![]() | This article possibly contains original research .(February 2015) |
Simulcast of WSB, Atlanta | |
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Broadcast area | Metro Atlanta |
Frequency | 95.5 MHz (HD Radio) |
Branding | 95.5 WSB |
Programming | |
Language(s) | English |
Format | Talk radio |
Affiliations | |
Ownership | |
Owner |
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History | |
First air date | May 1, 1948 |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | taken from the station's simulcast of WSB (750 AM) |
Technical information [1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
Facility ID | 11710 |
Class | C1 |
ERP | 100,000 watts |
HAAT | 279 meters (915 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 33°45′33″N84°20′05″W / 33.759278°N 84.334639°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast |
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Website | www |
WSBB-FM (95.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Doraville, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by the Cox Media Group. WSBB-FM is simulcast with WSB, both airing a news/talk radio format. On the air, the stations are referred to as "95.5 WSB", only occasionally mentioning the FM station's call sign or the AM station's frequency.
The studios and offices are on West Peachtree Street NE in Atlanta, in the WSB-TV and Radio Group Building. The transmitter is on the WSB-FM broadcast tower in Edgewood, just east of Downtown Atlanta. WSBB-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio hybrid format.
The station first signed on the air on May 1, 1948, as WGAU-FM on 99.5 MHz in Athens, Georgia. [2] It broadcast at 3,600 watts, simulcasting sister station WGAU, still owned by Cox. In 1956, when Channel 11 (now WXIA-TV) came on the air in Atlanta, WGAU-FM created a second harmonic at 199.0, on top of the video carrier of WXIA-TV at 199.25. That caused interference for WXIA-TV, so WGAU-FM got permission from the Federal Communications Commission to move to 102.5 MHz. In 1962, WGAU-FM began broadcasting each day in stereo for six hours, the second station in Georgia to devote a significant part of its day to playing music in stereo. In 1962, WGAU-FM moved to 95.5 FM.
In 1968, the station became WNGC, standing for "North Georgia Country". It was North Georgia's first full-time FM country music station and one of the first stand-alone FM country stations in the nation, not simply rebroadcasting a country AM station. WNGC went to a 24 hours a day schedule in 1976 and began broadcasting with an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts from the Neese Tower in Madison County. [3]
In 1999, Clarke Broadcasting, long-time owner of WNGC and WGAU, wanted to sell its Athens properties. Cox Radio acquired the stations for $78 million. [4] Cox decided to flip WNGC to Top 40, briefly using the WYAP call letters before settling on WBTS, using the moniker "The Beat".
On September 25, 1999, the country format was dropped and the station began stunting with a loop of "Wild Thing" by Tone-Loc. When "The Beat" officially signed on September 27, its direction focused on mainstream pop, dance, and rock, even though it had a rhythmic lean. [5] Under the direction of Program Director Dale O'Brian, it would drop all mainstream pop/rock and go rhythmic full-time. The rhythmic direction paid off in the Arbitron ratings, putting them among the top 10 stations in Atlanta. With this hip-hop bent, WBTS competed with WVEE and WHTA, while on the top-40 side it competed with WWWQ and WSTR. With the implementation of Portable People Meters in the Atlanta Arbitrons, WBTS had the second-most listened-to cume in the market behind WVEE.
In October 2005, the station switched its slogan from "Atlanta's New #1 Hit Music Station" to "Atlanta's New #1 for Hip Hop". Despite the shift, Cox was still billing the station as rhythmic top 40 (as the station still added rhythmic-friendly pop artists like Pink to its playlist) and continued to report to R&R's rhythmic reporting panel. Also in 2005, Cox received FCC approval to change WBTS's city of license from Athens, a city 40 miles from Atlanta, to Doraville, a suburb of Atlanta; [6] the station's studios and transmitter did not move with that change. In August 2006, the station tapped on-air personality Murph Dawg from WHZT, a Cox station in Greenville to host a new morning show with 6-year Atlanta veteran Stacy C, billing it as "Murph Dawg in the Morning with Stacy C". The alliance was short-lived, and after only a few months, Murph Dawg found himself solo. In May 2007, WBTS hired a member of WHTA's "The A-Team" morning show, CJ. The newly created morning show "Murph Dawg & CJ in the Morning" rose in the 18-34 demographics. In Spring 2008, WBTS hit its highest numbers in station history, with a 6.5 share in 18–34. "Murph Dawg & CJ in the Morning" hit 5th place, with later dayparts reaching the Top 2 and Top 3 ranks. In August 2008, WBTS again pulled a personality from across the street at WHTA, tapping overnight jock and mixer Mami Chula to fill the Night Show position that had been vacant since former night host Austin left in November 2007 for a gig in Indianapolis.
