WKHQ
| Broadcast area | Traverse City-Petoskey |
|---|---|
| Branding | 106 KHQ |
| Slogan | Hits 106 KHQ |
| Format | Top 40 (CHR) |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 272 meters |
| Class | C1 |
| Facility ID | 214 |
| Former callsigns | WKHQ (5/8/80-4/8/85) |
| Owner | MacDonald Garber Broadcasting (MacDonald Garber Broadcasting, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WATT, WKAD, WLXT, WLXV, WMKT, WMBN, WZTC |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 106khq.com |
WKHQ-FM is a 100,000-watt radio station licensed to Charlevoix, Michigan, with studios located on U.S. 131 South Petoskey, Michigan and US 31 Acme, Michigan. The Top 40 (CHR) station, located at 105.9 MHz, is known to listeners as 106 KHQ, Northern Michigan's #1 Hit Music Channel.
The station signed on in 1980, but its roots can be traced back to the early 1970s, with the beginning of WVOY, a 5,000-watt daytime-only station at 1270 kHz on the AM dial. WVOY was one of the first all-contemporary-hit-music radio stations in northern Michigan and featured Bill Vogel ("The Captain," formerly of Detroit's WDRQ), John Yaroch, Rick Durkin, and other major-market-quality talent.
Despite WVOY's limited signal, the station became extremely popular and gave northern Michigan listeners a taste of the "big city" radio sound. The station was live during morning and afternoon drive (with Vogel and Yaroch), and "live assist" automation using ITC ("The Cart Machine People") "carousels" and carted music during other time periods.
After many years of expensive and time-consuming legal wrangling over a hotly contested 100 kW FM license (mostly with religious broadcast proponent Roland Cilke), the station's owners, Tim Ives and Elmo Franklin, sold an interest to former WVOY salesperson and air talent Tim Moore, who had worked with TM Programming Broadcast consultants in the interim since his departure from WVOY in the mid-1970s. Moore's parents mortgaged their home and property to help him finance his purchase of stock and finance the expansion of WVOY into WKHQ in 1980. Moore later purchased the interests of Ives and Franklin at a pre-arranged contract price.
The call letters Moore chose were WKHQ, named after a legendary Spokane, WA radio and TV combo, KHQ. The station signed on May 8, 1980, using TM Programming's "Stereo Rock" format, and quickly shot up to the top of the ratings thanks to its polished jocks and upbeat music. In its early years, WKHQ was known as "The Rhythm of the Northwest" (referring, of course, to northwestern Michigan), and its TM "Stereo Rock" jingles used that slogan. WVOY-AM, in the meantime, flipped to a Music of Your Life format, although the station would return to simulcasting the FM later in the 1980s as WKHQ-AM. The station is now WMKT, "News/Talk 1270."
Moore sold the station in the mid-1980s to Midwest Family, only to recover it a few years later. He sold it again to Cadillac Media who also ended up having financial problems, and again became the owner. Midwest then sold to MacDonald Broadcasting in 1994.
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Wikipedia