WOMC (104.3 FM, "104.3 WOMC") is a commercial radio station in Detroit, Michigan. It airs a classic hits radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The transmitter and studios are both located on American Drive off 11 Mile Road in Southfield, Michigan.
WOMC has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 190,000 watts from a height above average terrain (HAAT) of 361 feet. It is grandfathered at a much higher power than would be permitted today, 50,000 watts. WOMC broadcasts in the HD Radio hybrid format; its HD2 subchannel formerly played oldies from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s as the main signal once did, while the HD3 subchannel was called "Musictown 104-3", and featured all Detroit artists.
History
Early years
On March 5, 1948, the station signed on as WEXL-FM. It was owned by Royal Oak Broadcasting, along with AM sister station WEXL. Both stations were licensed to Royal Oak, Michigan. The two stations simulcasted much of their programming from 1948 until the 1960s.
WEXL-AM-FM were acquired by family-owned Sparks Broadcasting in the 1950s. J.B. Sparks served as president, with Garnet Sparks and Gordon Sparks serving in other management roles.
In the early 1950s, the FM station changed to WOMC while the AM station remained WEXL. The call sign stands for "Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties. The Sparks were able to boost WOMC's output to 214,000 watts, among the highest powered FM stations in the U.S. Today, the Federal Communications Commission does not license any station in the Detroit area for more than 50,000 watts, unless it dates back to the early days of FM radio.
In the 1960s, the FCC began encouraging AM stations to develop new programming for their FM counterparts, rather than simply simulcasting. WOMC would switch to a Beautiful Music format, consisting of quarter-hour sweeps of instrumental cover versions of popular songs, as well as Hollywood and Broadway showtunes. Other Detroit stations also ran this largely automated format, including WJR-FM and WWJ-FM.
WOMC was typically mired near the bottom of the local Arbitron ratings until 1973, when it was purchased by Metromedia. The new owners retooled WOMC's easy listening format to include brighter and more uptempo material, an approach modeled after the successful WQLR-FM in Kalamazoo. WOMC's sales manager Bob Reinhardt was impressed with WQLR's format, especially when he learned that the station was programmed in-house and did not use a syndicated service, and requested that WQLR's programmers create a similar format for WOMC. WOMC's revised beautiful music format was an quick success, lifting the station from 28th place in the Detroit Arbitron ratings into the top three. This marked the beginning of the beautiful music syndication service known as KalaMusic.
During the late 1970s, WOMC enlisted the help of program director and legendary Detroit disc jockey Dave Shafer, who recruited other well-known Detroit radio personalities Marc Avery (who died in 2004), Tom Dean and Nick Arama. By 1980, WOMC evolved from easy listening to a soft, gold-based Adult Contemporary format, which proved to be quite popular. During the 1980s, the adult contemporary format field in Detroit was rather crowded, with WOMC competing against WNIC, WMJC and WLTI. WOMC differentiated itself from its competitors by emphasizing oldies.
In April 1988, Infinity Broadcasting bought WOMC. Infinity was merged into CBS Radio in December 2005.
Evolution to oldies
In 1990, WOMC had become almost exclusively an oldies station, despite the fact that Detroit had several other oldies stations at the time, including WKSG, CKLW-FM, and WHND. Eventually, WOMC came to dominate as the most popular choice for oldies in the market.
WOMC had many memorable slogans, like "WOM-SEE", "Detroit's Big O" and "Music Now!" DJs said the call letters with an emphasis on the O ("W Ohhh M C").
In 2006, under the leadership of Steve Alan, the station removed the word "Oldies" from all station imaging and jingles, and rebranded as "The Motor City's 104.3." The ratings remained strong during the transition to classic hits.
In early 2007, under the guidance of Detroit-based programming consultant Gary Berkowitz, the station started using the word "Oldies" again in jingles and imaging, but the heritage WOMC call letters were only used for the top of the hour legal ID. Randy Reeves became the voice of WOMC in promos and liners. The station began using a combination of the "Do It Again" and "Home of the Hits" jingle packages, as well as selected PAMS jingle packages from JAM Creative Productions. Berkowitz then brought in Scott Walker to become program director.