WREW (94.9 MHz, "Mix 94.9") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Fairfield, Ohio, and serving the Cincinnati metropolitan area. The station broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The studios and offices are on Reading Road at Interstate 71, just northeast of Downtown Cincinnati.
WREW has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 10,500 watts. The transmitter site is on West North Bend Road in Finneytown. WREW broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its HD2 digital subchannel plays alternative rock music, and is branded as "The Sound."
History
Beautiful music/country (1962-1980) On September 20, 1962, the station first signed on, using the call sign WFOL-FM. It aired a beautiful music format, playing quarter hour sweeps of instrumental cover songs of pop hits, as well as Broadway and Hollywood show tunes.
The call letters were switched to WCNW-FM in 1965, co-owned and simulcast with Country-formatted WCNW 1560 AM. Beautiful music returned to the frequency in the mid 1970s as WLVV-FM "Love 95."
Top 40/Soft rock (1980-1988) The station was sold off to Heftel Broadcasting in 1980, becoming WYYS-FM "Yes 95" with a Top 40-Rock format. The format changed within a year to soft rock under the same call letters and handle before becoming WLLT-FM "Lite 95" in January 1983.
Classic rock (1988-1995) On July 22, 1988, WOFX-FM "The Fox" replaced WLLT-FM, airing Classic rock.
Smooth jazz (1995-1999) On September 13, 1995, the WOFX call letters, format and intellectual properties were bought by Jacor and moved to 92.5 FM, with 94.9 becoming WVAE-FM The station called itself "The Wave." It flipped to smooth jazz, modeling itself after WNWV The Wave, which had debuted one year before in Cleveland.
Rhythmic oldies (1999-2006) On April 30, 1999, the station switched to a Rhythmic oldies format as "Mojo 94.9 FM" with the call sign WMOJ. That format remained on 94.9 FM until September 2, 2006, when Radio One acquired the intellectual property and call letters of the station from Cumulus Media, and moved it to 100.3 FM.
Cumulus then temporarily switched the 94.9 frequency to a simulcast of country-formatted WYGY as WPRV. (At the same time, Cumulus traded the station to Entercom in exchange for WGRR.) The simulcast lasted until November 7, when the station began stunting with an electronic countdown to Noon on November 9.
Alternative (2006-2008) On November 9, 2006, at 12 p.m., 94.9 FM flipped to alternative rock, branded as "The Sound". The first song on "The Sound" was "Welcome to Paradise" by Green Day. Although the station used the WYGY call letters for the first month of the new format, the call letters were moved to 97.3 FM, with the WSWD call letters debuting on November 29. (The country format would move to 97.3 FM at the same time as the flip.)
Upon its launch, the station began a programming stunt that consisted of 9,490 songs in a row without commercials or DJ interruption, though they replayed many songs multiple times in a day. This stunt took 22 days to complete, and it finished on December 1, 2006 at 5 p.m. EST. At this time, the station announced that it would begin airing commercials. The first song played after the 9,490 song promotion was "Wonderwall" by Oasis, launching a set of personal "Perfect 10" playlists sent in by individuals. After the "Perfect 10" promotion ended, WSWD returned to its alternative format.
On January 18, 2007, Entercom announced plans to swap its entire Cincinnati radio cluster, including WSWD, together with three of its radio stations in Seattle, Washington, to Bonneville International in exchange for all three of Bonneville's FM stations in San Francisco, California and $1 million cash. In May 2007, Bonneville officially took over control of the Cincinnati stations through a time brokerage agreement. On March 14, 2008, Bonneville officially closed on the stations.
Country (2008-2009) On November 7, 2008, at 11:00 a.m., the formats and call signs of WSWD and WYGY switched frequencies, with the country music format returning to the 94.9 FM frequency, and the alternative format moving to 97.3 FM. All weekday disc jockeys were also let go with the move.
The last song to play on "94.9 The Sound" was "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage" by Panic! at the Disco, which was also the same song that ended WAQZ at 97.3 FM nearly two years prior.