WTWS - Sister Stations: WDEE and WWKM

Sister Stations: WDEE and WWKM

In 1981, Carmine started what would later become an AM simulcast for WKKM, known as WDEE AM 1500, the call letters were taken from a legendary Detroit country station (The Big 'D'), and later given up. Carmine's WDEE, licensed to Reed City, the county seat of nearby Osceola County, and which had no radio station of its own, later became a tool for expanding WKKM's FM signal, which was weak and spotty in that particular area.

Mr. Carmine operated WDEE AM from local studios at 410 W. Upton Ave. (which was then the city of Reed City offices), with local programming for several years, until converting it to the WKKM simulcast in the mid 1980s. The station failed to make any kind of financial inroads for Carmine, and he ended up turning the station off in October 1992, selling WDEE in 1994 to Beilfuss Broadcasting. Beilfuss Broadcasting was a company headed by Cadillac-Traverse City area radio programmer Steve Masters, who operated the station with an oldies format until 1997, when he put WDEE-FM 97.3 on the air and moved his operations south of Reed City to Big Rapids. WDEE, with its weak signal of 250 watts at a high dial position, barely made it ten miles outside its tower, and while off to a good start for Masters, it barely broke even financially. It continued as a simulcast outlet of its FM sister until 2001 when it began a short lived automated classic country format. Masters finally shut it off for good in 2002.

In 1985, Carmine started another AM simulcast for WKKM, WWKM 1540. The station couldn't come at a worse time since AM radio in northern Michigan was good as dead during that period of time. It's well known that WWKM was a waste of money for Carmine, especially since its 1,000-watt daytime only signal only had a roughly 10-mile radius.

During the time that both AM stations were simulcasting WKKM-FM, the positioner/ID voiceover used was "The Mighty 92, WKKM/WWKM FM/AM Harrison, WDEE Reed City". Also heard was "The Country King, WKKM plays more music!" Both were simple voice-over announcements, lacking any sort of jingle packing.

Around 2000, the station had two full-time DJs: Ed Thomas (6 a.m.-1 p.m.) and M. A. Hanson (1-7 p.m.) with a simulcast of Saginaw's WKCQ 98.1 overnights. Up until the simulcast, the station was on the air for only 16 hours a day, signing on at 6:00 AM and signing off at 10:00PM (which was then the FCC minimum standard for commercial FM broadcast hours). The station had a news director, Charlie Cobb. WKKM had a full-service feel to it, as the station had religious programming all day Sunday, plus funeral announcements and Paul Harvey News and Comment. In 2001, the station ditched its WKCQ rebroadcast and played pre-recorded music all night.

Carmine wanted to retire and sold WKKM to Xavier University in 2002 for $270,000. Under the deal, WKKM became a public radio station, WVXH, and simulcast Xavier's X-Star Radio Network, fed from WVXU Cincinnati. Xavier also owned two other stations in northern Michigan: WVXA 96.7 Rogers City, MI (now WRGZ) and WVXM 97.7 Manistee, MI (now WMLQ).