Radio Wink 104 (WNNK)

WNNK-FM (104.1 FM, "Wink 104") is a Hot Adult Contemporary music formatted radio station serving the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, area. It's studio is located in Linglestown, Pennsylvania and it's transmitter is located on an Antenna farm alongside WHTM-TV in Enola, Pennsylvania.

Wink 104 actually began life with the call letters and moniker "WTPA" in the early 80s. In the mid-80s, the call letters were changed to "WNNK", and the station became known as "Wink 104". Throughout the 80s and 90s, Wink 104 was consistently ranked #1 in the Arbitron ratings for the Harrisburg / Carlisle / Lebanon market. Beginning in the late 1990s, Wink 104 was the subject of a rapid-fire series of mergers and acquisitions. Originally owned by Key Market Investors, Wink 104 was sold to Capstar in 1995. In 1999, a short-lived broadcast startup known as "AM/FM" ("America's Music For the Millennium") purchased Wink 104 from Capstar. Less than a month later, AM/FM itself was purchased by Clear Channel, placing Wink 104 under Clear Channel's control. However, due to FCC ownership limitations, Clear Channel was forced to divest several stations, resulting in the sale of Wink 104 to then-startup Cumulus Media.

An interesting footnote to this series of acquisitions is that during the Clear Channel ownership period, Wink 104 and WTPA (then and now a classic rock station) fell under the same ownership. Aside from the relationship of the two call signs, the situation was also made interesting due to fact that a substantial percentage of WTPA's on-air imaging and DJ banter consisted of attacks on Wink 104 and its personalities. Once both stations wound up under Cumulus Media control, WTPA DJs were forced to immediately cease all on-air references to Wink 104. Today, both stations co-exist peacefully.

In 2001, shortly after the dust settled on the ownership changes, Clear Channel launched WHKF in an attempt to deflate Wink 104's market dominance by stealing the younger portion of WNNK's audience. This ultimately led to Clear Channel's adult-oriented station WRVV taking the overall #1 position in the market; not because of improved ratings at WRVV, but because of decreased listenership at WNNK. Cumulus Media reacted to WHKF by launching their own youth-oriented station, Hot 92. Although WHKF never approached Wink 104 in the ratings, it did cause Wink 104 to change formats from Hot AC to AC in March 2002. The logic to this maneuvering was that Wink 104 would continue to dominate the adult demographic, while Hot 92 would either dominate the young demographic or severely cripple WHKF's ratings.

Wink 104 is generally regarded as the original "Wink" station in contemporary radio, and has inspired other stations including the relatively close Wink 108 in State College, Pennsylvania (WIKN) and Wink 106 in Corning, New York (WNKI).

Slogans used by Wink 104 include (in no particular order) "four in a row with no talk", "five / six in a row", "long music marathon", "we only stop the music twice an hour", "your 10 in a row station", "the best songs of the 80s, 90s, and today", and "#1 for today's hit music, free money, and fun". Their current slogan is "today's best music".

From inception until 2003, Wink 104's studios and offices were located in a standalone building in uptown Harrisburg. Due to the consolidation with WTPA, WTCY, and WWKL, as well as the expenses involved with ongoing repairs, the studios and offices for all of the Cumulus Media stations were moved to a single location in an office park in Susquehanna Township (a suburb of Harrisburg).