On February 26, 1962, the station signed onfor the first time as WOOD-FM. It was the FM counterpart to Grand Rapid's leading station, AM 1300WOOD. The stations were owned by Time-Life Broadcasting, a subsidiary of a major magazine and book publisher. WOOD-FM was separately programmed, airing a beautiful music format. The station played instrumental cover versions of popular songs as well as Broadway and Hollywoodshow tunes, with limited interruptions. The easy listening format continued through the 1980s, although as time went on, more soft vocals were added to the playlist in an effort to attract younger listeners. By the mid-80s, the audience had gotten older, while advertisers usually seek younger demographics, so WOOD-FM ended the instrumentals, and became a soft adult contemporary outlet, calling itself "EZ 105.7."
Through the 1990s, the station's playlist was tweaked to become a brighter, more upbeat AC, which also meant dropping songs by "MOR" or "easy listening" artists such as Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Dionne Warwick and the Carpenters. In 1996, WOOD-AM-FM were acquired by Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia. Under Clear Channel ownership, WOOD-FM began calling itself "Star 105.7" in 2001.
WSRW-FM
After nearly a decade of using the moniker "Star 105.7," the call sign was changed on November 15, 2010. The new call letters were chosen to reflect the "Star" name, WSRW-FM. The station is required to use the "-FM" suffix due to an AM station also having the WSRW call letters, a co-owned station in Hillsboro, Ohio. The WOOD-FM call letters were later assigned to FM 106.9 in Muskegon, which had become a simulcast of AM 1300 WOOD's talk radio format. WSRW-FM picked up Delilah's syndicated love songs show after Delilah was dropped by competitor WLHT. Delilah is syndicated by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, the owner of WSRW-FM. By 2012, WSRW-FM was delisted from the Mediabase add board. Clear Channel changed its name to iHeartMedia, Inc. in the fall of 2014. WSRW had aired Casey Kasem's American Top 40: The '80s on weekends for several years. It has since moved to classic hits station WFGR.
Like many AC stations around the country, "Star" plays all Christmas music for a month or more, leading to Christmas. The practice began in 2001 with the station's changeover from "EZ 105.7" to "Star." At the time, it was not common for AC stations to adopt all-Christmas formats so early in the year. WSRW-FM was not the first station to go all-Christmas, nor was it even the first station in Grand Rapids to do so. Competitor WTRV had already done continuous Christmas music through the holiday season for a number of years, and still does today. In 2001, "Star" promoted its holiday songs as musical "comfort food" after the catastrophic events of September 11, and the station has gone all-Christmas every holiday season since. As with many stations that switch to Christmas music, WSRW-FM generally experiences an uptick in ratings during the holidays.
Jingles
Since the launch of "Star" in 2001, WOOD-FM and WSRW use jingle packages designed for co-owned WLIT in Chicago. The jingles are produced by Reelworld. In 2004, the station broke away from the WLIT jingles and aired Reelworld's jingle package produced for another co-owned station, WNIC in Detroit. Since 2008, WSRW-FM has used ReelWorld One AC.
HD Radio
WSRW-FM is licensed for HD Radio operations:
HD1 is a digital simulcast of the analog signal.
HD2 features Broadcast Architecture's "Smooth Jazz Network" programming. The last time Smooth Jazz was available on a conventional FM signal in the market was in the late 1990s, on the former WQFN.
