WSTO

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WSTO (FM) is a heritage FM radio station that serves the Evansville, Indiana, Henderson, Kentucky, and Owensboro, Kentucky markets. It is licensed in Owensboro and broadcasts from a 1000-foot tower strategically located midway between these cities in the Kentucky town of Hebbardsville.

[edit] History

Founded by V. J. Steele, the owner of WVJS, WSTO was among the first FM stations in the region to transform from easy listening music to pop music, making the switch in 1982. The station reaches 33 counties in the Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois tri-state region. Callers from as far away as St. Louis, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky were known to call the studio request lines.

It instantly became a huge success in the tri-state. In 1987, under the leadership of program director Barry Witherspoon and music director Scott Murray, the station had a commanding 31.5 share among persons 12 and older. The station had been sold by the original owner's family to Century Communications (a cable TV company) in the mid-1980s, and was later acquired by Sentry Insurance when that company bought Century.

In 1995, WSTO and its sister AM station were acquired by the former Brill Media Corporation of Evansville, Indiana which also acquired WOMI and WBKR also of Owensboro. After the Brill takeover, the numbers began to decline for a variety of reasons including the firing of 15-year morning man Brian Jackson, growing commercial inventory, alienation of the younger listeners, and overbearing corporate management who believed they were programmers.

WSTO's ratings plummeted. In the late 90s, the heritage WSTO calls were all-but-eliminated, in favor of the moniker "Mix 96," and the slogan "the Best Mix of the 90s, 80s, and Today". The format was a hybrid of the Hot AC and CHR/Top 40 formats, playing music from the 80s alongside Eminem and Will Smith.

Ratings under this marketing plan actually increased slightly. There was already competition in the market, though, as around that same time Evansville had WDKS, doing a variant of Hot AC.

The conservative Hot AC format on WDKS didn't get very far. WDKS was never a serious threat to WSTO until Clear Channel took the station over and put its Kiss FM brand on it in the fall of 2000. It appeared that might be the end of a long reign for WSTO. After Clear Channel took control, WDKS soared into the Evansville market's number 2 position, essentially flip-flopping positions with WSTO.

The WSTO numbers fell to the 6 share range, something that had never happened prior. To make matters worse, Brill Media fell into financial ruin and went bankrupt, forcing the sale of all four stations.

WSTO FM was acquired by South Central Communications Corporation of Evansville, Indiana, and co-located the station with WIKY 104.1. Rumors immediately began to abound that South Central would dump CHR/Pop altogether to go Hot AC as a complimentary sales package with WIKY, but thorough research suggested otherwise.

In 2004, WSTO launched a new moniker, "Hot 96 Today's Hit Music," and refocused on its CHR/Top 40 roots, eliminating the gold product.

While the ratings for "Hot 96" remain in the single digits, generally falling between 7 and 9, the station has re-emerged as a market leader, finding itself on top of WDKS almost immediately after the relaunch. The number 1 station in the market (usually WIKY) regularly has a 15 share, a far cry from WSTO's shares of days gone by. For all technical purposes, WSTO is now the only Pop station in the market, as rival WDKS shifted in a Rhythmic direction.

[edit] External links

• WSTO station site
• Booker & Sarah's page
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WSTO