WCPY

The station began broadcasting on March 10, 1960, holding the call sign WNWC ("North West Communities").[1][4][5] In July 1961, the station was purchased by Bob Atcher and Thomas Hogan.[4][6] WNWC would air a wide variety of non-rock music.[4] It aired four hours of country music a day before increasing it to 12 hours a day in November 1963.[7] In 1965, Lester Vihon purchased the station for $110,000.[4] By 1966, it was airing hard rock evenings.[8] The station was off the air temporarily in June 1966, after a tornado toppled its tower.[8] In early 1968, the station was sold to auto dealer Walter Mack for $150,000.[4][9]

In April 1968, the station's call sign was changed to WEXI, and was branded "Stereo Excitement".[2][10] WEXI aired easy listening music during the day and a progressive rock format overnight.[11][12] Shortly thereafter, it adopted a top 40 format.[13][4] In November 1970, the station adopted a beautiful music format, with the slogan "Spreading Clean Air over Chicagoland".[13][4][14]

In autumn 1972, the station was sold to Community Broadcasters for $230,000, and its call sign was changed to WWMM.[15][2] WWMM aired contemporary middle of the road music, along with some talk programs.[4][16][17] Among the shows on WWMM in this period was "Love in the Afternoon", a sex talk program hosted by Jonathan Kingsley.[17] By 1976, the station had adopted a jazz format.[4][18] In 1976, the station was sold to Northwest Community Broadcasting for $500,000.[19][2] By 1977, WWMM was airing a MOR-adult contemporary format, with the slogan "Radio for the Great Northwest".[20][21][22]

In spring of 1981, the station was sold to Radio Communications Group and its call sign was changed to WTCO.[2][3][4] WTCO aired a country music format.[4][23] In 1982, the station was sold to Darrell Peters Productions for $550,000.[24][25]

Darrell Peters Productions applied to change the station's call sign to WSEX on September 26, 1982, but the application was rejected.[26] An application to reconsider was submitted, and the call sign change was approved on January 24, 1983.[26][27][28][3] WSEX aired an adult contemporary format called "Love Songs & More".[29] In January 1986, the station adopted a "Top 10" format, playing songs that had reached the top 10 within the past five years.[30][31][32]

The station became "Chicago's Bear", and its call sign was changed to WCBR-FM on January 9, 1989.[3][33] WCBR-FM aired an adult album alternative format.[34][35][36] As the 90's progressed, it began to air brokered programming nights and weekends.[36] WCBR-FM also aired Chicago Wolves hockey.[36][37]

In 1998, the station was sold to Big City Radio for $17 million.[38] Many of the brokered programs that were on WCBR-FM moved to 94.3 WJKL in Elgin.[38] Purchased by Big City Radio at the same time was 92.7 WLRA in Kankakee.[39] When Big City Radio took control of the two stations, they stunted with a simulcast of their Los Angeles sister station 107.1 KLYY, which aired a modern rock format.[40] WLRA's call sign was changed to WBRO shortly thereafter.[41]

92 Kiss FM logo

On November 14, 1998, at Noon, WCBR and WBRO launched their new official format, CHR as "92.7 Kiss FM", with the first song being "Kiss" by Prince.[42][43][44] This would be Chicago's first true CHR station in many years and proved to be quite successful, even with the two stations' weak signals.[42][37][43] In late December 1998, the station's call sign was changed to WKIE, while WBRO's call sign was changed to WKIF.[3][41] Big City Radio also purchased WDEK 92.5 in DeKalb, Illinois, which was airing a locally programmed CHR format at the time, and switched it to a simulcast of WKIE and WKIF in early 1999.[45] Not long after, the moniker was adjusted to "92 Kiss FM".[46] Melissa Forman hosted mornings on 92 Kiss FM, before moving to 93.9 WLIT-FM in 2001.[47][48]

On January 12, 2001, Clear Channel's WUBT changed formats from rhythmic oldies to CHR as WKSC-FM "Kiss 103.5".[49] At that time, Clear Channel filed suit against Big City Radio, alleging the "Kiss FM" branding used by WKIE and its simulcasts violated its national trademark.[49][50] However, Big City Radio had already planned on changing the formats of these stations.[50] On January 26, 2001, 92 Kiss-FM signed off, and the three stations adopted a dance hits format as "Energy 92.7&5".[50][51] The station's airstaff remained intact.[52][53] The new format was designed by 92 Kiss FM's program director, Chris Shebel, who has stated that the dance hits format is something he had dreamed of doing for a long time.[50]

In late 2002, Big City Radio, became insolvent and began the process of selling all of its radio stations.[54] In early 2003, WKIE, WKIF and WDEK were sold to Spanish Broadcasting System for $22 million.[55] On January 6, 2003, the three stations adopted a Spanish contemporary format as "Onda 92".[56][57][58][59]

In 2004, Spanish Broadcasting System sold WKIE, WKIF and WDEK to Newsweb Corporation for $28 million.[60][61] At 9 a.m. November 29, 2004, WKIE and WDEK began simulcasting with its new adult hits sister station 99.9 WRZA in Park Forest, Illinois as "Nine FM", with the slogan "We Play Anything".[62][63] The first song on the Nine FM simulcast was "With or Without You" by U2.[62] Sky Daniels was the original program director for Nine FM.[62] When he left in 2005, he was replaced by Matt DuBiel.[63]

In 2006, Chris Chudzik began leasing air time for a dance music show called Dance Factory.[64][65] Initially airing overnight on Saturdays,[64] the program was expanded to seven nights a week on May 14, 2007.[65] Dance Factory has continued to air overnight on the station, even as its daytime format has changed.[66][67]

Newsweb Corporation dropped the Nine FM programming on all three signals on October 20, 2008, and replaced it with a simulcast of sister station WCPT from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m.[68][66] The Nine FM format moved to WKIF 92.7 in Kankakee.[69] On October 27, 2008, the station changed its callsign from WKIE to WCPT-FM, to go with the format.[3]

On June 2, 2014, WCPT-FM and 99.9 WCPQ broke away from the Progressive Talk simulcast and changed their daytime format to Polish, branded as "Polski FM".[67][70] WCPT-FM then swapped callsigns with 92.5 WCPY in DeKalb, which remained part of the Progressive Talk simulcast.[3][70] In 2018, 99.9 WCPQ was sold to Bible Broadcasting Network, and it adopted a Christian format as WYHI.[71] Polski FM was then briefly simulcast on 640 WMFN in the summer of 2018.[72]