WSTR (FM)

WSTR-FM

Star 94 Logo
Smyrna, Georgia
Broadcast area	Atlanta metropolitan area
Frequency	94.1 MHz (HD Radio)
Branding	Star 94
Programming
Format	Top 40
Ownership
Owner	Lincoln Financial Media
History
First air date	1967
Former call signs	WQXI, WKXI
Call sign meaning	STAR 94
Technical information
Class	C0
ERP	100,000 watts
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.star94.com

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 WNNX). 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 and 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.

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.

On June 13, 2007, Vikki Locke announced that she would be leaving the show for health reasons when her contract ended at the end of 2007. A few weeks later, Star 94 announced that Steve McCoy would be leaving as well and that their final show would air November 2. At the end of the broadcast, McCoy became very emotional and confirmed that his leaving Star 94 was not voluntary.

For the two weeks following their departure, Star 94 ran "The Best of Steve & Vikki" clips in morning drive, before temporarily turning the morning duties over to night jock Nudge. "The Morning Mess," a morning show hired in from Indianapolis, debuted on January 2, 2008.

During the 17½ year run of run of "Steve & Vikki," the program was nominated twice for the prestigious Marconi award. Steve and Vicki were the second longest tenured morning show in Atlanta, bested by Rhubarb Jones at country station WYAY who has been on the 106.7 dail since February of 1985.

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.
• Nudge, evening personality. He has also prided himself on being voted the official night-governor of Georgia.
• Weekends... American Top 40, a syndicated show hosted by former Star 94 personality Ryan Seacrest. Rick Dee's and the Weekly Top 40's, a syndicated show hosted by Rick Dee.

Additional personalities...

• Chris Carter
• Michael Chase
• Alisa Henderson
• John McFadden
• Doug Miller
• Randy "Spoon" Stien
• Tom Sullivan (Radio and Television Personality)

Former Personalties:

• 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
• Vikki Locke, last day at Star 94 was November 2, 2007
• Mike Macho, last heard 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 is currently doing mornings with Rhubarb Jones at WYAY Eagle 106.7FM.
• Steve McCoy, last day at Star 94 was November 2, 2007
• Mike Oliver, former traffic reporter
• Ryan Seacrest is now on American Idol and has a syndicated radio show out of Los Angeles, CA.
• Tracy St. George, formerly on WWWQ-FM Atlanta All The Hits Q100, recently moved to West Palm Beach, FL.
• Kevin Steele, now programing director at WGMG and WPUP in Athens, GA also works weekends on Kicks 101.5FM.
• Wendy Threatt, former afternoon traffic reporter (?)

The station's general manager, Mark Kanov, has worked at the station since the late 1960s.

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.
• 94.1 was once WGST-FM and was given away in the 1950's 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.

External links

• Star 94 official website
• WSTR in the FCC FM station database
• Template:FML
• Lincoln Financial Media