WMAD

City of license	Sauk City, Wisconsin
Broadcast area	Madison, Wisconsin
Branding	"96.3 Star Country"
Slogan	"The Biggest Hits, The Biggest Stars"
Frequency	(96.3 MHz)
Format	Country Music
ERP	5.1 kilowatts
Class	B1
Callsign meaning	"MADison" (Also for previous format, “MAD Radio 96.3“)
Former callsigns	WMLI (1996-2002), WCJZ (2002-2003)
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	963starcountry.com

WMAD (96.3 Star Country) is a radio station serving the Madison, Wisconsin metropolitan area. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and has been running a country music format since December 23, 2005. In the United States (and potentially elswhere), each radio station or TV station is assigned a city of license by the Federal Communications Commission that they must serve. While this has become far less meaningful over the decades, stations are still required to post their public file somewhere within the... Sauk City is a village located in Sauk County, Wisconsin. ... Nickname: Mad Town or Mad City Location of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin Municipality City Incorporated 1848 Mayor Dave Cieslewicz Area    - City 136. ... Look up Slogan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sine waves of various frequencies; the bottom waves have higher frequencies than those above. ... MegaHertz (MHz) is the name given to one million (106) Hertz, a measure of frequency. ... A radio format or programming format describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. ... country music, see Country music (disambiguation) Country music, the first half of Billboards country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. ... In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or ERP is determined by subtracting system losses from system gains. ... Power kilowatt (symbol: kW) is a unit for measuring power, equal to one thousand watts. ... This is the list of broadcast station classes. ... Call sign can refer to different types of call signs: Airline call sign Aviator call sign Cosmonaut call sign Radio and television call signs Tactical call sign, also known as a tactical designator See also: International Callsign Allocations, Maritime Mobile Service Identity This is a disambiguation page — a navigational... This article is about the company. ... A website (or Web site) is a collection of web pages, typically common to a particular domain name or subdomain on the World Wide Web on the Internet. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards and appeal to a wider international audience, this article may require cleanup. ... Nickname: Mad Town or Mad City Location of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin Municipality City Incorporated 1848 Mayor Dave Cieslewicz Area    - City 136. ... This article is about the company. ... country music, see Country music (disambiguation) Country music, the first half of Billboards country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. ...

History

The 96.3 FM frequency in Madison has had a varied format history. As early as the late 1990s, the station played a soft rock format as WMLI, which eventually morphed into adult contemporary “Star 96.3.” In March 2002, the station shifted to a smooth jazz format as "Smooth Jazz 96.3 WCJZ," filling a niche in the Madison market filled only by the “Magic Sunday Morning” smooth jazz program on WMGN (Magic 98). Frequency modulation (FM) is a form of modulation which represents information as variations in the instantaneous frequency of a carrier wave. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreciated to just AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream and pop music, without hip-hop or rap since, as per the name, it is geared more towards adults than teens. ... Smooth jazz is generally described as a genre of music that utilizes instruments (and, at times, improvisation) traditionally associated with jazz and stylistic influences drawn from, among other sources, funk, pop and R&B. Since the late 1980s, it has become highly successful as a radio format; one can tune...

WCJZ and its smooth jazz format never made any inroads among Madison radio listeners, which lead management to make another change in format. At 12 Noon on December 31, 2003, WCJZ began 6 hours stunting with a ticking clock and synthisized voice announcing station ID and jokes.[1] This stunting ended promptly at 6:00 PM that night, with an announcement heralding the return of the alternative rock-formatted “MAD Radio.”[2] Fourteen months earlier, Clear Channel replaced the alternative rock format on 92.1 WMAD in favor of a Hot AC station, “Mix 92.1.” Fans of that “MAD Radio” incarnation were left disappointed by the change. Acknowledging the outcry, management resurrected “MAD Radio” at the 96.3 frequency. With this change, the WMAD call letters were moved to 96.3, while 92.1 changed their call letters to WXXM. Alternative rock (also called alternative music[1] or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ... Alternative rock (also called alternative music[1] or simply alternative) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreciated to just AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream and pop music, without hip-hop or rap since, as per the name, it is geared more towards adults than teens. ... In radio (including television), a callsign or call sign (also call letters) is a unique designation for amateur, broadcast, and sometimes military radio use, as well as for broadcast television. ... WXXM (The Mic 92. ...

Despite an early peak in interest from Madison radio listeners, the new “MAD Radio” did not build as strong a following as the old version had. An increase of older alternative hits in the play list (highlighted by the “Sunday Morning Resurrection” program) and the addition of the syndicated morning program Rover's Morning Glory failed to bump up the station's fortunes. With WMAD’s Arbitron ratings near the bottom of the Madison market, Clear Channel made yet another change. The Shows Official Logo Rovers Morning Glory is a syndicated morning radio talk show based at K-Rock 92. ... Arbitron is a radio audience research company in the United States. ... Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ...

“MAD Radio 96.3” came to an end on the night of December 22, 2005,[3] after 2 hours “goodbye” and "end" themed songs (ending with "Last Goodbye" by Jeff Buckley and the Jimi Hendrix version of “The Star Spangled Banner”). At 12AM on December 23, 2005, WMAD launched its new country format under the branding, “96.3 Star Country.” using a montage of its liners and jingles played together for the format launch. Gretchen Wilson’s “All Jacked Up” was the first of 10,000 songs played without interruption for commercials or DJ’s on “Star Country.”[4] Jeff Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), born Jeffrey Scott Buckley and raised as Scottie Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Nicholson took the copy Key gave him to a printer, where it was published as a broadside on September 17 under the title The Defence of Fort McHenry, with an explanatory note explaining the circumstances of its writing. ... Gretchen Frances Wilson (born June 26, 1973 in Pocahontas, Illinois) is a Grammy Award-winning American country music singer. ...

Clear Channel aggressively promoted “Star Country” in billboard and television advertising, telling fans of country music in Madison that, “Now you have a choice” (an obvious reference to the long-time country station in Madison, WWQM). The agressiveness paid off, as sampling among listeners boosted WMAD’s Arbitron ratings significantly, while WWQM saw a bit of a decrease. Clear Channel continued the aggressive approach by luring away the WWQM morning team of John Flint and Tammy Lee. The duo officially joined “Star Country’s” morning show in November 2006. Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ... country music, see Country music (disambiguation) Country music, the first half of Billboards country and western music category, is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States. ... Arbitron is a radio audience research company in the United States. ... Clear channel stations are AM radio stations that are designated as such so that only one or two 50,000 watt powerhouses operate at night on each designated frequency, covering a wide area via sky wave propagation. ...

External links

• WMAD’s website
• FCC Database Query for WMAD