WSNE-FM - History

History

In 1966, WSNE signed on as WRLM, named for original owner Robert L. McCarthy. Its programming was a middle of the road format in monaural, as well as broadcasting local news and high-school sports for Taunton and the vicinity. During the 1970s, WRLM adopted an Adult Contemporary format and went stereo in 1976.

In 1980, co-owners John McCarthy and Joseph Quill sold WRLM to the Outlet Company, the then owners of WJAR (now WHJJ) and WJAR-TV in Providence. While the AC format was maintained on "FM 93," the call sign was changed to WSNE and several high-profile Providence personalities joined the station's staff including Mike Sands, Paul Perry, Bob Hollands and Patty Costa. Studios were moved to Providence and the transmitter was moved to Rehoboth, Massachusetts, improving the station's signal in Rhode Island. By 1984, Ken Cole was added for evenings and the station was now known as "93.3 WSNE." By 1986, the last four hours of Ken Cole's show was called Pillow Talk, featuring love songs and dedications.

In 1986, former WEAN (now WPRV) personality Joannie Edwardsen was brought in as the morning news anchor. Shortly after, former WPRO afternoon host David Jones was hired to take over mornings. With the addition of Chuck Hinman as news anchor by years end, Jones & Joan would become the new morning show. By 1989, Jones & Joan had gained a large following, finishing only second to WPRO's legendary Salty Brine.

on Saturday, June 5, 1993, tragedy struck WSNE as longtime midday host Mike Sands was killed in an automobile accident while on his way to a station remote in Swansea, MA. The station paid tribute to Sands the following Monday with phone calls from listeners, former co-workers and personalities from other stations. Program Director Steve Peck and Jim Halfyard would split Sands shift after his death, with Ken Cole on evenings and Amy Hawkins (later known as Amy Navarro) joining the station for overnights.

Since 1993, the station had slowly been evolving from Adult Contemporary to Hot Adult Contemporary. When SFX Broadcasting acquired WSNE in 1995, the station re-imaged itself as "93-3 SNE," adding hotter jingles and the slogan "Southern New England's Variety Station." By late 1996, a less intense jingle package from JAM Creative Productions was added and the station re-imaged once again, reverting back to the previously used "93-3 WSNE" with the slogan "A Better Variety of the '70s, '80s and '90s." After several mergers placing the station with Capstar and AMFM, Inc., Clear Channel Communications acquired WSNE in October 1999. Around this time, WSNE started leaning toward the AC format once again, with the syndicated Delilah show being added at night. This effectively gave WSNE an AC format during the hours her show aired, with a lighter flavor of Hot AC all other times.

In November 2002, a series of changes began at WSNE. The station played all Christmas music leading into Christmas Day. On December 26, 2002, the long running Jones & Joan morning show came to an end after nearly 17 years, as station management parted ways with David. The station re-imaged itself as the new "Star 93-3," leaning back toward Hot AC. Within a month, Entercom Communications issued a cease and desist order on using the Star branding, as Star 93.7 (now WEEI-FM) existed in the overlapping Boston market. From mid-January until April 2003, the station was now known simply as "The New 93-3" before being renamed as "Coast 93-3." In August 2003, Brian Mulhern (aka "The Pharmacist") would join the morning show, however Joannie along with her husband Chuck Hinman left the station in 2006. On November 16, 2006, Tad Lemire moved down the hall from WCTK to become new morning show host, with Brian as co-host.

In June 2008, the syndicated On-Air With Ryan Seacrest was added for afternoons and Delilah was replaced with the John Tesh Radio Show for evenings. With this change, Coast began to sound overall like a Hot AC station, since the AC music provided with Delilah was gone. On April 28, 2009, Clear Channel Communications eliminated 590 positions nationwide, which meant the dismissal of Coast Program Director Chris Duggan and morning man Tad Lemire. On May 18, 2009, the station began syndicating "Matty in the Morning" from sister station WXKS-FM in Boston, MA.

In May 2009, Coast installed the Hot AC programming of a newly formed Clear Channel Communications service called Premium Choice. The service provides several music formats including the elements of scheduled music and the voicetracks of on-air talent from various Clear Channel stations across the country. Local Clear Channel stations have total choice in choosing the programming elements they wish to use (if any). Coast elected to use its music playlist 24/7, while only using the voicetracked talent on weekends and Monday through Friday from 12am to 6am. The same music and some of the talent heard on Coast can also be heard on IHeartRadio's "Today's Mix," which also uses the Hot AC programming of Premium Choice.

After Premium Choice programming was implemented, Coast's weekday lineup included "Matty in the Morning" (6am to 10am), the only remaining local personality Kristin Lessard (10am to 3pm), "On-Air with Ryan Seacrest" (3pm to 7pm) and the "John Tesh Radio Show" (7pm to midnight). In August 2009, John Tesh was dropped and replaced with Cindy Spicer from Premium Choice.

In June 2011, Coast pulled the plug on its two-year carriage of "Matty in the Morning" in favor of voicetracking from Toby Knapp, afternoon jock at Clear Channel's WIHT in Washington, DC. The slogan was changed to "The Best Variety of the 90's, 2K and Today." Although not mentioned in the new slogan, popular songs from the 1980s are still played on occasion, as Hot AC programming from Premium Choice still includes '80s music. Ryan Seacrest and Kristin Lessard also swapped shifts, with Ryan now on middays and Kristin now on afternoons.