City | Chicago, Illinois |
---|---|
Broadcast area | Chicago market |
Branding | 93XRT |
Slogan | Chicago's Finest Rock |
Frequency | 93.1 FM (MHz) (also on HD Radio) 93.1 HD-2 for Channel X: XRT New Music Channel 93.1 HD-3 for Last.fm Discover |
First air date | 1972 |
Format | Adult Alternative |
Audience share | 2.3 (Holiday 2016, Nielsen Audio[1]) |
ERP | 6,700 watts |
HAAT | 399 meters (1,309 ft) |
Class | B |
Facility ID | 16853 |
Owner |
CBS Radio (CBS Radio East Inc.) |
Sister stations |
WBBM, WBBM-FM, WCFS-FM, WJMK-FM, WSCR, WUSN part of CBS Corp. cluster with TV station WBBM-TV |
Webcast | Listen Live |
Website | www |
WXRT, also known as XRT and 93-XRT is an adult album alternative (AAA) radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock".
The station broadcasts from a transmitter atop John Hancock Center and its studios are located at Two Prudential Plaza near Chicago's Millennium Park.
WFJL-FM (93.1 MHz) went on the air in Chicago in 1947. WFJL was operated as a non-commercial station by Lewis College of Science and Technology (now Lewis University, "FJL" being an abbreviation for Frank J. Lewis). Lewis College sold WFJL-FM in 1958 to Louis Lee, who changed the call letters to WSBC-FM in 1959. Lee changed the call letters again in 1964 to WXRT-FM. Dan Lee, Louis Lee's son, sold WXRT in 1995; it is now owned by CBS Radio.
The format as it exists today began in 1972 as a nighttime-only freeform rock experiment, sharing the 93.1 frequency with a variety of different ethnic and foreign language programming that aired during the daylight hours. The part-time progressive rock format started by Don Bridges who then brought in Mitch Michaels and later John Platt was gradually expanded, and by 1976, it aired 24 hours a day. By the 1980s, the station played primarily new wave and alternative music of that time. As the 1990s approached, the station opted to stay with its core audience and move to a AAA format. The office of the radio station was located at 4949 W. Belmont Ave. on the northwest side of Chicago, until September 6, 2008, when it was relocated to the NBC Tower in downtown Chicago. On March 16, 2010, it was again relocated to the Prudential Plaza.
WXRT was locally owned until 1995. It was then purchased by Westinghouse, which had acquired WMAQ 670 (which has since changed call letters to WSCR) a few years before. WXRT became part of the CBS conglomerate in 1996 when Westinghouse and CBS merged. CBS later merged with Infinity Radio, keeping the Infinity name for its radio division. CBS and Viacom would merge in 2000, making WXRT an Infinity Radio station whose parent companies were CBS and Viacom. In December 2005, Infinity Radio officially became CBS Radio in anticipation of the CBS/Viacom split up.