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WVMV
City of license	Detroit, Michigan
Broadcast area	[1]
Branding	V 98.7
Slogan	Detroit's Home for Smooth Jazz
First air date	1961
Frequency	98.7 MHz
Format	Smooth Jazz / New Adult Contemporary
Power	50,000 watts
Class	B
Former callsigns	WLLZ (1980-1996) WBFG (1961-1980)
Owner	CBS Radio
Website	http://www.wvmv.com/

WVMV, known on-air as "Smooth Jazz V98.7," is an FM radio station serving the Metropolitan Detroit area in Southeastern Michigan. WVMV broadcasts at 98.7 MHZ.

Its studios and offices are located in Hunter's Square Office Park at Orchard Lake and 14 mile Road in suburban Farmington Hills and the stations transmitter is located near Livernois and West Davison in the City of Detroit. WVMV broadcasts with an Effective Radiated Power of 50,000 from an antenna 463 feet in height.

The station signed on the air in 1961 as WBFG. The station broadcast religious programming until July 16, 1980 when it was sold. After the sale, the station changed its call letters to WLLZ ("Detroit's Wheels," also rumored to stand for "We Love Led Zeppelin" or "Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin") and changed its format to album oriented rock. Despite competition from heritage rockers WRIF and WABX (which changed format in 1984), WLLZ was frequently a top 10 ratings performer during the 1980s. In 1988, WLLZ also introduced the nation's first weekly sports talk show on an FM rock and roll station, "The Sunday Sports Albom" hosted by Mitch Albom.

WLLZ saw its fortunes slip in the early 1990s with the emergence of "alternative" rock groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam who drove many of the 1980s "hair bands" off the charts. A format tweak from AOR to modern rock in the mid-1990s which put the station in competition with CIMX (88.7) and WHYT (96.3) for the alternative audience failed to reverse the station's dropping ratings, and on December 20, 1995, WLLZ became a smooth jazz station, which it has been ever since. The WVMV calls were adopted in February 1996.

For a while, WVMV and WJZZ were competitors in the Smooth Jazz format. When 105.9 was flipped to an urban format in August 1996, the WJZZ callsign was also discontinued, and it is now used for a Smooth Jazz station in Atlanta, Georgia — which, like WVMV, is the second (if one discounts Detroit's previous new age-format stations, WVAE 92.3 and WXCD 102.7) such formatted station to serve its city (WJZF was the first). Atlanta's WJZZ broadcasts at 107.5 FM.

"Smooth Jazz V98.7" usually beats its mainstream Adult Contemporary competition in the ratings, with a playlist that incorporates a great deal of soft R&B and AC pop. Smooth jazz flautist Alexander Zonjic is the station's morning drive host, and his music-intensive morning show is highly rated.

• Michiguide.com - WVMV History

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WVMV