WNEW-FM

For former New York FM station, see WWFS.

For the station in Jupiter, Florida that also held these calls, see WHFS.

WNEW-FM

City of license	Bowie, Maryland
Broadcast area	Baltimore, Maryland - Washington, D.C.
Branding	WNEW All News 99.1
Slogan	All News. All The Time.
Frequency	99.1 MHz
First air date	1983 (as WLOM-FM)
Format	All-news
ERP	45,000 watts
HAAT	157 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	72177
Transmitter coordinates	39°1′48″N 76°44′25″W
Callsign meaning	W-"NEWS"
Former callsigns	WLZL (2/2005-12/2011) WZLL (01/2005-02/2005) WHFS (1983-2005) WLOM (04/1983-11/1983) WLOM-FM (03/1983-04/1983)
Affiliations	ABC News Radio
Owner	CBS Radio (CBS Radio East Inc.)
Sister stations	WIAD, WJFK-FM, WLZL, WNEW, WPGC-FM
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	washington.cbslocal.com

WNEW-FM (99.1 FM; "All-News 99.1") is a radio station broadcasting an all-news format. Licensed to the suburb of Bowie, Maryland, it serves the Baltimore, Maryland/Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by CBS Radio. Its transmitter is located near Crofton, Maryland.

History

Main article: WHFS (historic)

99.1 signed on in 1983 as WLOM-FM. Jacob Einstein, the owner of WHFS (then 102.3 FM) sold the station for $2 million and used the money to purchase WLOM along with WNAV (1430 AM). He then moved the WHFS format and call letters to 99.1 FM and sold the AM station to game show host Pat Sajak. WHFS was broadcasting with much higher power than the 102.3 facility. Eventually Einstein's group sold WHFS. When the station switched formats, it was located at the Infinity Broadcasting Center in Lanham, Maryland. The 102.3 frequency is now occupied by an Urban AC station in Washington, using the call letters WMMJ and nicknamed "Majic 102.3".

See also: HFStival

Since 1990, WHFS has hosted an event called the HFStival, an annual (sometimes semi-annual) day-long (sometimes two-day-long) outdoor concert. The concert, often held at Washington's RFK Stadium, features a variety local and national acts; for example, the 2004 lineup included The Cure, Jay-Z, Modest Mouse, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Cypress Hill. Robert Benjamin, Bob Waugh and Bill Glasser took the HFStival from a small yearly concert in Fairfax, Virginia, to a large festival in Washington DC that was headlined by major acts and was surrounded by culturally significant booths, games, food, and rides, as well as an outdoor second stage. Amongst others, Billy Zero was instrumental in growing the HFStival Locals Only Stage where bands like Good Charlotte and Jimmie's Chicken Shack got their big break. The term Locals Only stuck and is still used today and the Locals Only Stage was copied by Modern Rock Stations across the Country.

In the mid-1990s, Liberty Broadcasting published a quarterly magazine titled "WHFS Press" that was mailed to listeners and available in local music outlets.

Though becoming famous as a cutting-edge station playing the latest underground music (and often beating the mainstream to the punch by months and even years), under Infinity Broadcasting's ownership, the station became the local modern alternative rock station in the mid 90s. No longer playing rather obscure progressive rock, nor the classic and hard rock of its Baltimore competitor WIYY, HFS was now formatted more towards a younger set of fans who were more apt to listen to Green Day and Fuel than less mainstream artists such as Fugazi or Lou Reed. The station played much of the alternative hits that were touted by the mainstream press and MTV, turning off many old-school HFS listeners, but in turn gaining many listeners in the 18-24 age demographic.

Durding this period, WHFS featured a specialty show called "Now Hear This", hosted by Dave Marsh, which highlighted indie and local music. The station never fully reverted to its prior all-indie status, but it did begin to combine more underground programming with its modern rock format.

In 1999, WHFS released a New Music New Video Compilation Volume 1 on VHS that was distributed free at Washington area Tower Records outlets. It featured tracks by Cyclefly, Fuel, Fastball, Elliot Smith, Kid Rock, Eve 6, 3 Colours Red, Puya, and Joydrop.

"El Zol 99.1 FM" and all-news

At noon on January 12, 2005, 99.1 switched to a Tropical Latin music format. Its call letters were soon changed to WZLL for a few days, and then again to WLZL, and the station was rebranded as "El Zol 99.1 FM". AOL, which had a partnership with Infinity Broadcasting and recognized that many people would miss the old WHFS format, quickly launched an internet-only streaming radio station with a playlist much like that of WHFS. Due to the amount of complaints about the format change which attracted media attention, then owner Infinity brought the WHFS format back a month later on the 105.7 FM frequency (now WJZ-FM). The WHFS call letters have since relocated first to a talk station on 1580 AM (now WNEW), and then to a sister station in West Palm Beach, Florida. WLZL is also CBS Radio's first Spanish radio station, and the company's only Spanish station outside the southern United States.

On November 16, 2011, CBS Radio announced plans to acquire WFSI (107.9 MHz) from religious broadcaster Family Radio, with the intention of moving WLZL's Spanish Tropical format and El Zol branding from 99.1 to 107.9, with a new all-news format launched on 99.1. The 99.1 MHz frequency will adopt the WNEW-FM call sign. The format change occurred on December 1, when 99.1 and 107.9 both began simulcasting El Zol. El Zol was finally moved to 107.9 on December 12, 2011, and 99.1 began stunting with Christmas music, with the WNEW-FM call letters now in place on 99.1 (WLZL was then moved to 107.9 frequency). On December 27, 2011 WNEW-FM ended its Christmas music stunting and began stunting with the 1981 Silver Anniversary Edition of The History of Rock and Roll. The all-news format launched at noon on January 22, 2012; the station initially planned to launch at 5 a.m. on January 19, but postponed it due to technical problems.

Because existing all-news outlet WTOP-FM is the market's CBS Radio Network affiliate until 2013 (which dates back to when WTOP, which originally operated on the frequency of sister station WFED, was a CBS Radio owned-and-operated station from 1931 until 1954), WNEW-FM is affiliated with ABC News Radio.

Currently, WNEW regularly programs traffic reports every ten minutes on the "ones" (six times an hour) and weather reports every four minutes (both from CBS affiliate WUSA), sports updates twice an hour (at :25 and :55) from sister station WJFK-FM, entertainment news once an hour, and business news twice an hour (at :15 and :45). When breaking news warrants, WNEW will break format to provide continuous coverage of any event.

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WNEW
• Radio-Locator information on WNEW
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WNEW