
WCSX

WCSX (94.7 FM) is a classic rock radio station licensed to Birmingham, Michigan, serving Metro Detroit and owned by Beasley Broadcasting Group. WCSX's transmitter is in suburban Oakland County in Royal Oak Township near the intersection of 8 Mile Road and Wyoming Avenue. WCSX transmits its signal from an antenna 951 feet high with an effective radiated power of 13,500 watts. Five other Detroit radio stations transmit their signal from the same tower as WCSX. The studios are in Ferndale. Despite its call sign, it is not affiliated with the CSX Corporation.
History.
Whiffieland/Honey Radio.
94.7 FM was originally home to WHFI ("Whiffieland"), featuring a MOR/adult contemporary format with disc jockeys such as Lee Alan (formerly of WXYZ). The original FCC Construction Permit for WHFI was issued to Garvin H. Meadowcroft, President of Meadowcroft Broadcasting, Inc. on January 18, 1957 with an address of 1095 Badder Road in Troy, Michigan. Meadowcroft began broadcasting on WHFI September 1, 1958 with a power of 20 kW and an office address of 139 Maple in Birmingham. In 1972, WHFI shifted to a syndicated, automated oldies format provided by Draper-Blore called "Olde Golde," featuring hits of the 1950s and 1960s (similar to Drake-Chenault's "Solid Gold" format except without the AC/MOR currents that the Solid Gold format played). In July 1973, Greater Media bought the station; that same year, the "Olde Golde" format evolved the following year into all-oldies WHNE, "Honey Radio." Sister station WQTE changed its calls to WHND and began shadowcasting the format in 1974; it would continue as "Honey Radio" until 1994, by which time 94.7 FM had gone through several changes. Honey Radio was originally automated using Drake-Chenault's "Classic Gold" format, but transitioned to live personalities (on AM 560 only) around 1980, by which time 94.7 FM had changed format.
Magic 95.
In 1976, WHNE became WMJC, "Magic 95," with an adult contemporary format modeled after Greater Media's successful WMGK in Philadelphia.
By 1987, the adult-contemporary format in Detroit had become quite crowded; in addition to WMJC, Detroit had four other AC stations, WNIC, WOMC, WLTI, and WNTM, with WNIC and the oldies-based WOMC dominating in the format. (The WMJC call letters would be picked for a Top-40/CHR station in Battle Creek, and now are used by a religious station in Kalamazoo. Greater Media would bring the "Magic" format and branding back to the Detroit market with WMGC-FM 105.1 from 2001 to 2011.)
94.7 WCSX.
On March 13, 1987, WCSX was launched, with Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock and Roll" as its first song. It was one of the first Classic Rock stations in the United States, and is also one of very few nationwide to have endured with the classic rock format for over 25 years.
WCSX's most played bands are classic rock staples The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd and hometown classic rockers such as Bob Seger and Ted Nugent. WCSX generally takes a softer, older-sounding approach to classic rock reminiscent of progressive and album-oriented rock radio of the 1970s, since sister station WRIF includes a good deal of harder classic rock titles in its playlist, including 1980s glam metal, which WCSX generally does not play. WCSX competition included classic rocker WDTW-FM, who returned to the format in November 2011 before dropping it again in May 2017. WDTW-FM has since returned to the format in January 2019 although rebranded as WLLZ.
WCSX did briefly expand its playlist to harder classic rock in 1996-97 (bands like Rush, Van Halen, Def Leppard, etc.) when Greater Media bought then-recently defunct station WLLZ's library, but went back to its toned down approach when WWBR went to a harder classic-rock format. They also had a short run of playing new songs from their mainstay artists, using the slogan; "It doesn't have to be old to be a classic".
On July 19, 2016, Beasley Media Group announced it would acquire Greater Media and its 21 stations (including WCSX) for $240 million. The FCC approved the sale on October 6, and the sale closed on November 1.
HD Programming.
WCSX broadcasts in the HD hybrid format.
In August 2005, WCSX launched its digital HD2 sidechannel with a "Deep Trax" format. In January 2014, the "Deep Trax" format was replaced "Detroit's Oldies 94.7 HD2", playing an oldies format. Both WCSX and "Detroit's Oldies 94.7 HD2" stream webcasts for internet listeners.