WMFN (original) (raw)
WMFN (640 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a black-oriented news format. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting. Licensed to Peotone, Illinois and currently serving Chicago, it first began broadcasting in Zeeland, Michigan in 1990 under the WBMX call sign, serving Muskegon and Grand Rapids. The station has since been through a number of different formats and call signs, and changed market areas, which is rare for a station. 640 kilohertz is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which KFI in Los Angeles and KYUK in Bethel, Alaska are the dominant Class A stations.
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| dbo:abstract | WMFN (640 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a black-oriented news format. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting. Licensed to Peotone, Illinois and currently serving Chicago, it first began broadcasting in Zeeland, Michigan in 1990 under the WBMX call sign, serving Muskegon and Grand Rapids. The station has since been through a number of different formats and call signs, and changed market areas, which is rare for a station. 640 kilohertz is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which KFI in Los Angeles and KYUK in Bethel, Alaska are the dominant Class A stations. AM 640 was originally a MOR station in 1990 when it signed on as WBMX, using the call sign that had recently been vacated by a popular urban contemporary station in Chicago, Illinois. The following year, the owners of WROR-FM 98.5 in Boston, Massachusetts, bought the WBMX call letters from 640 in order to debut "Mix 98.5" there; in return, AM 640 received the WROR calls. Its format did not change. In 1993, WROR (AM) was sold and converted to Radio AAHS as WISZ, freeing the WROR calls to be used again in Boston, where they were again placed beginning in 1996. For a time, the station also played adult standards (Westwood One's AM Only) at night as a continuation of daytimer sister station WMJH 810 AM's format. Since WMJH was known at the time as "Majic 810," WMFN's nighttime standards programming was called "Night Majic." In 1995 am 640 became WMFN, taking a sports format branded "West Michigan's Fan". During its sports talk days former NFL linebacker Ray Bentley hosted an afternoon program. In 1999 WMFN adopted a Business News format branded "West Michigan's Financial News". Starting in 2000 WMFN evolved into a News Talk Sports format eventually becoming "Hot Talk 640". In 2005 WMFN's talk format was dropped in favor of an Adult Urban Contemporary format branded "Smooth Vibes AM 640". From about 2006 until November 2008, the station was leased to Tyrone Bynum, a controversial talk show host and deejay who hosted many of his programs on this station, which went under the name "Smooth Vibes"; during periods when there was no talk programming, Bynum (or his staffers) would play Urban Adult Contemporary music. In November 2008, due to low advertising revenues, Bynum opted not to renew his lease with Birach; on November 7, 2008, the station began carrying Regional Mexican programming, moved from WMJH. Bynum soon relaunched "Smooth Vibes" as an online-only station free from music licensing fees. As "La Poderosa," the station became the exclusive Regional Mexican station in West Michigan, as former competitor stations WYGR and WNWZ have switched to other formats. The "Poderosa" format has since moved back to WMJH, which has also launched an FM translator at 93.3. At that time, WMFN became Radio Activa. In 2014, the FCC allowed the station to be moved to south of Chicago, to be licensed to the town of Peotone, Illinois. The station aired a Spanish Contemporary format. In summer of 2018, the station aired a Polish language format, Polski FM, simulcasting 92.7 WCPY. On July 14, 2022, at 1 p.m., WMFN changed their format from Regional Mexican to African-American-oriented news from the Black Information Network. (en) |
| dbo:alias | Chicago's BIN 640 (en) |
| dbo:broadcastArea | dbr:Northwest_Indiana dbr:Chicago_metropolitan_area |
| dbo:broadcastNetwork | dbr:Black_Information_Network |
| dbo:broadcastRepeater | 102.7WVAZ-HD2(Oak Park) |
| dbo:broadcastStationClass | B |
| dbo:callsignMeaning | (former region served and format) West Michigan's Fan |
| dbo:city | dbr:Peotone,_Illinois |
| dbo:facilityId | 55089 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:formerCallsign | WBMX (10/12/88-3/11/91) WISZ (9/8/93-10/2/95) WROR (3/11/91-9/8/93) |
| dbo:frequency | 640000.000000 (xsd:double) |
| dbo:owner | dbr:Birach_Broadcasting |
| dbo:programmeFormat | dbr:All-news_radio |
| dbo:sisterStation | dbr:WNWI |
| dbo:thumbnail | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/WMFN-AM.jpg?width=300 |
| dbo:wikiPageExternalLink | http://www.birach.com/wmfn.html http://www.michiguide.com/dials/rad-m/wmfn.html https://chicago.binnews.com |
