On October 16, 1948, Paul A. Brandt, a businessman in
Mount Pleasant, Michigan, applied to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a broadcast station
construction permit. On April 21, 1948, the FCC granted a construction permit for station WCEN and building began. On August 8, 1949, WCEN went on the air for the first time as a 500-watt, AM daytime only station on 1150 kHz. The studios were located in downtown Mount Pleasant at 112½ E. Broadway, above Voisin's Jewelry store. The transmitter was located about one mile south of the then city limits, just east of
U.S. 27 on Bluegrass Road. In late 1949, Steve Cole became the chief engineer and general manager. On December 17, 1951, the FCC granted a construction permit for WCEN improvements. On February 26, 1952, the station began full-time operation on 1150 kHz with 1,000 watts, non-directional daytime, and 500 watts directional nighttime power. In late 1953, the WCEN studios were moved from downtown Mount Pleasant to the Bluegrass Road transmitter site. In 1959, WCEN-FM went on the air at 94.5 MHz. The FM transmitter and antenna were co-located at the Bluegrass Road location. In 1969, a country format was tried for the first time on the 94.5 frequency; and later a dayparted mixture of country and rock. Afterwards, 94.5 turned into a full-time country station as "94 Country". This came with an upgrade in 1990 which moved both the AM and FM transmitters to a location near
Coleman, Michigan. The new thousand-foot FM tower and
erp of 100,000 watts for WCEN provided the maximum
Class C1 coverage area, reaching much of
Mid-Michigan including the Tri-Cities. Later the entire Tri-Cities station group was sold to Wilks Broadcasting for $6 million. In November 2000, WCEN (1150 AM) went silent after 51 years serving the Mount Pleasant area. ==Listening area and range==