WDTW-FM

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**WDTW-FM**

Broadcast area	Detroit
Branding	"106.7 The Fox"
Slogan	"Welcome to Fox Country"
First air date	October 16, 1960
Frequency	106.7 (MHz)
Format	Country
ERP	61,000 watts
Former callsigns	WDTW (2002-2005) WLLC (2000-2002) WWWW-FM (1992-2000) WWWW (late 60s-1992) WDTM (1960-late 60s)
Owner	Clear Channel
Website	FOXspacelive.com

WDTW-FM, is a country music station in Detroit, Michigan, known as "106.7 The Fox." The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and operates at 106.7 MHz on the FM dial. After almost seven years as a rock station ("Alice 106.7" and "106.7 The Drive"), previous to which it had spent nearly two decades as country WWWW "W4", the format was changed back to country on May 19, 2006.

1 Early History
2 "W4" Years
3 "Alice" and "The Drive" Years
4 Recent Changes
5 HD radio
6 Sources
7 Old Logos

[edit] Early History

The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, and aired Beautiful Music, like many other FMs of the time. Previous owners of the 106.7 frequency included Starr Broadcasting and Gordon McLendon, who pioneered the legendary and long-running Top 40 format at KLIF-AM in Dallas.

[edit] "W4" Years

McLendon changed WDTM's call letters to WWWW - "W4" - and later changed the station's format from easy listening to oldies (with an airstaff that included Detroit radio legend Tom Clay).

Around 1970, "W4" became an album oriented rock station. It is most remembered today as one of Howard Stern's earliest radio jobs. The rock format reached its peak of popularity in the late 1970s; in fact, it was reportedly Detroit's top-rated FM station in 1978 and 1979. However, WWWW was purchased by Shamrock Broadcasting in July 1979, and Shamrock changed the station's format to country music the following year.

"W4 Country" lasted for almost two decades and did decently in the ratings. However, low advertising revenue led owners AMFM (which became part of Clear Channel in August 2000) to drop the country format on September 1, 1999. The final song played on "W4 Country" was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner."

[edit] "Alice" and "The Drive" Years

After two days of stunting with a 400-Hz tone (which also involved a contest to correctly guess the day and time that the tone would end), the station relaunched as "Alice 106.7," featuring "Rockin' Hits of the '80s and '90s" with "All Right Now" by Free being the first song played.

The WWWW calls remained for another year until the new calls WLLC were adopted on October 2, 2000. At this same time the WWWW call letters were moved to 102.9 FM in nearby Ann Arbor by Clear Channel as they relaunched "W4 Country" on that frequency. It had been a college rock station prior to that (formerly WIQB).

While WYCD was the chief ratings beneficiary of the death of "W4 Country," ratings for "Alice" remained anemic, and in July 2002, the station changed its calls to WDTW and relaunched as "106.7 The Drive," with not much change in format. "The Drive" featured mainly classic hard rock tracks from the 1970s through the 1990s with some more recent material, with a more upbeat and harder-rocking presentation than classic-rock rival WCSX. Yet the station's ratings continued to be poor.

[edit] Recent Changes

At noon on May 17, 2006, "The Drive" signed off with "Too Late For Love" by Def Leppard followed by an announcement by legendary TV news anchor Bill Bonds stating that they were “building a brand new radio station” at 106.7 and "letting you, the listeners choose the music." For the next week the listeners who registered at 1067needshelp.com picked first the new radio format, then the station's name, logo, voice of the station and number of commercials per hour.

On May 19, after first playing 2 days of music from many formats, then narrowing it down to just rock and country, it was announced at 4 P.M. that the format was country music. By May 22, the name of the station would be "106.7 The Fox" and the new logo for the station was picked on May 24. And finally on May 26, 2006 the format change appeared complete as the voice of the station and minutes of music per hour were announced. The station still periodically asks for input regarding air staff.

The WWWW callsign itself temporarily returned to Detroit in July of 2006, landing at sister station 1310-AM. But after 2 months the calls were changed back to WDTW. The imaging remained "1310 WDTW" the entire time. It is thought that this temporary switch was done to keep the "WWWW" call letters with Clear Channel when the Ann Arbor station (102.9) was being sold (the sale fell through and the calls were resturned back to the orginals at both stations).

Now that Clear Channel is once again selling it's Ann Arbor cluster of station, we may see a similar move with the W4 calls and imaging returning to 106.7, possibly as soon as Christmas 2006.

[edit] HD radio

WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations; its secondary channel is called "The Mother Trucker" which features a mix of country music, southern rock, country rock and Americana. It had previously been known as "The Gig" and played live rock songs as a counterpart to "The Drive" on the main channel. "The Gig" remained on the secondary channel more than a month after "The Drive" switched formats in May of 2006.

Current dj lineup as of Nov. 2006 5-10 Rick Miller, 10-3 Erika Lynn, 3-7 Scott Gaines, 7-12 Rob Gramm