WMIA-FM


WMIA-FM is an all-1990s hits radio station that is licensed to Miami Beach, Florida. Owned and operated by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts on 93.9 MHz. Its studios are located in Miramar and the transmitter site is in Miami Gardens.

History

93.9 FM signed on the air December 1, 1948, as WLRD, the first standalone FM station in Miami. The station became WAHR-FM in 1956 with the establishment of WAHR, and it simulcast that frequency for most of the next decade as WAHR-FM, WMET-FM and WMBM-FM. Other identities used included WMVJ, WGOS-FM, WBUS-FM, "The Magic Bus", progressive rock, then a full-time traditional jazz station. In 1976, the station became "Love 94", changing to a soft rock adult contemporary format. DJ Irene Richard, joined the station in 1976, becoming one of South Florida's earliest, pioneer female broadcasters. Their call letters changed to WWWL until WLVE became available. Later, the soft rock transitioned to smooth jazz and was successful for many years. On Sunday mornings, Love 94 had a Sunday Jazz Brunch program hosted by Stu Grant and a Brazilian Jazz program called "Brazilian Love Jazz" hosted by Gina Martell every Sunday evening. It also had a satellite station, WWLV 94.3 in West Palm Beach from 1998-2003. In the later years, however, due to the increasing amount of R&B and Adult Contemporary music being added to the playlist by Broadcast Architecture, the ratings started to decrease drastically.
On December 25, 2008, WLVE flipped to rhythmic AC as "93.9 MIA." The demise followed the lead of similarly formatted stations in other cities, such as Dallas, Houston, New York City and Washington, D.C.. Miami's new home for smooth jazz is , with the current format now going up against rhythmic top 40 WPOW and urban AC WHQT. The first song was Will Smith's "Miami", which is a reflection upon where the city it broadcasts from.
The WLVE calls now reside on the former WKMZ in Mukwonago, Wisconsin, which services the Milwaukee area with the non-profit K-LOVE CCM network after a two-year warehousing period on former Clear Channel/iHeart sister station WXVA in Winchester, Virginia. The calls, long sought after by K-LOVE's owner, Educational Media Foundation, were likely exchanged by iHeartMedia as part of one of the many transactions EMF has executed to iHeartMedia in return for selling former K-LOVE translator stations to them to relay iHeartMedia HD Radio subchannels on analog FM radio in small coverage areas.
In 2010, WMIA began adding more pop titles from artists such as Maroon 5, Michael Bublé, Kelly Clarkson, and Taylor Swift to its playlist, following a pattern used by sister stations such as WWVA-FM and WISX which eventually evolved out of, or switched from Rhythmic AC, as the station became more hot adult contemporary. In November 2010, the station switched to all-Christmas music. While there were rumors that the station would flip to adult top 40 after the holidays, the rhythmic AC format returned on Christmas Day 2010, at 11:58 AM, with "Material Girl" by Madonna being the first song to be played. By that time, although WMIA had continued to be listed on Mediabase's hot AC panel, its playlist had shifted back to a rhythmic direction with less hot AC material. By June 2012, BDS has moved the station to the Top 40 panel due to its increasing amount of rhythmic pop product, although this was done to complement sister station WHYI-FM, who is the market's primary Top 40/CHR outlet, and to a lesser extent, to shift the older 1980s, 1990s and 2000s product to adult hits sister WSHE.
Once again, in December 2012, WMIA revamped their direction to adult top 40 with recurrents from the 1990s and 2000s, billing themselves as "90s and Now." The majority of rhythmic material that had not charted on that format was dropped, only to reinstate it by the spring of 2013, when it dropped most of the 1990s music and changed its slogan to "Today's Hits". It also adopted an adult top 40 presentation, using the same approach as sister station WKTU in the New York City market, and in early 2014, changed slogans to "Miami's Variety from the '90s to Now". In May 2014, 93.9 MIA changed their slogan to "93.9 MIA Means Variety" and added 1980s hit songs to their playlist.
On August 8, 2014, WMIA rebranded as "MY 93.9" with their slogan becoming "More Music, Better Variety!". This change came after WMIA was the lowest rated music station in the Nielsen ratings for the Miami market, with a 2.3 share in the July 2014 ratings. "MY 93.9" dropped most of the 1980s material from their playlist and instead added more hits from the 1990s and 2000s.
On March 18, 2016, WMIA rebranded once again as "93.9 MIA", shifting back to Rhythmic AC with the new slogan "Rhythm from the 80s to Now." In March 2018, the station shifted to Hot Adult Contemporary. This puts WMIA in a crowded field for Adult music competing between WFEZ and WLYF and rimshot radio stations from West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale and South Florida.
On July 9, 2020, at Noon, after playing "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men, WMIA flipped to 1990s hits, branded as "Totally 93.9." The first song was "Miami" by Will Smith.

WMIA-FM HD2

WMIA-FM signed on HD Radio operations in 2006. The HD1 sub-channel airs the same format as the analog, while the HD2 sub-channel initially aired a traditional jazz format. When the analog/HD1 format flipped to Rhythmic AC in 2008, the smooth jazz format moved to the HD2 channel. On July 11, 2014, WMIA-HD2 flipped to Country, branded as "93.5 The Bull", which was relayed on FM translator W228BV 93.5 in Fort Lauderdale. On July 1, 2016, Zoo Communications acquired W228BV, and on November 17 of that year, W228BV and Zoo's W284CS swapped formats and ownership, with the Country format moving to 104.7, while the Dance/EDM format of W228BY began simulcasting on W228BV. In addition, "104.7 the Bull" airs several NASCAR events from the Motor Racing Network.

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