WJFK-FM
WJFK-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Manassas, Virginia, and serving the Washington metropolitan area. WJFK-FM airs a sports radio format and is owned and operated by Entercom.
WJFK-FM's studios are located on Half Street SE near the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington. The transmitter is located in Falls Church, Virginia, near the intersection of Lee Highway and the Capital Beltway.
WJFK-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format. It carries two co-owned sports stations on its subchannels, WFAN from New York City and WJZ-FM from Baltimore.
Programming
On weekdays, WJFK-FM has local personalities hosting sports shows in morning drive time, middays and afternoons. Late nights and weekends, the CBS Sports Radio Network is heard.WJFK-FM is the flagship radio station for the Washington Nationals baseball team and the Washington Capitals hockey team, and was formerly the flagship for the DC Defenders of the XFL. For college sports, WJFK-FM carries Virginia Tech Hokies football and men's basketball as well as Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball. It also has an agreement with the Washington Redskins to air programs with players and coaches, although AM 980 WTEM is the flagship station for the NFL team.
History
WPRW-FM and WEZR
On April 4, 1961, the station first signed on as WPRW-FM. It was owned by the Prince William Broadcasting Company and was the sister station to AM 1460 WPRW. The two stations simulcast their programming, directed mostly to listeners in and around Manassas and Prince William County. WPRW-FM broadcast with an effective radiated power of 30,000 watts, but only using a 160-foot tower, so it was unable to cover the larger Washington radio market. In 1966, the transmitter was moved to the AM site west of Manassas.In 1967, WPRW-FM was sold to Radio Fairfax-Prince William, a Fairfax-based firm that owned WEEL radio in that city. The transmitter was moved to Fairfax and the call letters changed to WEZR, airing 15 minute sweeps of beautiful music, mostly instrumental covers of popular songs, including Hollywood and Broadway showtunes. Ultimately, the entire company renamed itself EZ Communications later in 1968, later going on to buy other stations nationwide and apply the format there. A further power boost to 50,000 watts, improving coverage in the Washington market, was approved in 1973.
While WEZR and its sister stations remained successful into the 1980s, the easy format was seen as attracting older listeners, while most advertisers were seeking a younger demographic. In 1982, EZ tweaked the format used by its three remaining music outlets—WEZR, WEZS in Richmond and WEZC in Charlotte—to add more vocals.
Top 40 and new age
On January 1, 1985, the station flipped to Top 40 as WBMW "B106." It was positioned against two other Washington-area Top 40 stations: WRQX, owned by ABC, and WAVA-FM, owned by Doubleday Broadcasting. WBMW was acquired by New York City-based Infinity Broadcasting in April 1987.Infinity, at first, flipped WBMW to an adult rock format, but it only lasted a few weeks. On May 8, 1987, WBMW switched to new-age music, a forerunner of the smooth jazz format. The station simply called itself "106.7 WBMW." The playlist included jazz-influenced instrumentals and some soft rock titles, with limited chatter from the DJs. This format lasted about a year and a half.
Rock and hot talk
On October 3, 1988, the station flipped to an album-oriented rock format as WJFK. The station became the Washington affiliate for the syndicated Howard Stern Show. This marked Stern's return to the market for the first time since he was let go from rival rock station WWDC in 1982.Over time, WJFK began adding other talk shows targeted at young men, similar to Stern. Eventually WJFK had switched over to a full-time hot talk format. Programs on the station during this era include Stern, Don and Mike, Opie & Anthony, G. Gordon Liddy, The Greaseman, Bill O'Reilly, Ron & Fez and the Sports Junkies. In 1991, Infinity began to simulcast WJFK programming on co-owned AM 1300 in Baltimore. That station switched its call letters to WJFK, so 106.7 added an FM suffix and became WJFK-FM.
Howard Stern departed his terrestrial network of stations in 2005, including WJFK-FM, when he left for Sirius Satellite Radio. WJFK-FM rebranded as "Free FM" in October 2005, as part of Infinity's plans for a nationwide hot talk network. Two months later, Infinity was renamed CBS Radio. The Sports Junkies moved from the midday slot to replace Stern as WJFK-FM's morning hosts. But the Free FM format did not attract enough listeners, and many of those stations switched to other formats. The "Free FM" branding was dropped by WJFK-FM in 2007, even though it continued a while longer as a hot talk outlet. It began using the slogan "Washington's Talk Superstation."
Sports radio
On July 20, 2009, WJFK-FM became "106.7 The Fan." With WJFK-FM's changeover to "The Fan," The Junkies were retained, while The Big O and Dukes Show and The Mike O'Meara Show were dropped.WJFK-FM acquired the rights to Washington Wizards basketball and Washington Nationals baseball. It also began sharing some Washington Capitals hockey games with AM 1500 WFED. For college sports, WJFK-FM became the Washington-area home of Virginia Tech Hokies football and men's basketball.
On March 8, 2009, WJFK-FM signed on the nation's first HD4 subchannel, carrying co-owned sports station WIP-FM from Philadelphia. In addition, WFAN in New York City is heard on the HD 3 subchannel.
On January 22, 2010, WJFK announced that it will air a weekly D.C. United soccer show on Sunday evenings.
On September 9, 2015, WJFK announced that the station would become the new flagship station for Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball games.
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom, a company like CBS Radio, that owned scores of radio stations across the country. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on the 17th.