WSTR (FM)

WSTR
City Smyrna, Georgia
Broadcast area Atlanta metropolitan area
Branding Star 94.1
Frequency 94.1 MHz (also on HD Radio)
Christmas music "Star Christmas Channel" (on 94.1 HD2)
Mainstream urban "Streetz 94.5" (on 94.1 HD3)
Translator(s) 94.5 W233BF (Atlanta, relays HD3)
First air date 1967 (as WKXI)
Format Hot adult contemporary
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 WQXI
Webcast Listen Live or
Listen Live
Listen Live (HD2)
Website star941atlanta.com

WSTR FM 94.1 MHz ("Star 94.1") is an Atlanta FM radio station airing a hot adult contemporary format. It is owned by Entercom, and has Smyrna, Georgia as its city of license.

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. 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 16, 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 bordered between hot AC and top 40 (CHR), best described as "Adult Top 40" (a hybrid of Hot AC and 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). 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]

Ownership

W233BF is owned by Edgewater Broadcasting, which has been highly involved in the "flipping" of translator stations and licenses for profit. Originally applied-for in 2003 (in what was called the "Great Translator Invasion" by some), the station finally went on the air in July 2007, and immediately requested permission to change to 105.3, becoming W287BI. Due to RF interference from full-power WBZY FM 105.3, it requested to go back to 94.5 in July 2010, regaining its old frequency (and therefore callsign) by December that year. In November however, it had already applied to move closer to Atlanta, where it is currently located north of Conyers, transmitting 122 watts at 313 meters (1,027 ft) HAAT. In late March 2012, it applied to move to the WHSG-TV 63.x (originally WUPA TV 69) tower in the Inman Park neighborhood east of downtown Atlanta, transmitting 250 watts at 325 meters (1,066 ft), except to the north and northwest, where it has a broad and flat null to protect the new WIPK FM 94.5 in northwest Georgia.

On-air staff

The current staff includes:

Additional staff:

Former staff:

References

  1. ↑ From Nielsen BDS.com
  2. ↑ "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  3. ↑ http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2015/07/14/star-94-now-officially-owned-by-entercom/
  4. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=76 HD Radio Guide for Atlanta
  5. ↑ http://radiotvtalk.blog.ajc.com/2014/04/08/ray-mariner-formerly-of-star-the-fan-finds-new-job-in-new-orleans/

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

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