WHMS-FM
Radio station in Champaign, Illinois, United States
WHMS-FM (97.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Champaign, Illinois, United States. It broadcasts an adult contemporary format as "Lite Rock 97.5" and is owned by The News-Gazette, the primary newspaper in the Champaign-Urbana Metropolitan Area.
WHMS-FM's transmitter is sited on South Nell Street (U.S. Route 45) at West Windsor Road in Champaign. Along with WDWS, WHMS-FM is the longtime broadcaster of the University of Illinois sports, simulcasting all Fighting Illini football and men's basketball games.
01History
In 1949, the station signed on as WDWS-FM, a sister station to WDWS (1400 AM). In its first decades, it mostly simulcast WDWS. In the late 1960s, it switched to a beautiful music format, playing quarter hour sweeps of mostly soft, instrumental cover versions of popular songs, as well as Broadway and Hollywood show tunes.
In the 1980s, as the easy listening audience was beginning to age, the station added more vocals to the playlist, eventually making the transition to soft adult contemporary music. It was renamed WHMS-FM in 1988 in honor of Helen M. Stevick, longtime publisher of the News-Gazette.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “WHMS-FM”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- WHMS LiteRock97.5 logo.png by Rudy2alan 22:02, 11 June 2016 (UTC), Public domain
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