WIAD (94.7 FM, "94.7 The Drive") is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...

, and serving the

Washington metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgi ...

.WIAD: FM Broadcast Station Authorization
. ''Federal Communications Commission''. March 27, 2013. The station is owned by

Audacy, Inc. Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

, through licensee Audacy License, LLC, and broadcasts a

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

, branded as "94.7 The Drive". The

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

s and offices are on Half Street SE near the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington. WIAD has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...

(ERP) of 20,500

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...

is off River Road in Bethesda. WIAD broadcasts using

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...

technology, using its HD2

digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...

to carry " Channel Q," Audacy's

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

and CHR/Dance service for the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

Q community.

History

On July 6, 1948, the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) granted Broadcast Management, Inc., a

construction permit Planning permission or developmental approval refers to the approval needed for construction or expansion (including significant renovation), and sometimes for demolition, in some jurisdictions. It is usually given in the form of a building perm ...

for a new FM station on 103.1 MHz with WBCG-FM as its

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

. On October 18, 1950, the FCC reassigned the station to 106.3 MHz, modifying the construction permit. The FCC granted the station its first license on June 29, 1951. On September 28, 1951, the station's call sign was changed to WUST-FM. The station's license was voluntarily transferred to WUST, Inc., on September 10, 1958, with an effective date of October 17, 1958. On January 28, 1959, the FCC granted WUST, Inc., a construction permit to change the station's frequency to 94.7 MHz. The permit allowed the station to increase its

(ERP) to 20,000 watts while decreasing the

height above average terrain Height above average terrain (HAAT), or (less popularly) effective height above average terrain (EHAAT), is the vertical position of an antenna site is above the surrounding landscape. HAAT is used extensively in FM radio and television, as it is ...

(HAAT) to 245 feet. The station's call sign was changed on April 5, 1960, to WJMD. The FCC granted a new license with the updated facilities on October 1, 1960. The station's license was modified by the FCC on November 30, 1960, to reflect a change in the owner's name to Atlantic Broadcasting Company. The station aired a

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

format. The WJMD

was formed from the initials of the previous owners, the Diener brothers (Walter, Jack, Mickey, and Dan). The FCC granted Atlantic Broadcasting Company a construction permit on November 25, 1968, allowing an increase in ERP to 50,000 watts and an increase in HAAT to 301 feet (later modified to 309 feet). On January 4, 1970, the FCC granted a voluntary reassignment of the station's license to San Juan Racing Association, Inc. The FCC granted the new owners a new license for the station with the upgraded facilities on August 13, 1970, followed by another voluntary reassignment of the license to SJR Communications, Inc., effective December 31, 1970. During the 1970s, SJR Communications changed the station's ERP and HAAT several times. On August 16, 1973, SJR Communications filed a construction permit with the FCC to decrease the station's ERP to 24,000 watts while increasing the station's HAAT to 670 feet. The permit was modified on May 24, 1974, to 17,000 watts ERP and 776 feet HAAT. The FCC then granted a new license with these facilities on June 18, 1975. SJR Communications was granted another construction permit on November 18, 1976, to increase the station's ERP to 21,000 watts and its HAAT to 780 feet. The FCC then granted a new license following these changes on March 15, 1978. WJMD evolved into a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

music format with a change of call sign to WLTT in March 1982. Under this format, the station was branded as "W-Lite". The format would last for the next 11 years. WLTT dropped the

music format on November 19, 1993, in favor of a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

music format branded as "The Arrow". A change of

followed to WARW to complement the change in branding to "The Arrow". WARW was also billed on-air as "We Always Rock Washington."

94.7 The Globe/Classic Rock 94.7

On February 2, 2007, an

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

(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 were called "The Green Scene". The station's call sign 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 AAA left rival

station

WBIG-FM WBIG-FM (100.3 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Washington, D.C. It has a classic rock radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are in Rockville, Maryland. WBIG-FM has an effective radiated power ...

as the capital's only analog station broadcasting some form of classic rock. The Globe's HD2 subchannel, then known as "The Jam", began broadcasting a mixture of classic rock. The call sign appeared similar to

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

's radio station,

WGTB WGTB is a student-run internet radio station at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. History The station was founded as an AM station in 1946 by the Reverend Francis J. Heyden, S.J., and moved to FM in 1960. In the late 1960s and through ...

. Long time Washington radio listeners remember that station from the 1970s as a champion of the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

of its time. WTGB's former DJs, Don "Cerphe" Colwell and Jonathan "Weasel" Gilbert (he left the station in 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 in April 2009. 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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

sister station WXRK. The "Globe" name (but not the "World Class Rock" slogan) stayed, and WTGB-HD2 flipped to a AAA format. The format change was likely because of low ratings; the station stayed in the bottom seven for its entire life as a AAA outlet. 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. A new logo and website followed on March 9, 2009.

94.7 Fresh FM

CBS Radio CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...

announced on March 30, 2009, that 94.7 FM would be switching to an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format at noon on April 6, 2009, as "94.7 Fresh FM". It was said to have the same branding as sister stations WWFS in New York and

WCFS-FM WCFS-FM (105.9 MHz) – branded ''Newsradio 105.9 WBBM'' – is a commercial all-news radio station licensed to the Chicago suburb of Elmwood Park, Illinois. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Chicago metropolitan area, operati ...

in Chicago. CBS aimed to have the new station compete with Clear Channel's

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

WASH-FM WASH (97.1 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station owned and operated by iHeartMedia and located in Washington, D.C. Known on-air as "WASH-FM," the station airs an adult contemporary radio format. Studios and offices are on Rockville Pike ( Mary ...

