WMGC-FM (105.1 MHz "105.1 The Bounce") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It is owned and operated by the Beasley Broadcast Group and airs a classic hip-hop radio format. WMGC-FM broadcasts with 50,000 watts of effective radiated power (ERP) from a transmitter tower co-located with its studios and offices off Radio Plaza in the Ferndale section of Royal Oak Charter Township in Oakland County.
History
Classical music as WQRS (1960–1997) The station signed on the air on March 6, 1960, owned by Fine Arts Broadcasters. For nearly four decades, 105.1 was home to Detroit's commercial classical music station, WQRS. During its early years, WQRS was commercial-free and listener-supported, a precursor to NPR. Operated by volunteers headed by General Manager Richard Hughes, it had tiny studios at the top of the Maccabees Building near Wayne State University. It also featured folk, jazz and other adult-appeal forms of music. Classical music was one of the most common formats on the fledgling FM dial during the 1950s and 1960s, but WQRS continued with fine-arts programming long after many other stations had dropped it.
Personalities such as Geri Brooks, Dave Wagner and Dick Wallace were well known to fans of fine music in the Motor City. Dave Wagner was noted for an irreverent sense of humor that might have fit just as well on a pop music radio station – regarded by fans as something different in a format often derided as "staid" or "stuffy". Voted "The Classiest Lady in Detroit" by the Detroit Free Press, Geri Brooks had a devoted listenership who warmed to her charming on-air style and delightful English accent. She served additionally as a program host for the Michigan Opera Theatre.
Never a ratings powerhouse, WQRS nevertheless attracted a loyal audience of affluent adults, as was often the case with classical radio stations. WQRS was also the flagship station for radio broadcasts of Detroit Symphony Orchestra concerts, and the program schedule included such popular features as the "Sousalarm" (a broadcast of a John Philip Sousa march heard every weekday morning at 7:15) and the Wednesday-night "Film Classics" program hosted by Jack Goggin, which highlighted scores from classic motion pictures.
The Edge/The Groove (1997–2001) WQRS's classical format was on thin ice following a series of sales in the mid-1990s. Marlin Broadcasting sold the station to American Radio Systems in 1996. American Radio Systems sold the station to Secret Communications that same year, and then Secret Communications sold its Detroit holdings (including WQRS, urban contemporary WJLB-FM and urban AC WMXD) to Evergreen Media Corporation (which later was absorbed into AMFM, and was subsequently merged into Clear Channel Communications). Evergreen was now over FCC ownership limits in Detroit, forcing it to trade WQRS to Greater Media for $9.5 million and in exchange for WGAY-FM in Washington, D.C.
At 5 p.m. on November 21, 1997, the playing of "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails (the opening notes having faded in over WQRS's last piece played, "Povera Butterfly" from the opera Madama Butterfly, Act 2, cutting it off about halfway through) signified the end of classical music on 105.1 after over 37 years and the beginning of alternative rock station 105.1 The Edge. The station adopted the new calls WXDG the following month; in the interim period, the station would declare in their station identification that they "used to be WQRS-FM, Detroit". Detroit already had two alternative rock stations in CIMX (88.7) and WPLT (96.3), and "The Edge", although it sounded more "progressive" and "free-form" than the competition and did attract a loyal audience, was an overall failure in both ratings and revenue. The WQRS calls reappeared on two stations in 2006—WQRS in Salamanca, New York and an AM in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Former WQRS personality Dick Wallace has surfaced at WIAA, the Interlochen Center for the Arts' classical music station in Interlochen, Michigan. Dave Wagner can still be heard in the Detroit market hosting mornings and evenings at the Detroit Public Schools' classical and jazz station, WRCJ. Another former WQRS personality, Jack Goggin, is a fill-in host at WRCJ and has revived his popular "Film Classics" show (now heard Sunday nights). Geri Brooks died in April 2008 at the age of 78 in Carlsbad, California.