WSTR (FM)

WSTR (94.1 FM) – branded as Star 94.1 – is a commercial hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to Smyrna, Georgia. Owned by Entercom, the station serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. The WSTR studios are located at Colony Square in Midtown Atlanta, while the station transmitter resides in Atlanta's Reynoldstown neighborhood. Besides a standard analog transmission, WSTR broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, and is available online via Radio.com.

WSTR
CitySmyrna, Georgia
Broadcast areaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta metropolitan area
Frequency94.1 MHz (HD Radio)
BrandingStar 94.1
SloganToday's Hits
HD2: The Classic Sounds of Star
Programming
FormatHot adult contemporary
HD2: Classic hits
HD3: Channel Q
Ownership
OwnerEntercom
(Entercom License, LLC)
Sister stationsWAOK, WVEE, WZGC
History
First air dateJanuary 1, 1964 (1964-01-01)
Former call signsWKXI (1967–69)
WQXI-FM (1969–89)
Call sign meaning"Star"
Technical information
Facility ID30822
ClassC0
ERP100,000 watts
HAAT316 meters (1,037 ft)
Transmitter coordinates33.7593°N 84.3346°W / 33.7593; -84.3346
Translator(s)W265AV (100.9 MHz, Woodstock, rebroadcasts HD2)
Links
Webcast
Websitestar941atlanta.radio.com

History

Early years

The station signed on as WDJK on January 1, 1964, founded by WSMA (1550 AM) owner Mitchell Melof; WDJK operated as a simulcast of WSMA.[1]

Jupiter Broadcasting of Georgia, then the owner of WQXI (790 AM), purchased WDJK in January 1965, with Kent Burkhart serving as vice president and general manager.[2] WDJK's call sign was changed to WKXI and a beautiful music format was installed, with studios at 2970 Peachtree Road NW in Atlanta. The Pacific and Southern Company, forerunners to the modern-day Gannett and Tegna Inc., purchased WQXI and WKXI in November 1967.

WQXI (94.1 FM)
94Q logo, 1977-89

In 1969, the station changed its call letters to WQXI-FM to match its AM sister station. In mid-1977, the station started calling itself "94Q" when WQXI's contemporary hit radio format was moved to the FM station.

Around 1987, WQXI-FM's 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 Top 40 outlet WAPW (99.7 FM) as "Atlanta's Hit Music, 94Q." However, by the following spring, WQXI-FM had been soundly beaten, and the station began to purge most of its management and on-air talent.

WQXI-FM notably carried a smooth jazz-themed program called Jazz Flavors during the late 1980s. Despite the seeming incompatibility between it and contemporary hit radio, this program ran on WQXI-FM for several years, eventually serving as the genesis for the "Jazz Flavors" branding on WJZF (104.1 FM) when that station became the first one in the Atlanta market to adopt the format full-time.

WSTR (1989-present)

At midnight on November 15, 1989, "94Q" signed off after 12 years, with the final song being "Imagine" by John Lennon. 94.1 would then relaunch as "Star 94" with the call letters WSTR. The first song on "Star 94" was "Oh Atlanta" by Little Feat. The station's format was a hybrid of Hot AC and Top 40, best described as Adult Top 40. The station initially avoided most hip hop and rhythmic-oriented music hitting the Top 40 charts, though it added some rhythmic songs in the mid-1990s. Steve McCoy was brought in as morning show host and was paired with Vikki Loche;[3] McCoy and Loche would helm the station's morning drive for the next 17 years.[4]

After WAPW flipped to modern rock as WNNX (99.7 FM) in October 1992, WSTR was considered the "default" hit music station in Atlanta due to the lack of a mainstream Top 40 outlet; Atlanta once again had a mainstream Top 40 station in 2001 when WWWQ (100.5 FM) signed on.

In September 2010, WSTR shifted back towards a Hot AC format. Nielsen BDS moved WSTR from the CHR/Top 40 panel to the Adult Top 40 (Hot AC) panel, as the station became more identified with a Hot AC playlist.[5] WSTR changed its on-air slogan to "Your Life...Your Music," to emphasize its shift to Hot AC. In February 2011, WSTR began programming all-1990s weekends, called "Big 90s Weekends" in response to the all-1980s weekends on 98.5 WSB-FM. However, in the Fall of 2011, the station dropped the All-90s 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 also helped train him;[6] Sullivan gave Ryan his first "on air" shift, and eventually he began working weekends, Ryan did this while still attending Dunwoody High School.

Jefferson-Pilot Communications (and later Lincoln Financial Media) had owned WSTR and WQXI since 1974. On December 8, 2014, Entercom announced its purchase of Lincoln Financial Media's entire 15-station lineup, including WSTR and WQXI, for $106.5 million. The stations were operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) until the sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[7] Entercom officially took over WSTR and WQXI on July 17, 2015;[8] WQXI was spun off to Atlanta Radio Korea in 2016.[9]

In November 2017, Entercom merged with CBS Radio, making WSTR co-owned with WZGC, WVEE-FM and WAOK.[10]

Current programming

WSTR personalities include: the morning team of Jenn Hobby, Mark Owens, Curtis Slade and Jeannine Riley;[11] Madison James middays; Mike Kannon afternoons; and Andy McDermott evenings. WSTR also plays Christmas music throughout the holiday season.[12][13] The HD2 digital subchannel airs a classic hits format under the brand "Star 94.1 HD2".[14]

The HD3 channel airs Entercom's LGBTQ+ talk/dance format "Channel Q".

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References
  1. Broadcasting Yearbook 1966 page B-41
  2. Broadcasting Yearbook 1968 page B-46
  3. Ho, Rodney (2007-11-01). "Steve McCoy's first public comments about leaving Star". Atlanta Journal Constitution. Cox Newspapers. Archived from the original on 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  4. "Steve & Vikki sign on at B98.5 FM". Atlanta Business Chronicle. American City Business Journals, Inc. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
  5. "From Nielsen BDS.com" (PDF).
  6. "Tom Sullivan profile at". Tomonair.com. Retrieved December 15, 2019.
  7. "Entercom Acquires Lincoln Financial Media" from Radio Insight (December 8, 2014)
  8. "Star 94 now owned by Entercom - Radio and TV Talk".
  9. "Entercom Sells WQXI-A/Atlanta To Atlanta Radio Korea". All Access. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  10. RadioInsight.com "CBS Radio to Merge with Entercom"
  11. Ho, Rodney. "Star 94.1's revamped line up features Jenn Hobby as anchor and mix of new, familiar faces". ajc. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  12. Ho, Rodney. "Star 94.1 goes all Christmas December 11 for first time ever". ajc. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  13. "Star 94.1 Atlanta Makes Late All-Christmas Move". RadioInsight. 2019-12-11. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  14. "Station Guide: Atlanta, GA". HDRadio.com. HD Radio. 2015. Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015.
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