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WDTW-FM
City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	106.7 The Fox
First air date	October 16, 1960
Frequency	106.7 MHz
Format	Country
Power	61,000 watts
Class	B
Former callsigns	WDTW (7/11/02-1/25/05) WLLC (10/2/00-7/11/02) WWWW-FM (9/14/92-10/2/00) WWWW (?-9/14/92) WDTM (1960-?)
Owner	Clear Channel
Website	http://www.foxspacelive.com/

WDTW-FM, is a country music station in Detroit, Michigan, known as "106.7 The Fox." The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and operates at 106.7 MHz on the FM dial. After almost seven years as a rock station ("Alice 106.7" and "106.7 The Drive"), previous to which it had spent nearly two decades as country WWWW "W4", the format was changed back to country on May 19, 2006.

Contents 1 Early History 2 "W4" Years 3 "Alice" and "The Drive" Years 4 Recent Changes 5 HD radio 6 Old Logos 7 Sources 8 External links

The station began operations on October 16, 1960, as WDTM, and aired Beautiful Music, like many other FMs of the time. Previous owners of the 106.7 frequency included Starr Broadcasting and Gordon McLendon, who pioneered the legendary and long-running Top 40 format at KLIF-AM in Dallas.

McLendon changed WDTM's call letters to WWWW - "W4" - and later changed the station's format from easy listening to oldies (with an airstaff that included Detroit radio legend Tom Clay).

In 1970, "W4" became an album oriented rock station and briefly styled itself "W4 Quad" during its brief use of quadrophonic transmission in the early 1970s. It is most remembered today as one of future shock jock Howard Stern's earliest radio jobs. In the late 1970s, album-rock W4 was one of the top-rated radio stations in Detroit.

Shamrock Broadcasting purchased W4 in July 1979 and, faced with increasing competition, (W4 was one of four Detroit stations broadcasting in the AOR format) Shamrock changed the station's format to country music in 1980. Following the switch, management reportedly asked Stern to stay and adopt a "Hop-Along Howie" persona, to which he declined after two weeks and moved to WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C. [2]

The move to country music paid off. The Detroit market, the nation's fifth largest at the time, was bereft of FM country music stations despite the market containing a sizable percentage of population whose families hailed from the Southern United States and grew up with the genre. "W4 Country's" first years coincided with the rise in popularity of country music as a whole from a genre concentrated in the South and other parts of rural America into one with a nationwide following. At the time of the country format's launch, the immediate Detroit area's only country music station was an AM station, WCXI 1130. WWWW became the first FM country station in Detroit since WDEE-FM in the early 1970s, and as a result, WCXI's ratings fell; by the early 1990s, AM 1130 was being used as a simulcast for W4. WCXI also attempted to compete with W4 from 1982 to 1986 with an FM station (92.3, now WMXD) separately programmed from the AM, but the FM station never took off.

"W4 Country" lasted for almost two decades and did decently in the ratings. However, low advertising revenue coupled with increased local competition in the format (from WYCD) led owners AMFM (which became part of Clear Channel in August 2000) to drop the country format on September 1, 1999. The final song played on "W4 Country" was "The Dance" by Garth Brooks, followed by "The Star-Spangled Banner."

After two days of stunting with a 400-Hz tone (which also involved a contest to correctly guess the day and time that the tone would end), the station relaunched as "Alice 106.7," featuring "Rockin' Hits of the '80s and '90s" with "All Right Now" by Free being the first song played.

The WWWW calls remained for another year until the new calls WLLC were adopted on October 2, 2000. At this same time the WWWW call letters were moved to 102.9 FM in nearby Ann Arbor by Clear Channel as they relaunched "W4 Country" on that frequency. It had been a college rock station prior to that (formerly WIQB).

While WYCD was the chief ratings beneficiary of the death of "W4 Country," ratings for "Alice" remained anemic, and in July 2002, the station changed its calls to WDTW and relaunched as "106.7 The Drive," with not much change in format. "The Drive" featured mainly classic hard rock tracks from the 1970s through the 1990s with some more recent material, with a more upbeat and harder-rocking presentation than classic-rock rival WCSX. Yet the station's ratings continued to be poor.

At noon on May 17, 2006, "The Drive" signed off with "Too Late For Love" by Def Leppard followed by an announcement by legendary Detroit TV news anchor Bill Bonds stating that they were “building a brand new radio station” at 106.7 and "letting you, the listeners choose the music." For the next week the listeners who registered at 1067needshelp.com picked first the new radio format, then the station's name, logo, voice of the station and number of commercials per hour.

On May 19, after first playing 2 days of music from many formats, then narrowing it down to just rock and country, it was announced at 4 P.M. that the format was country music. By May 22, the name of the station would be "106.7 The Fox" and the new logo for the station was picked on May 24. And finally on May 26, 2006 the format change appeared complete as the voice of the station and minutes of music per hour were announced. The station still periodically asks for input regarding air staff.

The WWWW callsign itself temporarily returned to Detroit in July of 2006, landing at sister station 1310-AM. But after 2 months the calls were changed back to WDTW. The imaging remained "1310 WDTW" the entire time. It is thought that this temporary switch was done to keep the "WWWW" call letters with Clear Channel when the Ann Arbor station (102.9) was being sold (the sale fell through and the calls were returned back to the originals at both stations).

Now that Clear Channel is once again selling it's Ann Arbor cluster of station, we may see a similar move with the W4 calls and imaging returning to 106.7.

WDTW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations; its secondary channel is called "The Mother Trucker" which features a mix of country music, southern rock, country rock and Americana. It had previously been known as "The Gig" and played live rock songs as a counterpart to "The Drive" on the main channel. "The Gig" remained on the secondary channel more than a month after "The Drive" switched formats in May of 2006.

Current dj lineup as of Nov. 2006 5-10 Rick Miller, 10-3 Erika Lynn, 3-7 Scott Gaines, 7-12 Rob Gramm

• Michiguide.com - WDTW-FM History

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WDTW-FM