WSTR (FM)

WSTR
City Smyrna, Georgia
Broadcast area Atlanta metropolitan area
Branding Star 94-1
Slogan Today's Hits
Frequency 94.1 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Translator(s) 94.5 W233BF (Atlanta, relays HD3)
First air date 1967 (as WKXI)
Format FM/HD1:Hot AC
HD2: Classic hits "Classic Side of Star"
Christmas Music (Nov.-Dec.)
HD3: Mainstream urban "Streetz 94.5"
ERP 100,000 watts
HAAT 310.4 meters
Class C0
Facility ID 30822
Callsign meaning W STaR 94.1
Former callsigns WKXI (1967-1969)
WQXI-FM (1969-1989)
Owner Entercom
(Entercom Atlanta License, LLC)
Sister stations WAOK, WVEE, WZGC
Webcast Listen Live or
Listen Live
Listen Live (HD2)
Website star941atlanta.com

WSTR FM 94.1 MHz ("Star 94-1") is a CHR-leaning Top 40 Atlanta FM radio station licensed to Smyrna, Georgia and owned by Entercom.

History

94.1 was once WGST-FM and was given away in the 1950s as FM did not take off. In the 1960s, WDJK appeared to occupy 94.1 as a brand new station, associated with WYNX (AM-1550) in Smyrna.

Within two years, 94.1 was sold to the owners of WQXI (AM-790), which was Atlanta's leading Top 40 Rock station. FM-94.1 then became easy listening WKXI. By 1969, the station had adopted WQXI-FM as its call letters, and in mid-1977, the station was officially rechristened 94Q when the Top 40 format moved to the FM. It became one of Atlanta's dominant FM stations and remained so until 1987, when its audience share began to dwindle. Various tweaks were made to the music mix, followed by an outright change of direction in late 1988 that competed head-to-head with then-dominant CHR WAPW/Power 99 (now WWWQ) as "Atlanta's Hit Music, 94Q". However, by the following spring, 94Q had been soundly beaten, and the station began to purge most of its management and on-air talent.

94Q logo, 1977-89

94Q also featured a smooth jazz music program called Jazz Flavors, which eventually served as the genesis for WJZF "Jazz Flavors 104.1", Atlanta's first smooth-jazz radio station (now WALR-FM), and later on, "WJZZ 107.5" (now WAMJ).

At midnight on November 15, 1989, 94Q signed off after 12 years with "Imagine" by John Lennon, and 94.1 relaunched as "Star 94" after obtaining the broadcast callsign WSTR from a Sturgis, Michigan radio station (now WBET-FM). The first song on "Star" was "Oh Atlanta" by Little Feat. The station's format was a hybrid of hot AC and top 40 (CHR), best described as Adult Top 40, and would spend most of the 1990s shifting between Adult Top 40 and Mainstream CHR. The station initially avoided most hip hop and rhythmic-oriented music hitting the Top 40 charts, though it would add many rhythmic songs by the mid-1990s. After WAPW flipped to modern rock as WNNX in October 1992, WSTR was considered the "default" hit music station in Atlanta due to the lack of a mainstream Top 40 outlet (Atlanta would finally gain a mainstream Top 40 in 2001, when WWWQ signed on; WBTS would sign on as a mainstream Top 40 two years prior, though it leaned rhythmic, and would shift to rhythmic altogether by 2001). Between 2007 and 2009, WSTR began to incorporate more hip hop songs in its playlist but remained more pop and rock oriented than most top-40-style stations. In September 2010, the station began shifting towards a Hot AC format, therefore Nielsen BDS moved WSTR from the CHR (top 40) to the Adult Top 40 (Hot AC) panel, as the station became more identified with a Hot AC playlist.[1] It also changed its on-air slogan to "Your Life...Your Music," to emphasize its acknowledged shift to Hot AC. In February 2011, Star 94 began programming an all 1990's weekend called the "Big 90's Weekend" in response to the all-1980's weekends on WSB-FM. However, by the Fall, the station dropped the All 90's weekends.

Several influential air personalities have worked at the Atlanta station, including American Idol's Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest interned on the night show with Tom Sullivan, who trained him in all areas of broadcasting then gave him his first "on air" shift of his career, before moving to weekends. He did this while attending Dunwoody High School in nearby Dunwoody.

On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced its purchase of Lincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup (including WSTR and sister WQXI) in a $106.5 million deal, and will operate the stations under an LMA deal until the sale is officially approved by the FCC.[2] Entercom officially took over WSTR on July 17, 2015.[3]

Broadcast facilities

WSTR has studios and offices located at the Interstate North complex (northeast of the I-75 and I-285 interchange) in unincorporated Cobb County, but carries an Atlanta address.

WSTR FM shares a tower with WPBA TV 30, and in fact shares the same antenna with WSB-FM 98.5 and WVEE FM 103.3. The three radio stations' transmitters are diplexed together, so that they all feed to the radio antenna instead of into each other.

WSTR broadcasts in HD Radio.[4]

  • 94.1 HD2 currently carries an adult hits format, while
  • 94.1 HD3 currently carries a mainstream urban format as "Streetz 94.5". It formerly carried a simulcast of WQXI's sports talk format on their HD-3 channel. WSTR HD-3 is given in the hourly station ID of W233BF FM 94.5, licensed to serve the eastern exurb of Social Circle. Although that station is licenseing as a "broadcast translator" (a service intended to retransmit analog FM stations to distant areas), it is operating independently as "Streetz", under an FCC legal fiction that allows such stations to transmit original programming if it is also simulcast on another station's HD Radio digital subchannel. Since legitimately licensed noncommercial LPFM stations cannot do any of these things (have multiple stations, operate commercially, use higher powers and unlimited heights, or afford to rent an "HD" channel or AM station) despite being in the same FCC class D, no community radio stations have gone on-air in or immediately around the city since the 1980s, and two have been forced off-air in the 2000s.

