Two major Milwaukee commercial radio stations have made their anticipated switches to national non-commercial Christian music networks.
“Air1” debuted on WLUM-FM/102.1 on Tuesday, Oct. 28, followed by the launch of “K-Love” on WLDB/93.3 on Thursday, Oct. 30. The changes had been expected since the K-Love’s $4 million purchase of the stations from the Milwaukee Radio Alliance was announced in August.
“Air1” carries Worship music while “K-Love” runs a Contemporary Christian format.
The switches come as the Milwaukee Radio Alliance awaits formal FCC approval to transfer the two stations to K-Love Inc., which was previously known as the Educational Media Foundation.
While neither network generally offers streams of its local stations, both can temporarily be heard through the live streams on the former WLDB and WLUM websites.
After its change, the WLUM stream’s playlist continued to update for a few days showing the Alternative songs the station would have played if it hadn’t changed format, but the list has since stopped updating. Here’s WLUM’s ID as heard from the stream:
And here’s the new WLDB ID:
“K-Love” has been heard on the smaller signal of WLVE/105.3 (Mukwonago) since 2008; its future has not been announced.
The sale set off a cascade of programming changes around Wisconsin:
- Civic Media is buying the Milwaukee Radio Alliance’s other three signals and switching them to their own formats.
- iHeartMedia dropped “The Game” from WRNW/97.3 and converted it to “B97.3,” adopting the Adult Contemporary format that also continues to air on WLDB until the switch to “K-Love.”
- Sports radio stations in Green Bay, Wausau, and Superior switched from programming that had been supplied by “The Game” to a new network of programming from Audacy’s “The Fan.”
WLUM is Wisconsin’s first full-power station carrying “Air1,” which was already heard on translator signals in Madison and Sheboygan.
This item was first posted on Oct. 29 and was updated Oct. 30.