| City of license | Bethesda, Maryland |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Washington, D.C. |
| Branding | "94.7 Fresh FM" |
| Slogan | "Today's Fresh Music" |
| Frequency | 94.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1959 |
| Format | Hot Adult Contemporary HD2: WNEW-FM HD3: WJFK-FM |
| ERP | 20,500 watts |
| HAAT | 235 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 9619 |
| Callsign meaning | "IAD" is also the airport code for Washington Dulles International Airport |
| Former callsigns | WJMD (1959-1982) WLTT (1982-1993) WARW (1993-2007) WTGB (2007-2009) |
| Owner | CBS Radio (CBS Radio East, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WJFK, WLZL, WNEW (AM), WNEW-FM, WPGC-FM |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 947freshfm.com |
WIAD is a commercial radio station in Bethesda, Maryland, broadcasting to the Washington, DC area on 94.7 FM. It currently broadcasts a Hot Adult Contemporary format as 94.7 Fresh FM.
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94.7 FM originally aired a beautiful music format with the call letters, WJMD. The WJMD call letters formed the initials of the previous owner, Joseph and M. Diener.
WJMD evolved into a soft adult contemporary music format with a change of call letters to WLTT. Under this format, the station was branded as "W-Lite".
WLTT dropped the soft adult contemporary music format in favor of a classic rock music format branded as "The Arrow". A change of call letters followed to WARW to complement the change in branding to "The Arrow". WARW was also billed on-air as "We Always Rock Washington."
On February 2, 2007, an adult album alternative (also known as "triple A") music format was adopted with the branding "The Globe". The new "Globe" format also featured "green" segments between songs or before and after commercials with environmental information. These segments are called "The Green Scene". The station's call letters changed to WTGB on February 15. The airstaff remained the same as WARW's, but some spots were flipped. Weasel moved from nights to mornings, displacing the Stevens & Medley morning team. Mark Stevens, who was part of Stevens & Medley, moved to nights and was eventually replaced by Albie Dee, who would later move to mornings, replacing Weasel, in November 2008, two months after WTGB flipped back to their prior classic rock format. Jerry Hoyt would then take over evenings. The February 2007 shift to Triple-A left rival classic hits station WBIG-FM as the capital's only analog station broadcasting some form of classic rock. The Globe's HD-2 channel, then known as "The Jam" began broadcasting a mixture of classic rock.
The call letters appeared to echo those of the Georgetown University radio station, WGTB. Long time Washington radio listeners remember that station from the 1970s as a champion of the alternative rock of its time. WTGB's former DJs, Don "Cerphe" Colwell and Jonathan "Weasel" Gilbert (he left the station October, 2008), have each been involved with Washington radio for nearly 40 years, including stints for both at WHFS. When the station flipped formats, Cerphe left the air April, 2009[1].
On August 10, 2008, WTGB dropped the triple A format and began returning to a classic rock format. Three weeks after the change, music director and midday personality Schelby Sweeney quit the station, and was replaced by Marci Wiser, formerly of New York City sister station WXRK. [2] The "Globe" name (but not the "World Class Rock" slogan) stayed, and WTGB-HD2 flipped to a triple A format. The format change was likely because of low ratings; the station stayed in the bottom seven for its entire life as a triple A outlet. [3][4] On September 1, 2008, WTGB began using the branding 'Classic Rock 94.7 The Globe' on air. On February 14, 2009, however, the station's name would change to simply 'Classic Rock 94.7', like it was for some time while the station was still WARW. [5] A new logo and website followed on March 9, 2009.
The station will occasionally broadcast Virginia Cavaliers basketball when rights holder WJFK-FM elects not to do so. The most recent sports broadcast on WTGB was on February 26, 2009, when the Cavaliers' men's basketball team played the Miami Hurricanes at home.
CBS Radio announced on March 30, 2009 that 94.7 FM would be switching to an adult contemporary format with a verge towards hot adult contemporary on Monday, April 6, 2009 and become "94.7 Fresh FM", gaining the 'Fresh' brand of Greg Dunkin. Jeff Buckley's Last Goodbye was Classic Rock 94.7's last song (the last song that signed off the original WHFS-FM on 99.1 in 2005 and the Baltimore version on 105.7 in 2007). The new format launched with P!nk's Get The Party Started at midnight on April 6. It was said to have the same branding as sister stations WWFS in New York and WCFS-FM in Chicago. CBS aims to have the new station compete with Clear Channel's Adult Contemporary WASH-FM, as well as Citadel's Hot Adult Contemporary WRQX. [6] The rivalry with WASH-FM is hinted at in various promotion spots using the tagline "None of that WASHed up old stuff, just Fresh new music." The station launched at midnight on April 6 as the Washington, D.C. counterpart of its WLIF sister station from Baltimore that could be heard in much of Washington, D.C., although it combined the formats of its WLIF & WWMX sisters. The Classic Rock format would return to DC via WJZW (now WMAL-FM), as 105.9 The Edge. It launched in August 2009. In 2011, when Nielsen BDS & Mediabase switched reporting panels from the AC panel to the hot AC panel (duplicating the format of sister WWMX in Baltimore particularly due to WLIF's signal targeting much of Washington, D.C.), WIAD marked it the first time since 2006 on how Washington, D.C. had two hot adult contemporary stations since the flip of WWZZ (now WPRS-FM), even though its WWMX sister station is blocked in much of Washington, D.C.
On December 16th, 2009, WTGB became WIAD, becoming the only Fresh FM station not using "FS" on the calls. KEZK-FM in St. Louis, Missouri followed suit the following year.
CBS Radio now lists WIAD as a hot AC on its website since the logo change.
On 10 June 2009, 94.7's HD2 subcarrier started broadcasting a Progressive Rock format under the branding "HFS2". The channel previously played Triple A music. WHFS was a legendary rock station that broadcast from 11 November 1961 to 12 January 2005 on various frequencies in the Washington area. The callsign is now "parked" on an AM talk station.
On August 1, 2011 the "HFS2" was dropped from 94.7's HD2 and moved to Baltimore's WWMX-HD2 and FM translator at 97.5 FM. The next day, On August 2nd, 2011 HFS2 was added to 94.7 HD2 in Bethesda. However, HFS was dropped on December 30, 2011 for a simulcast of 99.1 WNEW-FM. [7]
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