WWWW

The 106.7 frequency began operations in or on March 1, 1962 as WOIA and is co-owned with WOIB 1290 in Saline, Michigan. Originally, WOIA and WOIB simulcast a middle of the road music format with some Top 40 music played on weekends. The format changed to full-time Top 40 in 1967. WOIA personalities during this time included John Records Landecker, later to become a legend in Chicago radio, and Art Vuolo Jr., later to become known as "Radio's Best Friend."

WWWW-FM CHANGES FORMAT
Billboard: July 25, 1970

DETROIT - Though WWWW-FM is building an image here of being the solid gold station, general manager Don Barrett said that the heavy slate of programming will be current releases from the charts.

All the oldies are slated for the personalities, though the deejays use their judgments in playing current hits. The current records are usually in the upper half of Billboard Hot 100 Chart or in the top 15 sellers in the city, although WWWW-FM will also play new releases such as Dionne Warwick’s “Your Own Backyard.”

The oldies will go back to 1951, and the station has a library that will permit it to go nine-days without repeating an oldie. And, to create a consistent sound around the clock, the station doesn’t alter its sound during the “housewives” hours or the afternoon hours when teens and young adults are more prone to listen to radio.

The reason for the format change (WWWW-FM was a background music station until March 10) was that a study of ARB and Pulse figures showed the station was “fighting with too many stations for too small a piece of the audience pie.”

The station recently gave away a gold-painted 1957 Chevrolet to help build its image and is now preparing to give away “Good Guys” sweatshirts.

In 1970, the stations became WNRS AM/WNRZ FM "Ann Arbor's Winners." The "Winners" airstaff included a young Arthur Penhallow, who later became a fixture at WRIF in Detroit for nearly 40 years; at WNRS/WNRZ, his air name was "Cicero Grimes." "Winners" took advantage of Ann Arbor's status as a breakout market for songs that later went on to success in the Detroit market, proclaiming: "Winners Plays... Detroit Watches."

The WNRS/WNRZ format remained Top 40 at first, but the two stations soon separated programming, with WNRS adopting a country format and WNRZ becoming a full-time 24-hour free-form progressive rock station.

Former WABX Detroit personalities Jerry Goodwin and Ann Christ worked at WNRZ in 1972, and John Sinclair also hosted a Sunday-evening show. The station built up a loyal following in Ann Arbor's "hippie" community, but was financially unsuccessful, leading then-owner Thomas Boodell to change the station to a simulcast of WNRS's country programming and change the locks at the station to keep the former progressive-rock hosts out of the studio.

After a petition to restore the progressive programming generated 10,000 signatures, Boodell threw progressive-rock listeners a bone by reinstating progressive rock on the station nightly from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

This is a film of Don Schuster in the studio on December 26, 1970.

This split format continued until November 1974, when the station became again temporarily a full-time simulcast of WNRS as preparations were made for the stations' sale to Rochester, New York-based Community Music Services and the FM station's facilities were upgraded.

WNRZ-FM was a pioneer in the many radio aspects of the industry, most notably improvements to the quadraphonic FM stereo system invented in 1969 by Louis Dorren and improved upon by station chief engineer Brian Brown.

The station participated in the National Quadraphonic Radio Committee field trials for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). WNRZ-FM was actually the first FM station to transmit program audio in quadraphonic sound. Brown also designed and built one of the first combination audio equalizer/compressors, which was used to enhance the poor audio quality of the Collins (now Rockwell Collins) AM radio transmitter at WNRZ. A second device was installed to process the quadraphonic FM program audio. These units literally caused the audio to "leap out" of the radio, according to industry pundits.

Following Don Schuster's sign-off, it's Tom Clay behind the mic on December 24, 1970. [ LISTEN ] (54:13) and then it's Ed Busch behind the mic on December 31, 1972. This is actually Ed's last broadcast on W4.
[ LISTEN ] (1:51:12)

The station's full page ad in the Detroit Free Press on March 18, 1970.

Community Music Services took over control of WNRZ in December 1974 and four months later, after a brief stunting period proclaiming "Something BIG is coming to 103 FM," changed the station's format back to progressive rock music (this time, however, without free-form elements and with an approved station playlist) under the new call letters WIQB, with a call sign which designated the number "103" (the letters I-Q-B were chosen because of their resemblance to the numbers 1-0-3).

The first record played on the new "W-103" was "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones. WIQB heavily promoted its quadraphonic sound, identifying on-air as "QuadRock 103" during the 1970s. (Meanwhile, AM 1290 has since been through a multitude of format changes and is now WLBY, a business-talk station). In 1979, the progressive rock radio's personality lineup consisted of John Christian, Randy Z, Jim Dulzo, Chuck Horn and others.

As the 1980s dawned, WIQB, under new owner Ernie Winn, modified its format from progressive rock to a Top 40/album rock mixture. During the '80s, Rock 103 was usually the highest-rated local station in the Ann Arbor market (jingles of the period touted the fact they were "Ann Arbor's Number One!"). In 1987, the station boosted power to 50,000 watts, dramatically increasing its coverage area to the west (toward Jackson) and north (toward Fenton), although the station's eastward signal remained impeded by 102.7 FM in Mount Clemens (then WKSG).

The station went through numerous ownership changes from 1974 onward. During the mid-1990s, WIQB became an adult album alternative station under the ownership of Arbor Radio, LP. In late 1997, Cumulus Broadcasting took control of the station and switched WIQB's format to active rock. As an active rock station, Rock 103, then owned by Cumulus Broadcasting, subsequently crashed in the ratings and was regularly defeated in its own market by Detroit's WRIF. The station was an afterthought of then-GM Ray Nelson, who along with the sales managers proceeded to change the format to country.