WLDR

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WLDR 101.9 Traverse City, MI and simulcast partner WOUF 92.1 Beulah, MI air a country music format, "Sunny Country 101.9", and WLDR-AM 1210 Kingsley, MI airs a classic country format fed from Waitt Radio, "Real Country 1210". The stations are owned by Texan broadcaster Roy Henderson, who is WLDR's third owner in its 40-year history.

WLDR-FM signed on in 1966 by Rod Maxson, a well-known businessman in Traverse City along with Robert L. Greaige who was the one with the knowledge of the radio biz. Maxson was the owner of Grand Traverse Auto, the city's Ford dealership. Even though they're country today, WLDR carried some sort of adult contemporary format for its first 38 years. The station's call letters stood for "Long Distance Radio", suitable since they broadcasted at 100 kW.

In 1972, Maxson sold a majority of WLDR to one of his salesmen, Don Wiitala, who owned the station for more than 30 years. Wiitala was a beloved broadcaster known for giving the station a home-spun image. WLDR was a station that has many aspects of many full-service stations; the station, although licensed to broadcast 24 hours, signed on in the morning and signed off at night, aired local high school sporting events, had a "tradio" show – Wiitala even sold his old house on the show – and played music Wiitala found suitable for his audience.

Maxson also sold a minority of WLDR to his son, Dave Maxson, who served as the station's news director. He remains with WLDR to this day though he sold his stake in the station years ago.

Throughout the 1970s, WLDR was coined "Stereo 102". Some say that Wiitala was frugal in the way he ran WLDR; he would go to the local Giantway (a now-defunct grocery/retail outlet with a chain of stores in central and northern Michigan) in Traverse City (now Tom's Food Market and Dunham Sports Outfitters) and buy 45s cheap off the rack. The same tactics were employed in the purchase of LPs. Only obscure record labels would suffice along with artists from a bygone era. The syndicated John Doremus show aired 4 hours each day. Northern Michigan's first call-in talk show, "Listen to the Mrs." aired weekday afternoons.

In the 1980s, WLDR changed its name to "Sunny 102" to update the station's image.

Throughout the 1990s, WLDR was part of a dying breed: one-station owners. Also, in the age of 24-hour formats, the station signed on at 5 a.m. and signed off at 1 a.m. Although the station promoted a 'family-friendly' image, the station would play a few alternative rock artists, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers and even U2. However, the station was losing major ground to Trish MacDonald-Garber's WLXT/Lite 96. Starting in the late 90's, Wiitala, who was in his 60's, was taking offers for WLDR. In 2000, he sold WLDR to Roy Henderson and his Fort Bend Broadcasting Group, who maintained WLDR's AC format, but changed the station's named from Sunny 102 to Sunny 101.9.

Before he sold WLDR to Henderson, Wiitala finally allowed WLDR to remain on the air 24 hours, thanks to a new automated hard drive system. The station als started airing the syndicated Delilah show, now carried on WSRT 106.7/100.7 (the old WKPK – The Peak).

When Henderson purchased WLDR, he also purchased several other stations, such as WOUF 92.1 Beulah, MI which simulcasts WLDR-FM, WBNZ 99.3 Frankfort, MI and WCUZ 100.1 Bear Lake, MI with the intention to move the stations closer to Traverse City and boost their power. The move would also allow Henderson to develop new formats for northern Michigan radio, like he did in Texas with his popular "Texas Rebel Radio" format.

Please note: The "Texas Rebel Radio" format was developed by Jayson Fritz and that phrase was first uttered on the radio December 16th, 1991 on KFAN fm 107.9. The name and logo are trademarked by J & J Fritz Media.

In 2000, Henderson also purchased what is now WLDR-AM 1210 in Kingsley. The station was part of a massive overhaul in the Michigan AM dial when Bell Broadcasting increased the power of their WCHB 1200 in Detroit. In order to do so, they purchased two AMs in the Saginaw area – WKNX 1210 Saginaw (signed on in 1947) and WXOX 1250 Bay City – and moved WKNX to 1250 and moved 1210 AM to Kingsley in 1997. However, they moved the station's aging transmitter to a toxic waste dump near Kingsley, creating transmission troubles. Not to mention the fact that they wanted to sell 1210, now with the call letters WJZZ, since they didn't want to broadcast in a smaller market. WJZZ had a full-time automated jazz format, but when Bell sold to Radio One, they decided to keep WJZZ off the air as much as possible with a few short-lived stints as urban oldies. Radio One finally sold WJZZ to Henderson – who quickly renamed the station WLDR-AM – for a mere $225,000, despite the fact that they now were the most-powerful AM station in the daytime at 50 kW.

In 2001, Henderson finally gave 1210 a permanent format as talk from the Michigan Talk Radio Network. For a while, he changed the station's call letters to WWJR, a probable stab at Detroit's WWJ and WJR. Rumors of a possible lawsuit by one of the two stations may have led to a change in the call sign back to WLDR-AM.

Henderson has scored massive controversy since he took over WLDR. He wanted to build an office building – the Covelley Broadcast Center – proximate to Ross Biederman's Radio Centre, the home of WTCM-AM/FM, WCCW-AM/FM and WJZQ. Henderson repeatedly claimed that Biederman has had a vendetta against him since he came to town, but Ross has denied any charges. Some say that Henderson wanted to build his building close to Biederman's so he can allow people to judge for themselves who has the better building. The building however, was never completed. Today, there is a big hole in the ground where Covelley was supposed to be since red tape and financial problems forced Henderson to abort the project. The hole is estimated to cost $5,000,000 The property owner is reportedly seeking to sell the property. Today, WLDR-AM/FM, along with WBNZ broadcast from a more-modest studio on Traverse City's west side.

Henderson also created controversy when his money troubles prevented him from signing on WTCU 95.9 in Fife Lake, MI. The station was never fully built and he had to send the license back to the FCC and pay a fine of $20,000 to the Treasury. Red tape also prevented Henderson from moving WCUZ 100.1 from Bear Lake (near Manistee) to Bellaire, MI (30 miles northeast of Traverse City).

However, WOUF 92.1 has a construction permit to move to 92.3 and boost power from 1,600 watts to 50,000.

In 2004, citing poor ratings, Henderson flipped WLDR-AM 1210 to classic country, using Waitt Radio's Real County format. A year later, in 2005, he once again shocked and awed the northern Michigan radio audience by flipping WLDR-FM to country as "Sunny Country 101.9", and taking away longtime WTCM-FM jock Ryan Dobry to handle middays. So far, the new WLDR-FM has yet to make an impact in the ratings. WLDR-AM, however, has no ratings, and is rumored to be broadcasting with only a fraction of their effective radiated power.

[edit] External links

• WLDR's web site