Other personalities that made up the WBTS weekday lineup included K-Dubb in middays, and Maverick in afternoons. Kenny Hamilton, Traci Steele, Johnny D, and Mo Reilley rounded-out the weekend lineup with DJ Kidd handling the primary mix show duties. The station program director was Cagle with Maverick as the assistant program director/music director.
In 2009, WBTS gained another competitor, as Clear Channel's WWVA-FM flipped from Spanish contemporary to rhythmic contemporary, becoming "105-7 the Groove". (WWVA-FM later hired Mami Chula for nights and Maverick for middays and programming duties after WBTS left the rhythmic format.)
On August 16, 2010, Cox abruptly flipped WBTS to a simulcast of WSB. Cox Radio officials said that the move was necessary to keep WSB, long the dominant radio station in Atlanta, relevant to younger listeners who did not usually listen to AM radio. WBTS's DJs and sales staff were offered jobs at other stations in the Cox Atlanta cluster. [7] The callsign was changed to WSBB-FM that October 1, a move made to adjust the callsign to parallel its AM parent (the heritage WSB-FM callsign remains at 98.5 FM).
On July 31, 2019, WSB and WSBB rebranded as "95.5 WSB". While AM 750 remains the primary signal, all references to it were dropped aside from hourly legal station identification. WSBB-FM began broadcasting from its new transmitter location east of Atlanta on August 20, 2019. [8] Besides a desire to reach younger listeners, WSBB-FM also serves to improve WSB's coverage in areas where the AM side's daytime signal has usually been weak. WSB's daytime coverage area is not nearly as large as that of other 50,000-watt AM stations due to Georgia's poor ground conductivity.
WSB's Scott Slade hosted Atlanta's Morning News until February 2023, when he stepped back from full-time hosting. He was succeeded by evening news anchor Chris Chandler, and remains semi-retired as a fill-in host. AMN is followed by a local program hosted by former WSB-TV traffic reporter Mark Arum. WSB personality Erick Erickson hosts the noontime slot held long-term by Rush Limbaugh, followed by The Von Haessler Doctrine hosted by Eric Von Haessler. The Shelley Wynter Show (hosted by Shelley Wynter) airs in the early evening hours, wrapping up local programming at 9 p.m. ET. A delayed broadcast of The Sean Hannity Show , syndicated via Premiere Networks, follows. WSB/WSBB-FM also airs several weekend talk programs, including syndicated shows hosted by Kim Komando and Bill Handel.
WSB and WSBB-FM serve as the flagship radio stations for the University of Georgia Bulldog Radio Network, carrying all Bulldogs football and basketball games.
WALR-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Palmetto, Georgia and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by the Cox Media Group and airs an urban adult contemporary radio format. The studios are co-located with other Cox-owned radio stations and WSB-TV in Midtown Atlanta on West Peachtree Street.
WRDG – branded as 96.1 The Beat – is a commercial mainstream urban radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. The WRDG studios are located in Atlanta's Upper Westside district inside the Works ATL development, while the station transmitter resides in nearby North Druid Hills. Besides a standard analog transmission, WRDG broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio.
WSRV – branded 97.1 The River – is a commercial radio station licensed to Gainesville, Georgia, and serving Metro Atlanta. It is owned by the Cox Media Group. WSRV broadcasts a classic rock radio format. The studios and offices are in the Cox Television and Radio Facility on West Peachtree Street near the Brookwood neighborhood of Atlanta.