, as well as Citadel's

Hot Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

WRQX WLVW (107.3 FM) – branded as ''K-Love'' – is a non-commercial Christian adult contemporary radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned and operated by the Educational Media Foundation, WLVW does not broadcast any local programmi ...

(which has since been sold to

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is an American broadcasting company and is the third largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States behind Audacy and iHeartMedia. As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 ...

and shifted to

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

, but would shift back to Hot AC in November 2015, and became a member station of K-Love in May 2019). The rivalry with WASH-FM was hinted at in various promotion spots using the

tagline In entertainment, a tagline (alternatively spelled tag line) is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, s ...

"''None of that WASHed up old stuff, just Fresh new music.''" The last song on Classic Rock 94.7 was " Last Goodbye" by

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

, and the first song on "Fresh" was "

Get the Party Started "Get the Party Started" is a song by American singer Pink, released on October 16, 2001, as the lead single from her second album, ''Missundaztood'' (2001). It received positive reviews and became an international success and reached the top ten ...

" by

P!nk Alecia Beth Moore Hart (born September 8, 1979), known professionally as Pink (stylized as P!nk), is an American singer, songwriter, actress and dancer. She was originally a member of the girl group Choice. In 1995, LaFace Records saw potential ...

. On December 16, 2009, WTGB became WIAD, becoming the only Fresh FM station not using "FS" in its call sign.

KEZK-FM KEZK-FM (102.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Louis, Missouri. It broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. From mid-November through the Christmas holiday, KEZK switches to an all-Christma ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

, followed suit the following year. In September 2010, Zapoleon Media Strategies consultant Steve Davis was hired as Program Director. Davis eliminated the voice tracking of talent from outside the market and brought in a staff of live talent that included Tommy McFly from competitor WRQX. The original live lineup included Davis in mornings, market veteran Kristie McIntyre in midday and McFly in afternoons. This lineup remained in place for six months until McFly moved to mornings to create "The Tommy Show" with noted DC blogger Kelly Collis and former WMAL morning producer Jen Richer. Darik Kristofer from WSTR in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

was brought in to replace McFly in afternoons and Taylor Shay came on board from

WIHT WIHT (99.5 FM) is a Top 40 (CHR) formatted radio station that serves the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Located on the fifth floor of 1801 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day and is licensed ...

to do nights, and was switched to the weekday midday shift (she has since left the station). Musically, the station evolved into

Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

and was, at one time, considered one of the best in the country in the format. Ratings significantly improved with "Fresh" having the highest ratings in the frequency's history. WIAD quickly became consistently within the Top 5 in the station's target demos. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with

Entercom Audacy, Inc. is an American broadcasting company based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications Corporation, it is the second largest radio company in the United States, owning 235 radio stations across 48 media ...

. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and the merger was consummated on November 17.

94.7 The Drive

On October 2, 2018, Entercom released the station's entire airstaff except for afternoon drive host Darik Kristofer. The following day, Entercom announced via a webinar that the station would flip to

as "94.7 The Drive, DC's Greatest Hits". The change took place at 5 p.m. that day. The format focuses on rock, pop, and R&B hits from the 1980s, while also extending into the 1970s and 1990s. The last song on Fresh FM was "

Bittersweet Symphony "Bitter Sweet Symphony" is a song by the English rock band the Verve, from their third studio album, '' Urban Hymns'' (1997). It was produced by Youth and released on 16 June 1997 by Hut Recordings and Virgin Records as the album's lead single. ...

" by

The Verve The Verve were an English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member in ...

, and the first song on "The Drive" was "

Let's Go Crazy "Let's Go Crazy" is a 1984 song by Prince and The Revolution, from the album '' Purple Rain''. It was the opening track on both the album and the film '' Purple Rain''. "Let's Go Crazy" was one of Prince's most popular songs, and was a staple f ...

" by

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

. In a press release, Entercom said that the Washington metropolitan area was the only major market without a classic hits radio station, and Entercom wanted to capitalize on that opportunity."Entercom to Launch 94.7 The Drive in Washington D.C." (press release). ''Entercom Communications. October 4, 2018.

HD Radio

On June 10, 2009, the station switched the format on its HD2 subchannel from

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

, branded as "HFS2". WHFS was a rock station that broadcast from November 11, 1961, to January 12, 2005, on various frequencies in the Washington area. The call sign is now on an

AM station AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transm ...

. On August 1, 2011, "HFS2" was dropped from WIAD-HD2 and moved to

WWMX WWMX (106.5 FM), known on-air as Mix 106.5, is a commercial radio station in Baltimore, Maryland. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. The studios and offices are on Clarkview Road off Jones Falls Exp ...

-HD2. However, the next day, "HFS2" was switched back to WIAD-HD2. "HFS2" was dropped again on December 30, 2011, and replaced with a simulcast of

WNEW-FM WNEW-FM (102.7 FM, ''NEW 102.7'') is a hot adult contemporary formatted radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manha ...

. After WNEW-FM changed formats in December 2015, WIAD-HD2 flipped to a

format as "Classic 94.7." In June 2019, WIAD-HD2 flipped to "Channel Q", an

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

-oriented

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

format based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

References

External links

* * {{Entercom

IAD iAd is a discontinued mobile advertising platform developed by Apple Inc. for its iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad line of mobile devices allowing third-party developers to directly embed advertisements into their applications. iAd is part of App ...

Radio stations established in 1951 1951 establishments in Maryland Audacy, Inc. radio stations Classic hits radio stations in the United States