Biggest Radio flips in last 30 years in Atlanta

What do you consider as the biggest radio flips/format changes in the last 30 years that had a major impact to the Atlanta market or to you? Which formats/stations that are gone do you miss?

IMHO (Just the last couple of years) adding 95.5 to WSB's 750 had to be the big change. It really hurt all of the other AM stations north of Macon. 94.9 from Peach / lite to country and 96.1 to CHR was really also a major shift.

Z-93 flipping from CHR/CHuRban to classic rock, 1989
Power 99 flipping from CHR to alt 99X, 1992
Fox 97 flipping from oldies to urban to classic rock, 2005?
WCHK 105.7 flipping to WGST-FM, 1993
WYAY flipping from country to oldies/classic hits to news/talk

I think with regards to this site, it was WYAY going from oldies to All News that was the biggest in modern days only because I think we got up to 40 pages of discussion with that change. Personally, I'd say 99X leaving was a big one and also 929 when it was CHR going over to classic rock.

From a branding standpoint, the end of WQXI-FM "94Q" (November 1989) was pretty big. When you throw in the combined history of 790/WQXI from the 1960s, it's humongous.

(The people that really remember this are the very same people/demos that the radio industry threw aside years ago.)

The 1st radio flip/format change that had a major impact to the Atlanta market and myself would have to be:

-94.9 Lite FM WLTM Flipping To The Bull WUBL in December 2006-Sunday morning traditional worship show SOF ("The Sounds Of Faith") stayed on for as long as it could even after the flip to The Bull. Then in 2009, SOF got taken off of The Bull, therefore, being confined to the Great 88/88.9 FM WMSL in Athens, GA. Last month in June of this year in 2015, WMSL took SOF off of the FM dial completely, therefore, confining it to strictly Internet only. You can listen to SOF online anytime 24/7/365 at http://www.soundsoffaith.net/. Yes, Jim Hutto is still the host of SOF. The reason for SOF moving to Internet only is because so WMSL can target a younger demographic. They're doing that by way of a contemporary worship show called "Sunday Morning Praise". It's an automated show with no hosts, and it fits in with WMSL's new branding "The Christian FM" just perfectly. What a bummer that SOF got taken off of the FM dial completely. The only 2 markets left that still do traditional worship on the FM dial are Tulsa, OK and Idaho Falls, ID-Pocatello, ID, and I don't want to move to either one of those markets because they're way too far away from my family back here at home in the Atlanta area.

The 2nd radio flip/format change that had a major impact to the Atlanta market and myself would have to be:

-107.5 Flipping From Smooth Jazz WJZZ To Present-Day R&B Majic 107.5 WAMJ in 2009-Of course, they added the Southside simulcast on 97.5 WUMJ. The Southside simulcast didn't matter. However, my dad and I did not like the flip from smooth jazz to R&B one bit. Yes, it was a bummer.

Anyway, that is all.

bclark71. said:

From a branding standpoint, the end of WQXI-FM "94Q" (November 1989) was pretty big. When you throw in the combined history of 790/WQXI from the 1960s, it's humongous.

(The people that really remember this are the very same people/demos that the radio industry threw aside years ago.)

Click to expand...

I guess I should use "thrown aside" as a screen name. IIRC Gary McKee had fans show up at the studio for his last show on WQXI. Didn't Gary have a Million $$ contract? Six figures in the 1980 and early 1990's would have been a huge amount in a sub top five market.