| dbo:wikiPageID | 10916473 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageLength | 6556 (xsd:nonNegativeInteger) |
| dbo:wikiPageRevisionID | 1118578081 (xsd:integer) |
| dbo:wikiPageWikiLink | dbr:America's_Best_Music dbr:Black_Information_Network dbr:All-news_radio dbr:Peotone,_Illinois dbc:All-news_radio_stations_in_the_United_States dbr:Northwest_Indiana dbc:Radio_stations_established_in_1990 dbr:1990_in_radio dbr:Grand_Rapids,_Michigan dbr:Muskegon,_Michigan dbr:Zeeland,_Michigan dbc:Radio_stations_in_Illinois dbr:640_AM dbr:WBZ-FM dbr:WCPY dbr:WNWI dbr:WNWZ dbr:WVAZ dbr:WYGR dbr:Watt dbr:Westwood_One_(1976–2011) dbr:File:WMFN-AM.jpg dbr:WMJH dbr:Adult_standards dbr:Federal_Communications_Commission dbr:AM_broadcasting dbr:Chicago dbr:Chicago,_Illinois dbr:Chicago_metropolitan_area dbr:KFI dbr:KYUK_(AM) dbc:Birach_Broadcasting_Corporation_stations dbc:Black_Information_Network_stations dbr:Boston,_Massachusetts dbr:Polish_language dbr:IHeartMedia,_Inc. dbr:Oak_Park,_Illinois dbr:Radio_AAHS dbr:Radio_station dbr:Ray_Bentley dbr:Middle_of_the_road_(music) dbr:List_of_broadcast_station_classes dbr:Urban_Adult_Contemporary dbr:Kilohertz dbr:KHz dbr:Spanish_Contemporary dbr:WROR dbr:Clear-channel dbr:Birach_Broadcasting |
| dbp:affiliations | dbr:Black_Information_Network |
| dbp:airdate | 1990 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:area | dbr:Northwest_Indiana dbr:Chicago_metropolitan_area |
| dbp:branding | Chicago's BIN 640 (en) |
| dbp:callsignMeaning | (en) West Michigan's Fan (en) |
| dbp:city | dbr:Peotone,_Illinois |
| dbp:class | B (en) |
| dbp:facilityId | 55089 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:format | dbr:All-news_radio |
| dbp:formerCallsigns | WBMX (en) WROR (en) WISZ (en) |
| dbp:frequency | 640.0 |
| dbp:licensingAuthority | dbr:Federal_Communications_Commission |
| dbp:name | WMFN (en) |
| dbp:operator | dbr:IHeartMedia,_Inc. |
| dbp:owner | dbr:Birach_Broadcasting |
| dbp:power | 1600 (xsd:integer) 4400 (xsd:integer) |
| dbp:repeater | 102.700000 (xsd:double) |
| dbp:sisterStations | dbr:WNWI |
| dbp:website | https://chicago.binnews.com |
| dbp:wikiPageUsesTemplate | dbt:Joliet-Morris-Crete_Radio dbt:Kankakee_Radio dbt:Coord dbt:Infobox_radio_station dbt:More_citations_needed dbt:Reflist dbt:Listenlive dbt:Birach_Broadcasting dbt:News/Talk_Radio_Stations_in_Illinois dbt:AM_station_data dbt:IHeartMedia |
| dcterms:subject | dbc:All-news_radio_stations_in_the_United_States dbc:Radio_stations_established_in_1990 dbc:Radio_stations_in_Illinois dbc:Birach_Broadcasting_Corporation_stations dbc:Black_Information_Network_stations |
| gold:hypernym | dbr:Station |
| georss:point | 41.30111111111111 -87.83527777777778 |
| rdf:type | owl:Thing schema:Organization schema:RadioStation dul:Agent dul:SocialPerson dbo:Agent dbo:Broadcaster wikidata:Q15265344 wikidata:Q24229398 wikidata:Q43229 geo:SpatialThing yago:Artifact100021939 yago:BroadcastingStation102903405 yago:Facility103315023 yago:Object100002684 yago:PhysicalEntity100001930 yago:RadioStation104044119 yago:YagoGeoEntity yago:YagoPermanentlyLocatedEntity dbo:Organisation dbo:RadioStation dbo:Station yago:Station104306080 yago:Whole100003553 yago:WikicatRadioStationsEstablishedIn1990 yago:WikicatRadioStationsInMichigan |
| rdfs:comment | WMFN (640 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a black-oriented news format. The station is owned by Birach Broadcasting. Licensed to Peotone, Illinois and currently serving Chicago, it first began broadcasting in Zeeland, Michigan in 1990 under the WBMX call sign, serving Muskegon and Grand Rapids. The station has since been through a number of different formats and call signs, and changed market areas, which is rare for a station. 640 kilohertz is a United States clear-channel frequency, on which KFI in Los Angeles and KYUK in Bethel, Alaska are the dominant Class A stations. (en) |
| rdfs:label | WMFN (en) |
| owl:sameAs | freebase:WMFN yago-res:WMFN wikidata:WMFN https://global.dbpedia.org/id/4xhP9 |
| geo:geometry | POINT(-87.83528137207 41.301109313965) |
| geo:lat | 41.301109 (xsd:float) |
| geo:long | -87.835281 (xsd:float) |
| prov:wasDerivedFrom | wikipedia-en:WMFN?oldid=1118578081&ns=0 |
| foaf:depiction | wiki-commons:Special:FilePath/WMFN-AM.jpg |
| foaf:homepage | https://chicago.binnews.com |
| foaf:isPrimaryTopicOf | wikipedia-en:WMFN |
| foaf:name | WMFN (en) |
| is dbo:sisterStation of | dbr:WNWI |
| is dbo:wikiPageWikiLink of | dbr:Black_Information_Network dbr:List_of_radio_stations_in_Illinois dbr:List_of_radio_stations_owned_by_iHeartMedia dbr:Media_in_Chicago dbr:640_AM dbr:WBZ-FM dbr:WCPY dbr:WNWI dbr:WROR-FM dbr:WVAZ dbr:WYHI dbr:List_of_AM_radio_stations_in_the_Unite..._by_call_sign_(initial_letters_WG–WM) dbr:WMJH dbr:Birach_Broadcasting_Corporation dbr:Songs_About_Jane_Tour dbr:Radio_AAHS dbr:List_of_urban-format_radio_stations_in_the_United_States dbr:WBMX_(disambiguation) |
| is dbp:sisterStations of | dbr:WNWI |
| is foaf:primaryTopic of | wikipedia-en:WMFN |