WUMJ is a radio station simulcasting an urban adult contemporary format with sister station WAMJ 107.5 FM. Licensed to the suburb of Fayetteville, Georgia, it serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1978 under the call sign WKUE-FM. The station is currently owned by Radio One of Atlanta, through licensee Radio One Licenses, LLC. Since 1995, it has always been an urban station taking on three variations of the format due to frequency swaps in 2001 and 2009.
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WVEE – branded as V-103 – is a commercial radio station in Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs an urban contemporary radio format. WVEE is one of the highest-rated stations in the Atlanta radio market according to Nielsen Audio, reaching number one on many reports. Its studios and offices are located in Colony Square on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, along with its sister stations WAOK, WSTR and WZGC.
WSB-TV is a television station in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Cox Media Group, which has owned the station since its inception, and is sister to radio stations WSB, WSBB-FM (95.5), WSRV, WSB-FM (98.5) and WALR-FM (104.1). The stations share studios at the WSB Television and Radio Group building on West Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta; WSB-TV's transmitter is located on the border of the city's Poncey-Highland and Old Fourth Ward neighborhoods.
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WBZY – branded Z105.7 – is a commercial radio station licensed to Canton, Georgia, broadcasting a Spanish CHR format. Owned by iHeartMedia, WBZY serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. The WBZY studios are located in Atlanta, while the station transmitter resides in the nearby suburb of Marietta. Besides a standard analog transmission, WBZY broadcasts over two HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio. WBZY formerly repeated over the 32.25 digital subchannel of Atlanta television station WANN-CD and previously did so on a number of occasions with sister station WBZW, the most recent lasting until November 5, 2021.
WNGC is a radio station in North Georgia that plays country music; it was at 95.5 from 1968-1999. It is owned by Cox Media Group and is part of Cox Radio. Its city of license is Arcade with studios in Athens. Its transmitter is in Lula, Georgia.
WBIN is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia, through its subsidiary iHM Licenses, LLC. It serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as its affiliate for the Black Information Network. The station's studios and offices located at the Peachtree Palisades Building in the Brookwood Hills district. The transmitter site is off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard Northwest in the Center Hill neighborhood of Atlanta.
WTSH-FM 107.1, branded as La Raza 102.3/107.1, is an FM radio station in northwest Georgia, and reaching into northwest metro Atlanta, Georgia. Originally assigned to Rockmart, its city of license is now Aragon, west-northwest of Atlanta, and east of Rockmart. The broadcast licensee is Woman's World Broadcasting and operated by Rome Radio Partners, LLC. From June 23, 2014 to September 24, 2018, it was operated by Cox Media Group via a local marketing agreement (LMA). The station's supposed main studio is located on John Davenport Drive in Rome, Georgia.
WXKT is a radio station broadcasting a Variety Hits format as "103.7 Chuck FM". Licensed to Maysville, Georgia, it serves the Gainesville area and can generally be heard as far west as Doraville and as far south as Athens. It first began broadcasting in 1989 under the call sign WBIC. It is currently owned by Cox Radio. Its studios are located in Bogart, and its transmitter is in Lula, Georgia.
WGAU is a radio station licensed to serve Athens, Georgia, United States, that broadcasts a news/talk format. The station is owned by Cox Media Group. The transmitter is located at the studios in Five Points.
WPUP is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40 (CHR) format. Licensed to the Athens suburb of Watkinsville, it serves the Athens metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in Washington in 1970. It is currently owned by Cox Radio. Its studios are located in Bogart, and its transmitter is in Royston.
WRFC is a commercial AM radio station in Athens, Georgia. It airs a sports radio format, mostly using programming from ESPN Radio. Owned by Cox Media Group, the television and radio subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, the station is sister to radio stations WNGC, WGAU, WGMG, WPUP, WXKT and the WSB family of stations in nearby Atlanta. WRFC has studios in downtown Athens. The transmitter is located off West Vincent Drive in the North Valley neighborhood, northwest of Athens.
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W233BF – branded as Streetz 94.5 – is a radio station in metro Atlanta, now licensed to serve Atlanta owned by Edgewater Broadcasting. After a series of moves, the station now transmits from the WUPA tower east of downtown, just north of Interstate 20. The station competes with WHTA and WVEE-FM.