WILS

WILS (1320 kHz) is a commercial AM news/talk radio station in Lansing, Michigan. WILS is owned by MacDonald Broadcasting and features a local news department and a mixture of local and national talk personalities.

This article is about the radio station. For the orchid genus, see Wilsonara. For the radio station in Lansing, Michigan, formerly known as WILS-FM, see WHZZ.
WILS
CityLansing, Michigan
Broadcast areaLansing-East Lansing metropolitan area
Frequency1320 kHz
Branding1320 WILS
Slogan"Lansing's More Compelling Talk Radio"
Programming
FormatNews/Talk
AffiliationsPremiere Networks
Westwood One
Fox News Radio
Michigan Radio Network
Ownership
OwnerMacDonald Broadcasting
WHZZ, WQHH, WXLA
History
First air date
February 19, 1947
Call sign meaning
Ingham County
LanSing
Technical information
Facility ID39537
ClassB
Power25,000 watts (Daytime)
1,900 watts (Nighttime)
Transmitter coordinates
42°37′19″N 84°38′38″W
Links
WebcastListen Live
Website1320wils.com

WILS is powered at 25,000 watts by day. But to protect other stations on AM 1320, it reduces power to 1,900 watts at night. It uses a directional antenna day and night. The transmitter is located off North Green Road in Dimondale.[1]

Programming

WILS is home to the locally produced "Morning Wakeup with Dave Akerly." It is heard weekdays, focusing on local issues and personalities, including politics and business. Akerly is a former Lansing TV news host. Syndicated talk shows round out the rest of the weekday schedule: Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Jim Bohannon, Lars Larson, Dennis Prager, Coast to Coast AM and First Light. Weekends include shows on money, health, real estate and technology. Syndicated shows from Kim Komando, Clark Howard and Leo Laporte are heard. Some weekend hours are paid brokered programming. Most hours begin with world and national news from Fox News Radio.

WILS's talk radio rival is Townsquare Media's (formerly Cumulus Media) WJIM AM 1240, also licensed to Lansing. WJIM was WILS's main competitor when both were Top 40 stations in the 1960s and 70s. In 2013, WJIM dropped Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, with both shows now on the WILS schedule.

History

Radio station WILS signed on in 1947 as a daytimer at 1430 kHz with 500 watts of power, and required to go off the air at night. The transmitter for the station was located on East Mount Hope avenue, with studios located in Downtown Lansing at Saginaw and North Washington.[2]

The exact sign on date is believed to be February 19, however transmissions from WILS could have been made as early as November 1946 when a construction permit was granted. In 1949, the station moved to 1320 kHz and increased power to 1,000 watts with a directional antenna array located at 600 W Cavanaugh Road. In 1952, the Federal Communications Commission granted WILS to up its power once again to 5,000 daytime and 1,000 watts nighttime using separate directional arrays. In 1966, the studios were moved from downtown to the Cavanaugh Road site, where they remain today.[3]

The station was once co-owned with Lansing NBC television network affiliate WILX-TV Channel 10. The television station signed on March 15, 1959 and was owned by Jackson Telecasters[4] along with WJCO radio (AM 1510, now WJKN). The company was half-owned by Lansing Broadcasting along with WILS.

WILS was a popular Top 40 music station in Lansing during the 1960s and 1970s. One popular WILS personality during the '60s Top 40 era was John Records Landecker, who later went on to great popularity at WLS in Chicago and CFTR in Toronto. Tim O Toole, another popular Chicago radio personality, worked at WILS from 1969-1971.[5] He currently does Weekends on True Oldies 94.7 in Chicago.[6] WILS-AM was a fully staffed live radio station until January 17, 1984, when the station switched to mostly automation (the original automated format was Drake-Chenault's "Hitparade", a Big Band/Nostalgia format) and was known as Hometown Radio 1320.

The WILS call sign was also shared with a sister station at 101.7 FM (now WHZZ). From 1967 to 1972, the WILS-AM-FM simulcast the top-40 format. In 1972, WILS-FM launched a country music format. However Jerry Marshall's morning show which originated on WILS-AM continued to be heard on the FM as well. Then three years later in 1975, WILS-FM returned to a twelve hour simulcast of WILS-AM in the daytime, followed by 6 hours of progressive rock in the evenings and jazz overnight. The rock format was so popular that WILS-FM completely broke away from the AM station in 1978. The station was dubbed WILS 101-FM. An ownership change in 1983 would bring the end of 101-FM, with the FM flipping to adult contemporary as LS-102. (See WHZZ for further history on the former WILS-FM 101.7.)

WILS was purchased by MacDonald Broadcasting, owner of several other stations in the Saginaw and Traverse City markets. The station switched briefly to a country music format (simulcast with WILS-FM) in 1992, and then flipped to Adult Standards in 1993. It was known as Unforgettable 1320 and was an affiliate of ABC Radio's satellite-delivered adult standards/MOR music package known as "Timeless Classics" (formerly "Stardust"). The station had had this format since the early 1990s and was quite successful in the ratings with it. The Timeless Favorites format moved to sister WXLA 1180 AM after that station was purchased by MacDonald Broadcasting; WILS and WXLA essentially simulcast each other with separate IDs and imaging until 2006. 1320 WILS changed its format to news and talk radio, with the slogan More Stimulating Talk Radio airing personalities such as Laura Ingram, Clark Howard, Dennis Miller, and Michael Savage. Local personalities included then morning show host Walt Sorg, followed by Chris Holoman and Tony Conley. Sports talk show host Jack Ebling was an afternoon fixture on WILS before moving to WQTX. In 2010, the station changed its slogan to the current More Compelling Talk Radio moniker.

On January 25, 2008, WILS turned on their new Windsor Township transmitter and became the most powerful AM station in Lansing. The new 25 kW daytime signal covers much of Mid-Michigan, and be easily received as far away as Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Mt. Pleasant, and Jackson. The station can even be heard in portions of northern Ohio and Indiana. The directional pattern of WILS is limited to the east to avoid adjacent channel interference with WTRX 1330 in Flint. The new 1.9 kW four tower nighttime array provides better coverage to the immediate Lansing, Charlotte, Grand Ledge, and DeWitt areas.

References
  1. Radio-Locator.com/WILS
  2. https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=60822
  3. https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=60822
  4. "WILX-TV Channel 10 Onondaga/Lansing". Station Listings. michiguide.com. Retrieved December 8, 2015.
  5. http://www.tomotoole.com
  6. WLS FM
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