WSTR (FM)

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WSTR FM ("Star 94", 94.1 MHz) is an Atlanta FM radio station that plays Top 40 Music. It is owned by Lincoln Financial Media, and has Smyrna, Georgia as its city of license.

In mid-1977, the station, formerly WKXI, was officially rechristened 94Q (WQXI-FM). It became one of Atlanta's dominant FM stations and remained so until 1987, when its audience share began to dwindle. Various tweaks were made to the music mix, followed by an outright change of direction in early 1989 that competed head-to-head with then-dominant CHR WAPW/Power 99 (now WWWQ). 94Q was soundly beaten, and the station began to purge most of its management and on-air talent.

At midnight on November 16, 1989, its name was changed to "Star 94" after purchasing the call sign "WSTR" from a Sturgis, Michigan radio station (now WMSH). The station in recent years has begun to play some hip hop songs but remains more pop and rock oriented than most Top 40-style stations, similar to Hot AC stations. Its core audience consists of 18 to 49 year old women, therefore it is sometimes classified as an Adult Top 40 station, a hybrid of Hot AC and Top 40.

Several influential air personalities have worked at the Atlanta station, including American Idol's Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest interned on the night show with Tom Sullivan, who trained him in all areas of broadcasting then gave him his first "on air" shift of his career, before moving to weekends. He did this while attending Dunwoody High School in nearby DeKalb County.

[edit] Steve & Vikki

Steve McCoy had worked at Atlanta's Z93 WZGC (now 92.9 Dave FM) 1981-87 and Power 99.7 WAPW 1987-89 before leaving for a job at Dallas's KVIL. Homesick a year later, he was hired by Star 94 in 1990, after the station's first morning show (Jack Murphy and Terrence McKeever) was a dismal failure.

The Steve McCoy Morning Show debuted on Star on May 29, 1990, and re-teamed McCoy with newsreader Vikki Locke (from his WAPW days). The show's name was officially changed to Steve & Vikki In The Morning in 1993.

During the 17½ year run of run of Steve & Vikki, the program was nominated twice for the prestigious Marconi award. At the end of their run on Star 94, they were the second-longest tenured morning show in Atlanta, only bested by the 23-year run (1985-2008) of Rhubarb Jones at country station Y106 and Eagle 106.7 WYAY (both at 106.7).

McCoy and Locke will join WSB-FM B98.5 on July 1, 2008. Leading up to their debut, B98.5 began running TV ads with Steve & Vikki, hearlding their return. Star 94's parent company, Lincoln Financial, filed suit and sought a temporary restraining order to block the ads, claiming violation of Steve and Vikki's non-compete clause. However, a Fulton County Superior Court Judge threw the claim out, and the ads continued running.

[edit] Current/Former On-Air Personalities

The current staff includes:

• Mornings... The Morning Mess, hosted by Marco, Shannon, and Mikey
• Rob Stadler, news reader/morning personality
• Shannon Holly, traffic reporter
• Tripp West, midday personality
• Afternoons... The Cindy & Ray Show, hosted by Cindy Simmons and Ray Mariner.
• Nights....Darik at Night, hosted by Darik Kristofer...debuted on April 21st, 2008.
• Weekends... A heavily-edited version of American Top 40, hosted by former Star 94 staffer Ryan Seacrest. Rick Dees' Weekly Top 40, a syndicated show hosted by legendary Los Angeles morning-drive DJ Rick Dees.

Additional personalities...

• Chris Carter
• Michael Chase
• Alisa Henderson
• John McFadden
• Doug Miller
• Randy "Spoon" Stien
• Tom Sullivan

Former Personalities:

• Kristen Gates, former weekender / traffic reporter / morning show producer. Co-hosted mornings at WKHX/Kicks 101.5 FM until 2/29/2008
• Bender, former weekend/fill-in personality
• Billy Brown, former evening personality
• Craig Hunt, former afternoon personality
• J. Bird, former weekend/fill-in personality
• Eileen Kimble, former weekend personality
• Nikki Knight, former evening personality
• Eric Lauer, former weekend personality
• Steve McCoy, last day at Star 94 was November 2, 2007... slated to debut on B 98.5FM WSB-FM July 1, 2008.
• Vikki Locke, last day at Star 94 was November 2, 2007... slated to debut on B 98.5FM WSB-FM July 1, 2008.
• Mike Macho, currently on WKHX-FM Kicks 101.5FM
• Jamie Massey, now at 94.9 WUBL FM co-hosting mornings with Country Commedean Cledus T.Judd
• Dallas McCade (known as Madison Chase on Star 94 and its predecessor 94Q) is currently doing mornings with Cadilac Jack on WKHX in Atlanta after the dimise of WYAY as a country station.
• Mike Oliver, former traffic reporter
• Ryan Seacrest is now on American Idol and has a syndicated morning radio show out of Los Angeles, CA.
• Tracy St. George, formerly on WWWQ Atlanta All The Hits Q100, recently moved to West Palm Beach, FL. to take the afternoon slot at WRMF 97.9
• Kevin Steele, now programing director at WGMG and WPUP in Athens, GA had worked weekends on Kicks 101.5FM until 3/22/2008.
• Wendy Threatt, former afternoon traffic reporter (Now doing afternoon traffic on aM 750 WSB in Atlanta)

The station's general manager, Mark Kanov, has worked at the station since the late 1960s announced his retirement for late July 2008.

[edit] Trivia

• WSTR FM shares a tower with WPBA TV 30, and in fact shares the same antenna with WSB-FM 98.5 and WVEE FM 103.3. The three radio stations' transmitters are diplexed together, so that they all feed to the antenna instead of into each other.
• WQXI was the inspiration for the television show WKRP in Cincinnati, and the character Johnny Fever was based on WQXI's morning host Skinny Bobby Harper. ^[1]
• 94.1 was once WGST-FM and was given away in the 1950s as FM did not take off

WSTR broadcasts in HD Radio. It carried an eclectic rock mix on HD-2 and a simulcast of WQXI's sports talk format on HD-3. These two subchannels are both down at the moment.

[edit] External links

• Star 94 official website
• Star94.FM - Listen Live to Star94 FM
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WSTR
• Radio Locator information on WSTR
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WSTR
• Lincoln Financial Media