WRNG-Ring Radio & other former stations

[jabba17]

I remember WRNG’s TV promos where they had a pair of hands dealing cards, each one with a mug of one of their personalities. Both Ludlow and Boortz were on there back then. They were talk before talk was cool.

“WRiNG Ring Radio. Atlanta’s Talk King. Deal Yourself In!”

If you can ever catch Boortz telling the story of the time someone delivered hash brownies to the station…and he ate them and proceeded to get stoned out of his gourd on the air…it’s a hilarious story. He’s recounted it every so often on The Ex-Wife (WGST) and WSB.

WQXI-FM 94Q ("The Music FM") started out as AOR, then went top 40, then to hard AC (similar to B98.5 today). Then they started introducing yuppie jazz (think WJZZ 107.5, not WCLK 91.5) into the mix, then switched to Star 94 in 1990 (last song on 94Q was "Imagine" by John Lennon). Star 94 started out as hard AC, until Power 99 became 99X in 1992, giving them the opening to become Atlanta’s only (at the time) CHR station. Does anyone know when WKXI became WQXI-FM?

Another interesting fact about 94.1 is at one time they had a 300kW license, long time ago when their calls were WATL.

WLTA started out as Beautiful Music, competing with WPCH "Peach FM 95" (natch) and WSB FM 98 (as was their moniker at the time), and (for a while) WKLS I believe, pre-96Rock. They were the first BM station in ATL to go AC—indeed, they were the first AC station in ATL. Then, Susquehanna consolidated all the branding of their AC stations as “Warm XXX” (similar to CC and their “Lite” stations). WLTA became WRMM then WARM. WARM 100 changed their moniker to WARM 99.7, as WSB was going by the moniker “WSB 99 FM” and WARM was getting docked half a listener in Arbitron for every listener who listed them as “WARM 99”. Cox sued Susquehanna and lost. WSB 99 FM became B98.5 as a result.

CC probably dumped WPCH after B98.5 kept invoking Peach's heritage as the last "sleepytime" BM station in Atlanta, showing (in their TV promos) someone snoozing to a radio pumping out peaches along with the musical notes, even though Peach had dumped BM back in 1985 or 1986.

There’s a lot of WLTA and WARM materials on the Ga. Radio Hall of Fame website at grhof.org .

WBIE “Georgia’s Country Giant” had up-to-date country, but had dj’s that make Rhubarb and Moby sound like Yankees.

A lot of other info is on Marshall Leach’s excellent ATL Radio website at http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~mleach/radio/

 

[MRFLASHPORT]

couple of points:

WQXI started Jazz Flavors back in 1977 on Sunday nights only, didn't start doing it nightly until the 1980's all the way until the stations end in October 1989 when it became WSTR-FM. I was a freshman in high school, remember the sign off very well, a dedication was made to Gerry Blum the station manager at the time, and the last song played was John Lennon's "Imagine" before singing off at midnight as WQXI, at 12:01, they became star 94 and the rest is history.

Their calls were never WATL, and not sure of the 300KW license you mention, their call history was: WSTR (current), WQXI-FM, WKXI-FM, WSMA-FM and originally signed on as Smyrna city of license with call sign WDJK-FM, the initials of the former owners. They didn't go to 100K until they moved their transmitter from Belmont Hills in the late 60's and they were WKXI-FM. Lots of stuff on them on GRHOF.COM but no mention of them ever using WATL or the 300KW.

WPCH was originally a religious station, WAVO-FM in the late 60's. WPCH was running beautiful music until the early 1990's, around 1988 they started adding a few soft AC vocal tracks, even some "new age" smooth jazz instrumentals such as Andreas Vollenweider, but 90 percent of the music was without vocals. They kept the commercial breaks to the bottom and top of the hour, very professionally run. Around 1991/1992 is when they moved towards a more traditional soft A/C station. In the summer of 1988, Jim Clark ran a show on Saturday night called "Peachtree Nightsounds" and was a jazz show, more traditional jazz than was being played on then WQXI's "Jazz Flavors" at the time. In 1989, Vance Dillard changed the show to nightly and renamed it "Peach Flavors" and they were pumping modern jazz with much "new age" in direct competition with Jazz Flavors on 94Q. They ended the show in late 1990 when it was clear "Jazz Flavors" was dead. Not long after, they were the soft A/C "Peach 94.9" and well the rest is history. Jazz fans had to wait a couple of years before the music returned to the Atlanta airwaves.

It wouldn't be until December 26th, 1993 when WJZF "Jazz Flavors" 104.1 signed on when Cox acquired that station which used to be the original "Kiss 104". Ironically that station became Kiss 104.1 when Cox decided that Jazz Flavors ran out of taste and switched the format. Then Radio One turned their Jammin Oldies 107.5 to Smooth Jazz 107.5 not much later.

 

[jabba17]

couple of points:

Their calls were never WATL, and not sure of the 300KW license you mention, their call history was: WSTR (current), WQXI-FM, WKXI-FM, WSMA-FM and originally signed on as Smyrna city of license with call sign WDJK-FM, the initials of the former owners. They didn't go to 100K until they moved their transmitter from Belmont Hills in the late 60's and they were WKXI-FM. Lots of stuff on them on GRHOF.COM but no mention of them ever using WATL or the 300KW.

WPCH was originally a religious station, WAVO-FM in the late 60's.

I stand corrected on the calls. Here is where I got the power info: http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/fm-max.html . The station listed there is WGST, not WATL.

I note that the city of license listed is Atlanta, not Smyrna. Maybe the old WGST 94.1 at 300+ kW was an entirely different station than the one that was eventually licensed at 94.1 in Smyrna.

