WSTO

For television station, see WSTO TV.

WSTO

City of license	Owensboro, Kentucky
Broadcast area	Evansville/Owensboro/Henderson
Branding	HOT 96
Slogan	"Today's Hit Music"
Frequency	96.1 (MHz)
First air date	September 1982
Format	Top 40/CHR
ERP	100,000 watts
Class	C
Callsign meaning	STO stands for 'STereO', as the station was one of the first (perhaps the first) stations in Kentucky to broadcast in stereo[citation needed]
Owner	South Central Communications
Website	http://www.hot96.com/

WSTO (96.1 FM, "Hot 96") is a heritage 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. WSTO's studio is located inside South Central Communications' headquarters on Mount Auburn Road in Evansville, Indiana, nearby the studios for WFIE.

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 Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area. Callers from as far away as St. Louis, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky were known to call the studio request lines^{[citation needed]}.

By 1987, with Program Director Barry Witherspoon, Music Director/Midday Personality Scott Murray, Morning Personality Brian Jackson, Afternoon Personality Jamie Richards, Evening Personality Charlie Foxx, and Overnight Personality Rusty Sharp, the station had a commanding 31.5 share among persons 12 and older^{[citation needed]}. Even to this day Richards is still the highest rated drive-time personality in the history of the Evansville market^{[citation needed]}.

In 1996, 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^{[citation needed]}.

WSTO's ratings plummeted. In the late 90s, the heritage WSTO calls were all-but-eliminated, in favor of the moniker "Mix 96STO" and the slogan "the Best Mix of the 90s, 80s, and Today". The format was an adult leaning CHR/Top 40 formats, playing music from the 80s alongside Eminem and Will Smith^{[citation needed]}.

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^{[citation needed]}.

The conservative Hot AC format on WDKS didn't get very far^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}. 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 and remains better to this day^{[citation needed]}.

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^{[citation needed]}.

WSTO FM was acquired by South Central Communications Corporation of Evansville, Indiana, and co-located the station with WIKY 104.1 and WABX 107.5. 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^{[citation needed]}.

In 2004, WSTO launched a new moniker, "Hot 96 Today's Hit Music," and refocused on its CHR/Top 40 roots,by providing crappy radio to everyone in there listening area. After his release from prison WSTO hired former Atom Smasher and Shawnda McNeal to handle there morning radio.They record a majority of there show the night before making it as cheesy as possible.

While the ratings for "Hot 96" remain terrible, generally falling between 2 and 4, the station has re-emerged as a market failure, finding itself on bottom of WDKS almost immediately after the relaunch^{[citation needed]}. The number 1 station in the market (usually WDKS) regularly has a 15 share, a far cry from WSTO's shares of days gone by^{[citation needed]}. For all technical purposes, WSTO is now the worst Pop station in the market, as rival WDKS continues to beat out Hot96 because of the lack of talent and music selection. 106.1 Kiss FM is way better than Hot 96

External links

1061evansville.com

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