WAAM

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WAAM is a radio station in Ypsilanti, Michigan that broadcasts on AM 1600. Known as "Talk Radio 1600," WAAM broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power. The station is owned by Big D Broadcasting, a subsidiary of First Broadcasting Investment Partners. Until recently, the station broadcast in AM Stereo.

[edit] History

The station signed on as WHRV in October, 1948. Ollie McLaughlin, a black DJ on WHRV, is credited for helping to discover early 1960s rocker and Michigan native Del Shannon, of "Runaway" fame. By 1967, the station had changed its call letters to WAAM and was featuring chiefly middle-of-the-road music during the day, with some Top 40 and even progressive rock programming at night. Then, in the early 1970s, WAAM went Top 40 full time as "The Super 16." After about a decade as a contemporary hit station, WAAM, like many other AM Top 40s at the time, evolved its sound into an older-skewing full-service operation, with music that was chiefly adult standards in nature. Whitehall Broadcasting acquired the station in 1983. By 2002, WAAM was airing chiefly news and talk programming during the week with much of the weekend programming devoted to music, including Westwood One's satellite-delivered "Adult Standards" (formerly "AM Only") format, and "The Sounds of Sinatra" with Sid Mark.

In August 2001, owner Whitehall Broadcasting, a subsidiary of a retirement community in Ann Arbor, announced that they would sell WAAM to Clear Channel Communications for $2 million. Over a year later, Whitehall and Clear Channel called off the deal after the FCC voiced concerns that the sale would give Clear Channel, who owned four other stations in the area, a monopoly on the Ann Arbor market. Whitehall did find a buyer for the station, Big D Broadcasting, in August of 2003. In October of that year, WAAM sold from Whitehall to Big D for $1.5 million.

Shortly afterward, WAAM eliminated most of its music programming to become a primarily talk radio station, in an attempt to attract younger demographics who viewed the station as too "geriatric" when it was under Whitehall's ownership. Lucy Ann Lance, former morning show host at Clear Channel's WQKL-FM 107.1 ("Kool 107"), moved over to WAAM to host mornings.

[edit] Current programming

Today, the station competes with Clear Channel's WLBY-AM 1290 for talk-radio listeners in Ann Arbor, and is more conservative than WLBY, which airs liberal talk from the Air America Radio network. The current WAAM schedule is as follows: Lucy Ann Lance, 6-9 a.m.; Laura Ingraham, 9 a.m.-noon; Bill O'Reilly, noon-2 p.m.; Glenn Beck, 2-3 p.m.; Dr. Laura, 3-6 p.m.; Michael Savage, 6-9 p.m.; Larry King Live, 9-10 p.m.; Alan Colmes, 10 p.m.-1 a.m.; Coast-to-Coast AM, 1-5 a.m.; and America in the Morning, 5-6 a.m. Lance's show is local. Saturday mornings from 8-11 am is the well known Appliance Dr. radio program with Joe Gagnon. Gagnon helps callers with major home appliance questions. The station's longest-serving personality is Michigan Radio Hall of Famer Ted Heusel, who has been broadcasting in the market for over 54 years and hosts a two-hour Saturday talk show. Only a few music shows remain on WAAM, including "The Sounds of Sinatra" and "Big Bands, Ballads and Blues" on Saturday nights, Jim Brickman's show Sunday mornings and live on Sunday nights, "Broadway's Biggest Hits" on Saturday mornings, and Thayrone's locally-produced, nationally-syndicated "Bone Conduction Music Show". Thayrone, a locally famous musician and conservative pundit, also had a weekday-afternoon talk show for a time, but he was replaced by Dr. Laura. Previous to WAAM, Thayrone had worked at WQKL-FM and before that, at Eastern Michigan University public radio station WEMU, from which he was fired for speaking out in favor of the war in Iraq during his show.

WAAM has filed an application with the FCC to move from Ypsilanti to the Detroit suburb of Oak Park and increase its power from 5,000 watts day and night to 15,000 watts day and night. If the application is approved, it is likely that AM station WHLX (1590 kHz) in Marine City, Michigan (near Port Huron) will shut down, and it will end the 1600 frequency's nearly six-decade-long history of serving Ann Arbor.