Also-94.9 was WAVQ, not WAVO, although they used WAVO for branding. WAVO was the sister AM station. I remember driving by the old WAVO studio and transmitter site in the early 90s (across from the old Softball Country Club in Scottdale off of N. Decatur Road next to the perimeter) , and the WAVO sign was still up, and the AM frequency ("1420 KC") was still visible on the sign, but the "94.9 MC" was painted over.

The AM station is now WATB, and has a CP to move to 1430 kHz and up their power to a directional 50kW, taking WGFS 1430 (out of Covington) dark in the process.

 

[taylorengineer]

WBIE did NOT have multiple jocks. It was voice tracked by the owner via an automation system. It was Jim Wilder, 24/7. Only difference was sometimes he was live. It was positioned as "Georgia's Country Giant."

 

[Art Sutton]

I run my production/imaging company out of Franklin, NC and have to pass along some mighty sincere kudos to Art Sutton and the engineer at WRGC. It is one of the best technically sounding AM stations i have ever heard. It sounds so close to Fm you actually have to check to see what station it is. Outstanding! I have often wondered how WRGC came to be in the forst place what with WPTF and thier 50kw signal in Raleigh and WCNN's 50kw in Atlanta (errr..NORTH Atlanta at that) really a shoehorn allocation. There was an application in the works to move WRGC (Sylva) to 540khz with 5000watts. Would be an awesome signal. What has become of that Art?

Jeff Laurence
[email protected]

Thanks Jeff. I think the credit is due to an Optimod 9200 and a Gates One solid state Harris transmitter.

Someone also filed for 540 just outside of Knoxville so once again WRGC is in a battle to secure a better frequency. The application is pending. Sylva actually got nighttime before WCNN did. WCNN protects Sylva but its most severe limit it toward WPTF.

Back when the stations were fighting each other...WRNG wanting more power and Sylva wanting to move from 1480 to 680, if you were the only AM station in a community, you could accept interference from others. I think this is why WCNN is now licensed to census district North Atlanta. While WPTF in Raleigh has 50,000 watts at night, it is a Class B AM and only it's groundwave is protected, unlike the big clears such as WSB and WBT. Sylva would have a much much better signal had it not been for the four lane highway being built right next to the array and chopping off half the ground system of one tower. This severely impacts the nighttime signal in its lobe toward the Southwest. It's aimed right at Atlanta.

 

[bclark71.]

In early 1989, 94Q dropped all but the Sunday night Jazz Flavors when they went mainstream CHR, right after Z93 went classic rock. This was what prompted WPCH's jazz show. Star 94 brought Jazz Flavors back 7 nights a week from the first day (11/16/1989), 9pm-midnight Mon-Sat, 7pm-midnight Sundays, cut it back to 10pm-1am Mon-Sat in the summer of 1991, then dropped it altogether in late August 1991. Technical note: Russ Davis, the show's original host, was working as PD at CD101 in NYC when Star re-launched Jazz Flavors, so Davis recorded the breaks on reel-to-reel tapes and FedEx'd them to Star 94. All the board op had to do was make sure he cued teh right break in between the right tracks. And voila! Analog voicetracking!!

I have that WQXI/WSTR flip on tape. The friendly, familiar voice of John Young was the last one heard on 94Q:
"This is WQXI Atlanta, and WQXI-FM Smyrna-Atlanta. At this time, radio station 94Q says goodbye, forever. There are literally hundreds of people to thank, but we've pared it down to two. To Jerry [Blum] and Gary [McKee]...94Q's last song is for you."
Then "Imagine." It was a very nice ending to a legendary station.

WQXI started Jazz Flavors back in 1977 on Sunday nights only, didn't start doing it nightly until the 1980's all the way until the stations end in October 1989 when it became WSTR-FM. I was a freshman in high school, remember the sign off very well, a dedication was made to Gerry Blum the station manager at the time, and the last song played was John Lennon's "Imagine" before singing off at midnight as WQXI, at 12:01, they became star 94 and the rest is history.

In the summer of 1988, Jim Clark ran a show on Saturday night [on WPCH] called "Peachtree Nightsounds" and was a jazz show, more traditional jazz than was being played on then WQXI's "Jazz Flavors" at the time. In 1989, Vance Dillard changed the show to nightly and renamed it "Peach Flavors" and they were pumping modern jazz with much "new age" in direct competition with Jazz Flavors on 94Q. They ended the show in late 1990 when it was clear "Jazz Flavors" was dead. Not long after, they were the soft A/C "Peach 94.9" and well the rest is history. Jazz fans had to wait a couple of years before the music returned to the Atlanta airwaves.

 

[BarryATL]

I remember listening to WRNG as a teen. I new I was a radio geek when I enjoyed listening at the top of the hour to see if the joined CBS on time.

For a few years WRNG ran CBS Radio Mystery Theatre. It would run an hour before sign off, so the time moved based on sundown. I loved that show. I would tape the shows from my transistor radio to my nifty new portable casette recorder with a patch cord I put together from two portable microphone cords.... we did not have a Radio Shack in my down.

I would listen to the tapes at night after dark. Mystery Theatre was always better after dark.

Now... if only Dr. Demento would come back on the air in Atlanta.... interesting side note. I saw Dr. Demento in person two or three years ago at Dragoncon. Before you ask, Dragoncon is the largest science fiction convention on the east coast. Dr. Demento was spinning records for a group of about 1000 folks. Most of those folks had never heard him before. The Dr. even had is top hat on.