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WDRQ
City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	93.1 Doug FM
Slogan	We Play Everything
Frequency	93.1 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 93.1 HD-2 Detroit's Party Station Rhythmic Contemporary
First air date	July 9, 1947
Format	Variety Hits
Power	26,500 watts
HAAT	204 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	70040
Transmitter Coordinates	42°28′16″N 83°12′3″W / 42.47111, -83.20083
Former callsigns	WLTI (4/15/85-8/10/96) WDRQ-FM (6/25/80-4/15/85) WDRQ (1972-6/25/80) WDEE-FM (1970-1972) WJBK-FM (1947-1970)
Owner	Citadel Broadcasting (Radio License Holding I, LLC)
Sister stations	WDVD, WJR
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	931dougfm.com

WDRQ is an FM radio station in Detroit, Michigan, The station is currently branded as 93.1 Doug FM. Doug FM broadcasts from the Fisher Building just north of downtown Detroit and transmits its signal from an antenna 669 feet in height located at the intersection of Ten Mile and Greenfield Roads in suburban Oak Park. The station is currently owned by Citadel Broadcasting.

History

WJBK-FM/WDEE

WDRQ originally came to Detroit in 1972 as Detroit's first FM talk radio station, with all-news programming weekdays during morning and afternoon drive-time hours (the station's slogan was "'DRQ Has News For You"). Prior to 1972, the station had been WJBK-FM and then WDEE-FM, mostly simulcasting the programming of then-sister AM 1500. (WJBK-AM was Detroit's first top 40 station, playing hit music from 1956 to 1964.) Soon after WDRQ moved to become a top 40 station, chalking up top 10 ratings and seriously challenging market leader CKLW until they jumped on the all-disco bandwagon in late 1978.

93FM WDRQ

The move to disco was not received well in Detroit, and WDRQ tumbled out of the top 20 within a few months. Despite plummeting ratings, WDRQ stuck with all-disco through 1979, returned to top 40 in 1980, then adopted an urban contemporary format (with danceable mainstream hits mixed in) in 1982. The station rebounded nicely, soaring to #2 overall in its debut book with the urban format in the summer of 1982, although the ratings cooled off shortly afterward. "Continuous Music—93FM WDRQ" was a success, and the opening of "Beverly Hills Cop" features an advertisement for this version of WDRQ on a city bus.

93.1 The Lite FM

The urban format lasted until 1985 when it was replaced by the light rock station WLTI "93.1 The Lite FM." Its morning drive team of Rogers and Holiday featured comedic "celebrity" drop-ins by the spoofed likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Clint Eastwood and Eddie Murphy as well as original characters like Mr. Action.

WLTI initially positioned itself as a cross between more up-tempo AC competitor WNIC and beautiful music Joy 97, featuring a blend of soft hits and oldies from artists like Barry Manilow, The Carpenters, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John, and Frank Sinatra. By 1994, most of the easy MOR artists were gone and WLTI had become more contemporary, but the station could never match WNIC for dominance in the AC market.

The WLTI callsign and radio format were resurrected on a radio station in Syracuse, New York.

The New DRQ/93.1 DRQ

In July 1996, WDRQ returned to the 93.1 frequency as a Top 40 music station and would remain so for nine years. Initially the station called itself "The New DRQ: Detroit's Station For Women." With only an announcer used for on-air bumper promos, and without any disc jockeys, the station chiefly played a random mix of programmed dance and pop music from late 1980s and early 1990s, with some new music factored in sporadically. More current dance-oriented top 40 music was added to the play list into the fall. By early 1997, a lite mix of pop-friendly R&B and hip-hop music was also adopted to further cement the stations mainstream hook. With this being the first time a top 40/dance music station had been on Detroit radio since the reformatting of 96.3 WHYT two years earlier, DRQ immediately attracted a large listening audience upon its re-launch. Subsequently, the station quickly abandoned the 'for women only' angle and steadfastly recruited a line-up of on-air personalities. The station began calling itself "Detroit's Dance Music Station" (later "Today's Best Music," then "Today's Hit Music," and finally "Detroit's #1 Hit Music Station.")

By 2000, the station had evolved into more of a mainstream top 40 (albeit still geared more toward playing dance music than other like-formatted stations in the area) and was eating away at its adult-leaning top 40 competitor Q95-5. By the final quarter of 2001, both WDRQ and WKQI were leaning very heavily toward Rhythmic CHR. For a time, WDRQ consistently defeated WKQI in the ratings, but after Clear Channel re-launched WKQI as "Channel 9-5-5" in February 2002, WKQI pulled ahead of DRQ—garnering both larger ratings and revenue.

93.1 Doug FM

At 1 p.m. EST on April 1, 2005, Disney/ABC Radio (who held the 93.1 FM FCC radio broadcasting license in Detroit) abruptly pulled WDRQ off the air, without any warning being given to the listeners or employees.^{[citation needed]} Some thought this was a bad April Fools prank. This, though, was no joke. DRQ was replaced with a variety hits format - "93.1 Doug FM—We Play…Everything!" The music selection for this format is very broad, similar to that of 96-3 WDVD, 100.3 WNIC, and Magic 105.1, combining a wide variety of songs from the 1960s through the 2000s.

While many former DRQ listeners were both confused by and disgruntled over the format change, Doug FM eventually attracted its own following and began absorbing market share of the other aforementioned radio stations. Its overall ratings, however, have remained more or less the same since before the reformatting.

December 2008 PPM Rating: #14 (3.5)

HD Radio

WDRQ currently broadcasts using ibiquity's HD Radio technology. Its multicast channel, WDRQ-HD2, currently broadcasts a dance/party hits format known as 93-1 DRQ, similar to what WDRQ sounded like in 1997/1998. Much of the same jingles and station liners from that time are in use on the HD2 station today. In early 2008, some current hits were added to the playlist of WDRQ-HD2.

When WDRQ-HD2 first went on the air, it was originally a simulcast of AM talk station WJR.

Old Logo

Sources

• Michiguide.com - WDRQ History

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WDRQ
• Radio Locator information on WDRQ
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WDRQ

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