WBAV-FM


WBAV-FM is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, WBAV's studios and offices are on South Boulevard in Charlotte's South End. In morning drive time, it carries the syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show.
WBAV-FM has an effective radiated power of 100,000 watts, the maximum for most American FM stations. The transmitter is on Crowder's Mountain, along McSwain Groves Road in Gastonia. The station broadcasts using HD Radio technology. It carries sports from Fox Sports Radio on its HD-2 subchannel. It carries all-podcasts on its HD-3 subchannel.

History

WGNC-FM, WZXI and WLIT

The station signed on the air in. The original call sign was WGNC-FM and it had a power of 11,100 watts, a fraction of its current output. It was locally owned by the McSwain Family. WGNC-FM was a full simulcast of co-owned WGNC 1450 AM. The stations normally ran a broadcast day of 5:00 AM to 12:00 midnight until the late 1970s, when it began operating 24 hours daily. WGNC-AM-FM were network affiliates of ABC.
In 1976, WGNC-FM broke off from its AM sister station's programming and began airing a soft adult contemporary format. The call letters were changed to WZXI in 1978. The station was one of three soft AC stations in the Charlotte radio market. Protests over the programming change were launched by WEZC in December 1982. That led WZXI to change to beautiful music.
In 1987, WZXI became WLIT and later switched to a satellite-delivered Middle of the Road format.

WCKZ

On January 22, 1988, shortly after Beasley Broadcasting bought the station, WLIT became WCKZ, better known as "Kiss 102". "Kiss" aired a "Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio" format. Artists included Lionel Richie, Shalamar, Whitney Houston, Lisa Lisa, Phil Collins and Jody Watley. The station also increased its transmitter's power on Crowder's Mountain and moved its studio from Gastonia to Charlotte.
However, due to rival WPEG's increase in power, as well as increased competition from WAQQ, the station began falling in the ratings. That, along with financial troubles, resulted in the station filing for bankruptcy in 1992. In late 1993, Beasley announced it would sell WCKZ to Broadcasting Partners Inc., which recently purchased WPEG. A local group, Citizens for Broadcasting in the Public Interest, started a petition to stop the sale, but the sale was approved in mid-January 1994. BPI decided to merge WCKZ's rhythmic format with WPEG in order to eliminate the competition between the two stations.

WBAV-FM

On January 25, 1994, at 2 p.m., WCKZ flipped to Urban AC, branded as "V 101.9." New WBAV-FM call letters were adopted the day prior to the flip. The WBAV call letters were assigned on February 11 to co-owned station WGIV. Following a format change, the AM station returned to the WGIV call letters in May 1997.
Broadcasting Partners merged with Evergreen Media in May 1995. In December 1996, as part of a multi-market swap, WBAV-FM, along with Evergreen's four other Charlotte stations, were traded to EZ Communications, as well as WIP in Philadelphia to the Beasley Broadcast Group in exchange for five stations located in Miami and Philadelphia. The swap was completed on December 1, 2014. The trade brought the 101.9 frequency back to its former owners for the first time since 1993.