City | Lexington, Michigan |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Lexington, Sarnia, Port Huron [1] |
Branding | 96.9 WBTI |
Slogan | Today's Hit Music |
Frequency | 96.9 MHz |
First air date | 1991 |
Format | Adult Top 40 |
ERP | 3,000 watts |
HAAT | 100 meters |
Class | A |
Facility ID | 25989 |
Former callsigns | WHYT (8/22/97-11/17/97) WBTI (6/15/91-8/22/97) WYDG (2/1/91-6/15/91) |
Owner | Radio First |
Sister stations | WPHM WHLS WSAQ WHLX |
Webcast | [2] |
Website | wbti.net |
WBTI (96.9 FM) is an Adult Top 40 radio station in Lexington, Michigan. It broadcasts on 96.9 MHz with 3,000 watts and is owned by Radio First. This is the third owner in the station's 15-year history.
WBTI's transmitter is located south of Lexington off Gardener Line Road in Sanilac County. WBTI provides a rimshot signal to most of Port Huron, Marysville, and Sarnia, Ontario. The station's primary local competitors are Canadian counterpart CFGX and mainstream AC WGRT in Port Huron.
WBTI went on the air in July 1991, owned by Timothy D. Martz of Martz Communications. Martz was a Canadian-born broadcaster with ambitions of purchasing or building a series of American radio stations near the border of the United States and Canada with the intent of providing quality radio that would also be of value to Canadian citizens, while at the same time not having to submit to the more rigid standards of programming required by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and had already had success in another Michigan/Ontario border market - Sault Ste. Marie - with 99.5 Yes-FM. As Sarnia, Ontario was about 25 minutes southeast of Lexington, it fell into this category.
Initially, the station boasted a contemporary hit radio format and the moniker "B96.9, The Killer Bee". Though licensed to Lexington, almost a half-hour north of Port Huron, the station maintained its studios and offices in downtown Port Huron, where it would compete with WPHM, WHLS, WSAQ, WIFN, and WGRT.