On-air staff

The current staff includes:

  • The Jeff & Jenn Show; 5:30-10am, hosted by Jeff Dauler and Jenn Hobby
  • Heather Branch; 10am-3pm
  • Mike Marino; 3pm-8pm
  • Andy McDermott; 8pm-Midnight

Additional staff:

  • Tony Lorino (Program Director)
  • Rob Hamilton (Director of Digital & Video Production)
  • Heather Schneider (Promotions Director)
  • Dino D'Addario (Production Director)

Former staff:

  • Jimmy Alexander (2012-2014) and Cindy Simmons (2003-2015)
  • Gary McKee, mornings Sep 1971- Nov 1989. Later on WSB-AM (1990–94), then WSB-FM B98.5FM (1994–96), and finally WZGC Z93 (1997–99), now retired
  • Chase Daniels, former afternoon personality (now Operations Manager at Entercom Madison)
  • Tim Orff, former night and weekend personality (who then worked at Triton Digital)
  • Chris Carter, former traffic reporter
  • Kristen Gates, former weekender, morning/afternoon show producer. Former mornings @ WKHX. Currently mornings WUBL
  • Bender, former weekend/fill-in personality
  • Billy Brown, former evening personality
  • Mike "Superphat Mikey" Dennison, former co-host of The Morning Mess
  • Craig Hunt, former afternoon personality
  • Tripp West, former mid-day personality currently @ WSB-FM 98.5 in Atlanta
  • J. Bird, former weekend/fill-in personality
  • Eileen Kimble, former weekend personality
  • Nikki Knight, former evening personality
  • Eric Lauer, former weekend personality
  • Derek James, former weekend personality (now a television anchor and meteorologist for FOX Charlotte)
  • Vikki Locke, mornings 1990-2007
  • Mike Mach
  • Ray Mariner, former co-host of Cindy & Ray in the Afternoons and Cindy & Ray in the Morning (now in New Orleans)[5]
  • Jamie Massey, now at KNIX Phoenix, AZ, formerly mornings @ WUBL
  • Shannon Murphy, former co-host of The Morning Mess (Now co-host of the Mojo In The Morning Show on WKQI-Detroit Channel 955 from 6AM-10AM Eastern Standard Time. www.mojointhemorning.com)
  • Jim Larsin (Jim L. Koza), former weekend personality, went to WSB-FM then retired (now Atlanta Realtor)
  • Madison Chase (and briefly known on Star 94 in 1989-90 by her real name, Karen Turner) - on both 94Q and Star 94 is currently known as Dallas McCade and doing mornings with Cadillac Jack on WKHX in Atlanta. Previously co-hosted mornings with Rhubarb Jones at WYAY, Eagle 106.7 (now Talk 106.7)
  • Stephanie Page, middays & weekends 1991-1993 (now known as Paige Long evenings on WVFJ The JoyFM in Atlanta)
  • Steve McCoy, mornings 1990-2007, previously with WZGC Z93 1981-87 and WAPW Power 99 1987-89. Later worked at WSB-FM Atlanta, KXKL-FM Denver, and WYAY NewsRadio 106.7.
  • Mike Oliver, former traffic reporter (died December 2009)
  • Marc "Marco" Orem, former host of The Morning Mess (now at new station in Indianapolis)
  • Nudge, former evening personality
  • Danny Wright,Creative Director now iHeartMedia Corporate San Antonio
  • Ryan Seacrest, former American Idol host and has a syndicated morning radio show based out of KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, CA.
  • Tony Castle, former weekend personality
  • Tracy St. George, later on WWWQ Atlanta All The Hits Q100; now in West Palm Beach, FL on WRMF 97.9
  • Kevin Steele, now Program Director of WNGC, WGMG & WPUP/Cox Radio Athens, GA had worked weekends on WKHX
  • Tom Sullivan, former morning personality (last seen co-hosting WXIA-TV Atlanta and Company)
  • Jake Ray - Producer for Steve & Vikki (now at WQHT in New York)
  • Wendy Threatt, former afternoon traffic reporter (Now doing afternoon traffic on WSB-AM and WSB-FM)
  • Mike Stiles (former morning show producer also worked as Billy Ray Evans on WYAY) Now runs Sketchworks Comedy. Recently filled-in on WGST.
  • Mark Kanov, GM, worked at the station from the late 1960s until his retirement in July 2008.
  • "Captain" Herb Emory, traffic reporter until 1990 (died April 2014)
  • John Willyard, former imaging/commercial voice and weekend personality. Now voice of TV, cable, country radio stations and the CMA Awards on ABC-TV since 1996.

References

  1. ↑ "From Nielsen BDS.com" (PDF).
  2. ↑ "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  3. ↑ "Star 94 now owned by Entercom - Radio and TV Talk".
  4. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=76 HD Radio Guide for Atlanta
  5. ↑ "Ray Mariner (formerly of Star, the Fan) gets new job in New Orleans - Radio and TV Talk".

Coordinates: 33°45′33″N 84°20′05″W / 33.7593°N 84.3346°W / 33.7593; -84.3346

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