WEKS (92.5 FM; "The Bear 92.5") is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

broadcasting a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informatio ...

. Licensed to

Zebulon, Georgia Zebulon is a city in Pike County, Georgia, United States. The population was 1,225 in 2020. The city is the county seat of Pike County. The city and county were named after explorer Zebulon Pike. History Zebulon was incorporated in 1825. The to ...

, with studios in downtown

Fayetteville, Georgia Fayetteville ( ; locally ) is a city in and the county seat of Fayette County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 18,957, up from 15,945 at the 2010 census. Fayetteville is located south of downtown ...

, United States. The station is currently owned by the Georgia Radio Alliance, LLC., which is headed by Christopher Murray. The Georgia Radio Alliance also owns the Classic Hits formatted "Fox FM" stations WBAF, WFDR, and WMDG. WEKS features live and local country music programming, custom designed for the Southside of Atlanta, Georgia. WEKS currently features a locally programmed country music format branded as "The Bear 92.5." Personalities on WEKS include Chris East, and Cal Cross in the morning, and Kevin Steele in the afternoon. The station also airs nationally syndicated programming like the Dee Jay Silver & The Country Club mixshow Friday nights, The Original Country Gold with Rowdy Yates show Saturday nights, and Honky Tonkin’ with Tracy Lawrence Sunday nights. WEKS also has a Gospel show that airs Sunday mornings hosted by Dustin Fordham. While WEKS is licensed to broadcast in

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

, the station has yet to sign on an HD signal. WEKS uses PlayoutOne for its automation system, a Wheatstone Audioarts AIR-4 12 Channel Mixer, an

Orban Orban, also known as Urban (; died 1453), was an iron founder and engineer from Brassó, Transylvania, in the Kingdom of Hungary (today Brașov, Romania), who cast large-calibre artillery, Basilic, for the siege of Constantinople by the Otto ...

Optimod 8400 for audio processing, and a

GatesAir GatesAir is an American electronics manufacturer that produces, markets and services terrestrial TV and radio broadcast equipment globally. Products and services GatesAir manufactures transmitters and associated broadcast gear for over-the-air ...

20 kW transmitter with 2 ERI bays.

History

WEKS went on the air in or around 1995 licensed to Zebulon. Owned by Legacy Media, LLC. and branded as "92.5 FM The Bear," (a nod to the Griffin High School mascot, the grizzly bear) the then satellite-fed Country music formatted radio station served

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (; Classical Latin: ''gryps'' or ''grypus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk ...

and the immediate surrounding areas with 6 kW from a tower south of Griffin in the town of Zebulon. Original studios for WEKS were also located in

. In 2006, WEKS upgraded to 25 kW from a new tower located near the town of

Gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

. This upgrade gave WEKS better coverage to the cities of

Fayetteville Fayetteville may refer to: *Fayetteville, Alabama *Fayetteville, Arkansas ** The Fayetteville Formation *Fayetteville, Georgia *Fayetteville, Illinois *Fayetteville, Indiana *Fayetteville, Washington County, Indiana *Fayetteville, Missouri *Fayette ...

, and Newnan, as well as giving WEKS fringe coverage into the southern portion of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. Around this time, the station moved its studios into downtown Senoia. In the early 2010s, WEKS dropped Jones Radio Networks' satellite-fed Country music programming and the station moved to local programming. In 2017, Christopher Murray bought Legacy Media, LLC. After this, WEKS saw a major overhaul in programming. The station began strictly centering its music towards new country, rather than a mix of classic and new country; a slogan change from "The Best Of Today's Country, Plus The Legends" to "The Southside's Best Country" reflected this change, as well as a slight rebrand from "92.5 The Bear" to "The Bear 92.5." Around this time, the station studios were moved once again, this time to Downtown Fayetteville. In November 2021, Atlanta radio veteran Cadillac Jack joined WEKS to host the stations' afternoon drive slot. Cadillac Jack worked at various different radio stations in Atlanta before his 22-year stint at WKHX as the stations' morning show host. In April 2023, now former morning hosts Robbie Ashley and Cal Cross were involved in an argument, which started live on the air and then escalated further once off the air. Both hosts were later fired over the incident and Midday host Chris East was temporarily placed on Mornings for a few weeks before the station debuted its new morning show featuring Cadillac Jack, who came from afternoons on WEKS and his ex-wife, Donna.Cadillac Jack + Donna Mornings 5:30-10am
/ref> In March 2024, Robbie Ashley and Cal Cross returned to mornings on WEKS, with Cadillac Jack moving back to the afternoon slot replacing Kevin Steele. This was short-lived, however, as Cadillac Jack was fired from WEKS only a couple of weeks later, with Kevin Steele returning once again to afternoons. Not long after the return of Ashley and Cross to mornings on WEKS, Ashley was fired once again from the station. Operations Manager and midday host Chris East would move from the midday slot down to mornings (joining Cross) as Ashley's replacement.

On-Air Lineup

Monday - Thursday - Mornings (5:30 to 10:00am): The Half and Half Morning show with Chris and Cal
- Afternoons (3:00 to 7:00pm): Kevin Steele Friday - Mornings (5:30 to 10:00am): The Half and Half Morning show with Chris and Cal
- Afternoons (3:00 to 7:00pm): Kevin Steele
- Evenings (7:00pm to 12:00am): Dee-Jay Silver & The Country Club Saturday - Evenings (7:00pm to 12:00am): The Original Country Gold with Rowdy Yates Sunday - Mornings (7:00 to 10:00am): Heavenly Sunday Morning with D-Rock
- Evenings: Locals, Legends And Some That Will Be With D-Rock (7:00 to 9:00pm) / Honky Tonkin' With Tracy Lawrence (9:00pm to 12:00am)

References

External links

* * {{Country Radio Stations in Georgia EKS Radio stations established in 1990