WJMN (FM)

Not to be confused with WJMN-TV, a CBS affiliate licensed to Escanaba, Michigan.

WJMN

City of license	Boston, Massachusetts
Broadcast area	Greater Boston
Branding	"Jam'n 94.5"
Slogan	Hip Hop and Today's Hit Music! Boston's station for Hip Hop and Today's Hottest Music! #1 for Hip Hop!
Frequency	94.5 MHz(also on HD Radio) 94.5 HD2: Bloomberg Radio (WXKS simulcast)
First air date	March 31, 1948
Format	Rhythmic top 40
ERP	9,200 watts
HAAT	353 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	53972
Transmitter coordinates	42°18′27.00″N 71°13′27.00″W
Callsign meaning	JaM'N
Former callsigns	WHDH-FM (1948-1972) WCOZ (1972-1984) WZOU (1984-1993)
Owner	Clear Channel Communications (AMFM Radio Licenses, L.L.C.)
Sister stations	WEDX, WKOX, WXKS, WXKS-FM
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.jamn945.com

WJMN (94.5 FM; "Jam'n 94.5") is a Rhythmic Top 40 radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts, USA, under the ownership of Clear Channel Communications. Its current slogan is "Hip Hop and Today's Hit Music!" and can be heard as far north as the White Mountains under good conditions, and in portions of Maine, Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut and southeastern Vermont.

History

WJMN was originally WHDH-FM: a sister station to, and simulcast of, WHDH (AM). In 1965, to comply with an Federal Communications Commission regulation limiting simulcasting between commonly-owned AM and FM stations in the same city, WHDH-FM began separate programming with an automated middle-of-the-road format in Stereo. In late 1967, WHDH-FM changed its format to automated Progressive Rock (predating future FM rocker WBCN/104.1 by several months), but by late 1969, the station returned to automated "beautiful music" after a little "intervention", allegedly from WHDH Inc.'s Chief Executive Officer, Harold J. Clancy (who did not particularly approve of putting rock and roll on "MY FM station!"). Although this format remained until 1975, it was not particularly successful, despite a 1972 attempt to establish a separate identity by changing the call letters to WCOZ (as in "Cozy").

WCOZ

Originally owned by Herald-Traveler Corp., parent of the Boston Herald-Traveler newspaper, the station was sold to Blair Radio in 1972, and in the 1980s to Sconnix. Several ownership changes followed which eventually resulted in Clear Channel acquiring 94.5 FM.

In the summer of 1975, WCOZ announced that it would change its format to album-oriented rock, which it did on August 15 of that year. Although automated at first, a team of live announcers was hired, led by Ken Shelton and program director Clark Smidt. By the end of 1975, WCOZ had live announcers around the clock that also included George Taylor Morris, Leslie Palmiter, Lisa Karlin, Mark Parenteau and Robert Desiderio. WCOZ's format was tightened significantly in 1978, when new Program Director Tommy Hadges arrived from arch rival WBCN. Mark Parenteau simultaneously defected to WBCN, at that point.

In 1980, another new program director, John Sebastian, arrived and made some changes. WCOZ was still a rock station, but its focus was tightened to loud, hard rock (or "Kick-Ass Rock 'N Roll", according to the station's slogan) with minimal announcer talk and short play list. It was extremely successful, peaking with a phenomenal 13.1 in the ratings, in 1982, but with the changes in rock music during the 1980s, the station's success did not last; its rival WBCN moved past it in the ratings. By late 1983, WCOZ had changed formats to a short lived Adult Contemporary format.

WZOU

In 1984, the station's call letters were changed to WZOU, and flipped to a Top 40 format to compete against Kiss 108 as "Z94." P.D. David Gariano had success with the top 40 format, including original 1984 personalities Mike Morin and Brad Krantz, Uncle Johnny, Jon Anthony, Marc Mitchell, and Scott Brunner. In 1985 Karen Blake joined the morning team. WXKS successfully adapted to a mainstream Top 40 format in 1988 after being an urban contemporary for many years, which cut into Z94's ratings. What also didn't help the station's ratings was the declining popularity of the Top 40 format in general in the very late 1980s – early 1990s.

