WCIL-FM

WCIL-FM (101.5 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a contemporary hit radio format. Licensed to Carbondale, Illinois, the station serves the Marion-Carbondale (IL) area. The station is currently owned by Max Media.

History

WCIL (AM) signed on the air in 1946 as a daytime only station with personalities such as Jim Bowen, Bluegrass Roy and others in a second floor studio at about 215 W. Main St. in Carbondale . At that time, to get the AM license, they were pressured by the FCC to also sign on an FM station. They kept the FM on the air for about a year and then signed it off the air since, at the time, nobody listened to FM. In 1964, Paul F. McRoy, the station's then-owner, foresaw the potential of FM and applied for a new FM license. The license was approved and WCIL-FM signed on in 1968 and allowed broadcasting after local sunset when WCIL was required to sign off. WCIL AM/FM simulcasted the same programming on both stations. The format was easy listening music and news. A year or so before "CIL-FM" was born, Top 40 music was played at night after 10pm. The FCC required AM-FM simulcasts to split programming. So, plans were made to split WCIL AM and FM. The AM and FM split programming and became separate stations on August 16, 1976. Before this split of the stations, WCIL-FM would sign off the air at 2am and sign back on at 6am. Once the stations split, CIL-FM Rockinradio was born and was on the air 24 hours a day and hasn't signed off since except for technical problems. The first song played on CIL-FM that morning at 6am was "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, played by morning host Dennis Lyle. McRoy would go on to sell both WCIL-FM and AM to Lyle, now the President of the Illinois Broadcasters Association.