WIL-FM plays a variety of country music, concentrating on the hits from the current charts and the last 25 years.[5] WIL-FM personalities include Kasey and Marty Brooks. WIL-FM is programmed by Tommy Mattern and the music director is Marty Brooks. WIL-FM primarily competes with iHeartMedia's KSD-FM for country listeners in St. Louis.
History
WIL-FM signed on the air on July 15, 1962; 62 years ago (1962-07-15), as the FM sister station to WIL (1430 AM).[6] In its first decade, it mostly simulcast the AM station, which aired a Top 40 format, and were owned by WIL, Inc., a subsidiary of Balaban Stations. At the time, their studios were in Broadcasting House in St. Louis. WIL-FM was only powered at 30,000 watts, a fraction of its current output.
WIL-FM took the call sign KFMS on March 30, 1973. After a year, it returned to WIL-FM, effective September 1, 1974.[7] In the 1970s, WIL had switched to a personality country format, while the FM aired a more music-intensive country format, with less chatter and fewer commercials.[8]
Over time, as more people tuned to the FM band for music listening, WIL-FM became the dominant station. Eventually, the AM station changed its call letters to KZQZ and is now dark. WIL-FM was later acquired by Salt Lake City-based Bonneville International.
Bonneville announced its sale of WIL-FM (and 16 other stations) to Hubbard Broadcasting on January 19, 2011.[9] The sale was completed on April 29, 2011.[10]
On January 30, 2017, WIL-FM re-branded as "New Country 92.3".[11] On October 6, 2020, the station dropped the "New Country 92.3" branding and returned to using its call letters in its branding as "92.3 WIL".[12]
HD Radio
Starting in 2012, WIL-FM's HD2digital subchannel began airing Americana music, calling itself "Second Fiddle". Previously, WIL-FM-HD2 was branded as "Kerosene Country", and largely had the same playlist as WIL-FM.
On February 18, 2020, WIL-FM signed on a third subchannel, and began airing an oldies format, branded as "My Mix 94.3." The subchannel feeds FM translatorW232CR at 94.3 MHz in Alton, Illinois.[13]