WSMK (99.1 the Fox) – South Bend, IN – 8/14/97 & 12/29/97 – Jeff Ryder

According to Michiguide.com and Wikipedia, WSMK 99.1 FM has offered various flavors of rhythmic formats since its inception. Reviewing the station’s past Websites via archive.org, it appears that the station has generally had an Urban lean over the years – and this is demonstrated on the first 3 1/2 minutes of this aircheck (recorded on 8/14/97). However, at some point between then and late December of that year (as heard on the latter half of this montage), the station began including dance music on its playlist. It adopted the slogan “Michiana’s Dance Beat” – perhaps taking a page from WBBM-FM “B96”, which positioned itself as “Chicago’s Dance Beat” (the station is audible in at least some of the areas where WSMK has coverage.)