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ATLANTA STATIONS WITH THE LONGEST SAME FORMAT

Just throwing this out there for guesses and answers. Although the music has changed a bit, I'd think
V-103 (Urban) and WKLS 96.1 (Rock) could be near the top.
 
I think the transmitter of my garage door opening holds the record for no format changes.


;D Sorry. That must have been a product of the extreme heat.
 
FLjack2 said:
Nope, WSB-AM was full service/MOR/AC in the 1970s and into the 1980s when music on AM died. Not news/talk.

WABE probably beats them all.

Among commercial stations:
The longest running format, although under different monikers and calls, is country on 101.5 when WBIE flipped from BM to country in 1968. Flipped from WBIE to WKHX "Kicks" c. 1980-1981.
The longest running format+moniker is probably V-103, when they flipped from WPLO/country to WVEE/urban c. 1977. You might could argue that WVEE's initial disco/dance format was a different format but it didn't last long enough to make a difference.
WVEE's record was previously held by WKLS "96 Rock" AOR (1974-2006) until they flipped to Project in 2006.
 
jabba17 said:
FLjack2 said:

Nope, WSB-AM was full service/MOR/AC in the 1970s and into the 1980s when music on AM died. Not news/talk.

I think your answer will be accepted as technically correct, jabba. But for those of us who have been listening to radio since the Aztecs were making transmitter finals from baked clay, WSB represents a genre which if named a bit more broadly would qualify as "still using the same format". I'm not sure what the name of this genre is but it could be called "Traditional American Variety". It is what ALL CBS and NBC stations were doing back in the 1940s and the 1950s. They have substituted Clark Howard for Fibber McGee and Molly... etc. WSB is closer kin to what WGN and KMOX and others have done through the years, though the exact content of the "variety" keeps changing. If you listen to what they are doing at 106.7 and say: "If that is News/Talk... then WSB must be something else."

Though they do "play footsie" with modern day formats, the "Heritage" stations still have some elements that cling like lint on a black suit.
 
I guess you're trying to say that WSB has always been a full-service station. But I agree with Jabba that News/Talk is a significantly different from music despite the full-service elements that have continued.
 
ATLoutsider said:
WNGC has been Country as long as I can remember. True they were on 95.5 before 106.1 but the calls and format were the same.

My question is whether WNGC/106.1 is really the same station that was at 95.5.

At the time when WNGC/95.5 went off the air to move into the Atlanta market and become The Beat, the former WSTE/106.1 took the WNGC call letters. So WSTE, already a country station, became an old country station with new call letters.

Back then, WNGC/99.5 had been owned by Randolph Holder, and WSTE/106.1 was owned by someone else, probably Paul Stone. Just because they grabbed 95.5's former call letters, does that mean the new WNGC/106.1 was the same station as the old WNGC/95.5? It was not a matter of a station changing frequencies.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
ATLoutsider said:
WNGC has been Country as long as I can remember. True they were on 95.5 before 106.1 but the calls and format were the same.

My question is whether WNGC/106.1 is really the same station that was at 95.5.

At the time when WNGC/95.5 went off the air to move into the Atlanta market and become The Beat, the former WSTE/106.1 took the WNGC call letters. So WSTE, already a country station, became an old country station with new call letters.

Back then, WNGC/99.5 had been owned by Randolph Holder, and WSTE/106.1 was owned by someone else, probably Paul Stone. Just because they grabbed 95.5's former call letters, does that mean the new WNGC/106.1 was the same station as the old WNGC/95.5? It was not a matter of a station changing frequencies.
Good question. Prior to that, WSTE was AC WLET.
 
Has everyone forgotten that WPLO -- no, wait a second. I'm wrong. PLO went Country late 60's, but then spun the FM off the college operations, Then Plough sold the AM to ABC/Cap Cities, and returned the FM to C&W. Forgtet it; I was wrong. Thought I had something there …
 
Mike_Rafone said:
Has everyone forgotten that WPLO -- no, wait a second. I'm wrong. PLO went Country late 60's, but then spun the FM off the college operations, Then Plough sold the AM to ABC/Cap Cities, and returned the FM to C&W. Forgtet it; I was wrong. Thought I had something there …
WPLO-FM flipped to WVEE under Plough's ownership. Not sure when Plough sold off WVEE, although it was definitely before they sold off WPLO. WPLO-FM was never owned by Georgia State, but they did let the students run it for a time, I guess before WRAS took to the air. WPLO-FM was simuling WPLO-AM at the time of the V-103 flip.
 
jabba17 said:
Mike_Rafone said:
Has everyone forgotten that WPLO -- no, wait a second. I'm wrong. PLO went Country late 60's, but then spun the FM off the college operations, Then Plough sold the AM to ABC/Cap Cities, and returned the FM to C&W. Forgtet it; I was wrong. Thought I had something there …
WPLO-FM flipped to WVEE under Plough's ownership. Not sure when Plough sold off WVEE, although it was definitely before they sold off WPLO. WPLO-FM was never owned by Georgia State, but they did let the students run it for a time, I guess before WRAS took to the air. WPLO-FM was simuling WPLO-AM at the time of the V-103 flip.

Plough, which had become Schering Plough, sold off its entire radio group at some point, probably in the 1980's, to DKG headed by former Cox exec Jim Wesley. Then DKG sold its group to Summit, which I guess sold to Infinity. WPLO-AM was still in the group when it was owned by DKG. I only know that because that's when the transmitter site was moved to Cobb County. I'm not sure when WPLO sold to Cap Cities, but it was before my time in Atlanta, which began in 1994.
 
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