WBTS

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WBTS
City of license	Doraville, Georgia
Broadcast area	Atlanta metropolitan area
Branding	95.5 The Beat
Slogan	Atlanta's New #1 for Hip Hop
Frequency	95.5 MHz (Also on HD Radio) 95.5 HD-2 for Top 40
First air date	March 1969
Format	CHR/Rhythmic
ERP	74,000 watts
HAAT	340 meters
Class	C1
Facility ID	11710
Callsign meaning	BeaTS
Former callsigns	WGAU, WNGC, WYAP
Owner	Cox Radio
Sister stations	WALR, WSB, WSB-FM, WSRV part of Cox cluster with WSB-TV and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	955thebeat.com

WBTS FM or 95-5 the Beat is an Atlanta radio station that plays Rhythmic Top 40 music. The Cox Radio outlet broadcasts at 95.5 MHz with an ERP of 74 kw. The station's city of license is Doraville, Georgia.

[edit] History

95.5 has a long history. It began in Athens on May 1st, 1948 as WGAU-FM on 99.5, broadcasting at 3600 watts (simulcating sister station WGAU-AM). In 1956, the station moved to 102.5. This was because when channel 11 came on the air in Atlanta, it created a second harmonic. During 1962, WGAU-FM broadcasted in stereo for 6 hours, the second station in Georgia to do so. Also in 1962, WGAU-FM moved to 95.5 because when Channel 8 came on, it created a "beat-frequency" with Channel 5 in the Athens Area.

In March of 1968, WGAU-FM became WNGC-FM. The next year, WNGC became North Georgia's FIRST full-time country music station, also one of the first in the nation to program country music full-time. WNGC went 24 hours a day, and began broadcasting at 100,000 watts from a tower located in Neece, Georgia in 1976.

In 1999, the owners of WNGC (Clarke Broadcasting) wanted to sell their Athens properties. They sold the 95-5 frequency to Cox, and then became top 40 WBTS. WNGC merged with and moved to an existing country station at 106.1 (WSTE-FM). Its city of license stayed Athens, Georgia in Clarke County, though as a move-in (done in 1999) it now transmits from the western Barrow County and eastern Gwinnett County line, about halfway to Atlanta, in northeast metro Atlanta. The station changed its city of license to the Atlanta suburb of Doraville and now has an application to downgrade to a C2 and put its tower a lot closer to the city in order to provide a better metro-wide signal.

When it was signed on with host Stick On The Radio in 1999, its direction focused on mainstream Pop, Dance, and Rock product even though it had a Rhythmic lean. But by 2000 they would evolve more towards Rhythmic product, thus resulting in the station dropping all mainstream Rock/Pop product and going Rhythmic 24/7. It would be this move that would pay off big time in the ratings, putting them among the top 10 stations in Atlanta. With the hip hop lean, WBTS competes with WVEE and WHTA, while on the Top 40 side it competes with WWWQ and WSTR.

Over the next few years, the station straddled the Rhythmic-Mainstream divide. By October, 2005, the station had fallen out of the top 10, and the station changed its slogan to "Number One for Hip Hop." Despite the shift, Cox is still billing the station as a Rhythmic Top 40 and continues to report to R&R's Rhythmic reporting panel.

[edit] WBTS HD2

On April 25, 2006, Cox announced that WBTS' HD2 subchannel will carry a format focusing on "Pop Top 40" hits.

[edit] External links

• Station website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WBTS
• Radio Locator information on WBTS
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WBTS
• Doraville's website - Doraville is home of the 95.5 Thea Beat

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