Radio V98.7 HD2 (WVMV-HD2)

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 89x and The Planet 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, with the first song being "Smooth Operator" by Sade. 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 eventually 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). The WJZZ call sign was assigned to the Atlanta station (now WAMJ) from 2001 to 2009.