WSAM

WSAM
City	Saginaw, Michigan
Broadcast area	Greater Tri-Cities
Branding	1400 AM & 104 FM The Bay
Slogan	Continuous Soft Rock
Frequency	1400 kHz
First air date	Cir. 1960
Format	Soft Adult Contemporary
Power	1,000 watts
Class	C
Facility ID	65930
Transmitter coordinates	43°25′0″N 83°55′5″W / 43.41667°N 83.91806°W / 43.41667; -83.91806
Callsign meaning	SAginaw, Michigan
Owner	MacDonald Broadcasting
Sister stations	WKCQ, WMJO, WSAG
Website	thebay104fm.com

WSAM (1400 AM) is a radio station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan and broadcasting at 1400 kHz with 1,000 watts of power. The station is simulcasted with FM sister station WSAG-FM at 104.1 mHz and are collectively known as The Bay, in reference to their close proximity to the Saginaw Bay.

History

WSAM was one of the first broadcasters in the Saginaw area, with a first air date in the late 1950s, predated only by WSGW. It was first located on Michigan Avenue on the city's west side when it was bought by Kenneth H. MacDonald in 1962.^[1] The station broadcasts on AM 1400, and was moved from Saginaw's west side to Whittier Street on Saginaw's east side shortly after MacDonald's purchase, where it remains to this day. The station's over 300 foot tall self supporting tower is a local eastside Saginaw landmark, and was originally constructed for both the radio station and television station WNEM. The TV station later abandoned their plans to broadcast from the MacDonald tower and moved to Indiantown.

For much of the 60s and 70s, WSAM had a top 40 CHR format at the time. "Sam" saw local competition from 1250 WKNX up until the format gave way to FM radio. In 1968, "Sam" got a sister station at FM 98.1. It was originally known as WSAM-FM and its call letters were changed to WKCQ, and has had a country music format since its inception.

In the 1980s, the station switched to an oldies format. Serendipitously, during WSAM's period as an oldies station, the long-held call letters lent themselves to the tagline "Play it Again, Sam". WSAM eventually becoming an adult standards station in the 90s and early 2000s.

The current format began in April 2005 with the purchase of WSAG at 104.1FM. The two stations are almost completely simulcasted, except for some popular weekend polka shows on WSAM which are a holdover from the now-defunct adult standards format. Like most other adult contemporary music stations, The Bay switches to a format of continuous Christmas music during the months of November and December, competing with crosstown classic hits WHNN for the holiday music audience.

References

↑ "Ken MacDonald Jr. enters Michigan Broadcasters Hall of Fame". Retrieved 1 June 2016.

Sources

External links

The Bay website

Query the FCC's AM station database for WSAM

Radio-Locator Information on WSAM

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WSAM

Radio stations in the Tri-Cities (Saginaw–Bay City–Midland, Michigan) market

By FM frequency	88.3 89.1 89.5 90.1 90.9 91.3 91.9 93.3 94.5 96.1 96.9 97.3 97.7 98.1 99.7 100.5 100.9 101.7 102.5 103.1 103.5 104.1 104.5 105.1 106.3 107.1

By AM frequency	790 1250 1350 1400 1440 1490

By callsign	WCEN-FM WCHW-FM WCMU-FM WEJC WGDN WGDN-FM WGER WHHQ WHNN WILZ WIOG WKCQ WKQZ WLKB WLUN WMAX WMJO WMPX WPRJ WSAG WSAM WSGW WSGW-FM WSMO WTLZ WTRK WUCX-FM WUGN WWCM

Nearby radio markets Ann Arbor Detroit Flint Grand Rapids Lansing North Central Michigan Tawas City Thumb of Michigan See also List of radio stations in Michigan

Adult contemporary radio stations in the state of Michigan

Stations	WARD – Petoskey WCRZ – Flint WCSR – Hillsdale WCSR-FM – Hillsdale WCZY-FM – Mount Pleasant WFMK – East Lansing WGHN-FM – Grand Haven WGRT – Port Huron WHNN - Bay City WION – Ionia WKQS – Negaunee WLDR-FM – Traverse City WLEN – Adrian WLKM – Three Rivers WLXT – Petoskey WMQT – Ishpeming WMTE-FM – Manistee WNIC – Dearborn/Detroit WNIL – Niles WOEZ – Onaway/Cheboygan WQEZ – Glen Arbor WSAG – Linwood WSAM – Saginaw WSRW-FM – Grand Rapids WTGV – Sandusky WTRV – Walker WWSN- Whitehall WZNL – Norway

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Michigan

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.