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WHNN
City of license	Bay City, Michigan
Broadcast area	Saginaw-Bay City-Midland
Branding	96 WHNN
Slogan	"Greatest Hits of All Time"
Frequency	96.1 MHz
Format	Classic Hits
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	311 meters
Class	C
Facility ID	37458
Transmitter coordinates	43°33′10″N 83°41′24″W / 43.55278°N 83.69°W / 43.55278; -83.69
Former callsigns	WBCM-FM (?-?)
Owner	Citadel Broadcasting
Sister stations	WILZ, WIOG, WKQZ
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	http://www.whnn.com/

WHNN is an FM radio station serving the Saginaw-Bay City-Midland area and Flint with its classic hits format. It broadcasts on FM frequency 96.1 and is under ownership of Citadel Broadcasting. The station's powerful 100,000-watt frequency blankets a large chunk of the central and eastern Lower Peninsula, from Mount Pleasant to the Thumb and from south of Flint to West Branch, but its signal toward the southwest is inhibited by co-channel WMAX-FM in Holland, Michigan.

History

Super Win and Sunny 96

As WBCM-FM in the late 1960s and early 1970s, 96.1 FM broadcast a beautiful music format. In the 1970s the calls were changed to WHNN and the station adopted a Top 40 format as "Super Win." Many listeners remember that for several years, WHNN boasted "a winner an hour, sometimes even more". At least once an hour they would award a prize to a designated caller, and announce the current tally of prizes awarded by gibing the winners name, hometown and announcing that he or she was "super-Win winner number 12,384 or whatever number the current count was. Many of the prizes were fast food meals or car washes, but occasionally better prizes such as concert tickets or meals at high end restaurants were awarded. When the hourly prizes were phased out in 1979, WHNN announced it was in "the interest of public safety" as they didn't want to overwhelm the phone company's resources.

WHNN evolved into an AOR station in the late 1970s. In 1981, the station changed format from AOR to adult contemporary. As a popular AC station during the 1980s, the station was known as "Sunny 96, Lite Rock, Less Talk."

WHNN Today

WHNN switched to the current oldies format in the fall of 1990 following a period of stunting with various versions of Richard Berry's song "Louie, Louie" including the hit version by The Kingsmen. In recent years, WHNN, like many stations of its kind, has evolved from "traditional" oldies to a "classic hits" direction focusing on pop, rock and soul hits from roughly 1965-1990 in the hope of reaching younger demographics, and has dropped most if not all pre-1965 music from its playlist. Through the changes to the music, the station's ratings have remained high. Syndicated shows heard on WHNN during weekends include Casey Kasem's American Top 40 - The '70s (aired Sunday mornings) and Into the '70s with legendary WLS jock John Landecker.

WHNN garnered attention in the fall of 2006 when it switched to a format of all Christmas music, in response to crosstown AC competitor 106.3 WGER's announcement that they would not go all-Christmas that year. The switch also brought all-Christmas music radio to Flint, owing to continued dominance of the market's AC station, 107.9 WCRZ (which continues with its regular format during the holiday season). WHNN switched to all-Christmas again in early November 2007; WHNN had originally planned to switch to all-Christmas on Thanksgiving Day but moved up the change when WGER opted to return to playing continuous Christmas music ahead of schedule. WGER has since switched to a Hot AC direction as "Mix 106.3" and no longer goes all-Christmas for the holiday season, but MacDonald Broadcasting's AC combo of WSAM 1400 AM and WSAG 104.1 FM ("The Bay") has taken up the Christmas music mantle in recent years to challenge WHNN.

Controversy

WHNN was recently involved in a scandal when popular morning jock John W. Burke, better known as "Johnny Burke", was suspended without pay for making offensive comments on the stations website regarding Flint public schools. In light of the recent events with Don Imus, who once worked with Burke, Citadel Communications (who owns WHNN) made the decision to pull Burke from the air for several days.

Sources

• Michiguide.com - WHNN History

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WHNN
• Radio Locator information on WHNN
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WHNN