WUFL (FM)
Starting in 1966, WJBK-FM began to introduce separate stereo programming for about 50% of the broadcast day, due to new FCC rules which restricted AM/FM simulcasting.
In 1971, WDEE-FM was sold to Bartell Media Corporation, changed its call sign to WDRQ, and became Detroit's first FM talk radio station.
Like its rival, CKLW The Big 8, WDRQ featured a tight playlist which leaned toward R&B and soul records, but unlike The Big 8, WDRQ was not bound by Canadian content regulations requiring them to play a certain percentage of Canadian music in their rotation, which enabled them to play only the top hits and enabled them to make strong ratings inroads against CKLW.
In April 1985, owner Amaturo Radio Group dropped the urban format of WDRQ, flipping the station to soft adult contemporary and changing the call sign to WLTI (initially known as W-Lite, later 93.1 Lite FM).
DJs such as the morning drive team of Eddie Rogers and Pat Holiday (both veterans of CKLW) – whose show featured comedic "celebrity" drop-ins by the spoofed likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Clint Eastwood and Eddie Murphy, as well as original characters like Mr. Action - enabled the station to hold its own in competition against the other AC stations in the market, including WNIC.
By late 1996, the station had added a full lineup of personalities, including Marc Mitchell, Sharon Santoni and Trixie DeLuxxe in mornings, Jay Towers in middays, Lisa Lisa Orlando in afternoons, Mark "JoJo" Allen on evenings, and Michael Allen on overnights.
By January 1997, a lite mix of pop-friendly R&B and hip-hop music was also adopted to further cement the station's mainstream hook.
With this being the first time a Top 40/dance music station had been on Detroit radio since the reformatting of WHYT two years earlier, WDRQ immediately attracted a large listening audience upon its re-launch.
On December 13, 2013 at 9:31 a.m., after playing "Someday" by Sugar Ray, WDRQ flipped to country music as Nash FM 93.1, soft launching with Christmas music by country artists for the holiday season before launching the format outright at 9:31 a.m. on January 2, 2014; the first "official" song under the format was "Radio" by Darius Rucker.
The rebranding came alongside changes to its on-air lineup, including afternoon host Bill "Broadway" Bert moving to mornings and joined by former WKQI personality Kristina "Krissy" Williamson (replacing the syndicated Ty Bentli Show).
[11] On June 12, 2023, radio news outlet RadioInsight reported that Cumulus Media was on the verge of selling WDRQ to a Christian-based ownership group.
Later that day, the site officially confirmed Cumulus would sell WDRQ to Family Life Broadcasting, which had been founded in nearby Mason, for $10 million.
With the move, Cumulus Detroit director of FM programming David Corey, who had oversaw WDRQ and WDVD, would depart the company.
[12] On July 31, 2023, Family Life Radio closed on the sale and launched its programming on the station at midnight that night;[13] a call sign change to WUFL took effect on August 10.
In January 2014, the station shifted to a more rhythmic hot AC format, dropping most of the older dance tracks, but still featuring music of the original DRQ from 1996 to 2005, along with some newer selections as well.