WJMN

Since its inception on May 11, 1993, "Jam'n 94.5" has become one of Boston's most successful radio stations. Even after its sale to Chancellor in 1996, station management decided not to tamper with the format as they see WJMN as part of a winning combination with Top 40/CHR sister station WXKS, a formula that continues to the present day. WJMN is also a sister station to Electronic Dance Music outlet WEDX. This combination of the three outlets gives Clear Channel/Boston the distinction of having three stations in the same market sharing some of the same music.

When "Jam'n" debuted, the station had a playlist of a balanced mix of R&B/Hip-Hop, Rhythmic Pop, and Dance product (ironically, this same approach was used at WXKS when it made the transition from Disco to Top 40 in 1982 up until their shift to their current mainstream direction in 1988). However, by the end of 1999, it began to play a variety of music that was along the lines of Urban Contemporary Hits, heavy on the hip-hop to the extent of not playing non-rap rhythmic tracks. This would last until the beginning of 2009, when WJMN began tweaking their musical selection to once again include Rhythmic/Pop-charting artists like Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Kesha, Katy Perry, David Guetta, Edward Maya, Adele and Lady Gaga. This tweaking has sparked a lot of talk on radio message boards and follows a pattern among Rhythmic-format stations that have scaled back on the heavy amount of Hip-Hop in favor of a more balanced approach. Because of this, several music trades (like Mediabase) and Arbitron have listed WJMN as Rhythmic because the audience it targets is racially mixed and the region's African-American population is not that large. WJMN's voiceovers are done by Eric Edwards. The station's morning show was hosted for several years by Baltazar and Pebbles, beginning in 1994. Baltazar left the show in 2001, giving way to the Ramiro and Pebbles morning show. Pebbles was unexpectedly let go from the station in December 2012, with mornings currently hosted by Ramiro. WJMN also has an HD2 sub-channel that simulcasts WXKS (AM); it previously broadcasted old-school hip hop music from January 27, 2006 until March 1, 2013.

Boston is the largest market without an Urban Radio formatted station; heritage R&B AM daytimer WILD, which served the area's African-American community since 1967, began airing China Radio International programming in June 2011, and its one-time Hip Hop sister station WBOT (which later became Urban AC WILD-FM), which gave the market its first fulltime Urban outlet on the FM band in 1999 despite having a weak signal, has been defunct since the summer of 2006, when Radio One (which owned both stations) sold it.

WJMN is unrelated to WJMN-TV, a CBS affiliate in Escanaba, Michigan.

Current on-air staff

• Ramiro Torres
• Krazy Kulo
• DJ Pup Dawg
• Statik Selektah
• DJ Lus
• Bobby Blaze
• Maverick
• Hustle Simmons
• Geespin
• Ellen Prince

Past on-air staff

• Melissa
• J.R. in the morning
• Baltazar
• Pebbles
• Karen Blake aka "The Madam"
• Chuck Dogg
• Chris Tyler (now on sister station WXKS-FM)
• Kid Valentine
• Artie the One Man Party
• Deirdre Dagata
• Fast Freddy
• Master Jay
• Ralphie Marino
• Neil P "The Frat Boy"
• Kobe
• Magic Mike D
• Stevie Demann
• Marc Clark
• Lady D "The Real Diana Steele"
• Problem Child (now on 98.5 The Sports Hub) WBZ-FM
• Romeo (now on sister station WXKS-FM, still does commercial reads for the station)
• Akrobatik
• DJ Roy Barboza
• Deja-Vu

Syndicated programming

• The Weekend Top 30 with Ramiro (Flagship Station) - Saturday Mornings
• Smashtime Radio with Clinton Sparks (Flagship Station) - Saturday Evenings
• Baka Boyz Hip Hop Master Mix - Sunday Nights
• The Backspin with Spinderella of Salt N' Pepa - Sunday Nights
• The Launchpad with DJ Hustle Simmons aka Corey Hill (Flagship Station)- Sunday Nights

External links

• JAM'N 94.5 Website
• JAM'N 94.5 On Demand Download
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WJMN
• Radio-Locator information on WJMN
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WJMN