]The station was created as the second iteration of heritage station WHBL's FM sisterWWJRin 1993 as part of a large frequency swap in northeastern Wisconsin that also involvedWKTTmoving from 103.1 to 98.1, and WWJR from 97.7 to the new 93.7 frequency to facilitate the creation ofKaukauna-licensedWOGBon 103.1. For the first four years of 93.7's history as WWJR, it carried a basicadult contemporaryformat.
In early 1997, the Walton family, the longtime owners of WHBL and WWJR, acquired the license for a new station licensed toSheboygan Fallsat 106.5, which would transmit, like WHBL and WWJR, from their Washington Avenue three-tower arraysite on Sheboygan's south side. The Waltons determined that Sheboygan County was underserved by the lack of a locally based country music station, and at that time country listenership in the area was mainly split several ways in all areas of the county among WKTT andWCUBto the north from Manitowoc County, West Bend'sWBWI-FM,andWMIL-FMfrom Waukesha-Milwaukee to the south.
On April 7, 1997, another frequency swap took place with the launch of 106.5. WWJR's format and calls were moved to 106.5, with 93.7 becoming a new radio country station, "B-93", taking the calls WBFM and mainly airing live programming during the day and voicetracked programming in the overnight hours. Officially, WBFM holds the FCCfacility IDwhich originated with WWJR's original 97.7 facility in 1972.
WWJR would switch to anactive rockformat at the end of 2000 as "The Buzz" under the calls WHBZ, while WKTT would end up converting to adult contemporary as WLKN in 2003 as WBFM's stronger signal in Manitowoc reduced the ratings for WKTT after their launch and to fill the AC hole left by WWJR's demise.
Besides the purchase of the Walton stations byMidwest Communicationsin 2000, the addition of some voicetracked shifts from Midwest stations in Green Bay and Wausau, along with a current weather forecasting agreement withWLUK-TVin Green Bay, WBFM has remained relatively unchanged in format since April 1997. A minor change of branding with the decimal number was added in mid-2007 to avert any confusion with Milwaukee'sWLDB(93.3), itself known as "B93.3".
External links
[edit]- Facility details for Facility ID 9968 (WBFM)in theFCCLicensing and Management System
- WBFMinNielsen Audio's FM station database
- ^"Facility Technical Data for WBFM".Licensing and Management System.Federal Communications Commission.