WSTO (FM)
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WSTO (96.1 FM, "Hot 96") is a Top 40
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 ...
that serves the
Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...
,
Owensboro, Kentucky Owensboro is a Home rule in the United States, home rule-class city in Daviess County, Kentucky, United States, of which it is also the county seat. It is the List of cities in Kentucky, fourth-most populous city in the state. Owensboro is loca ...
, and
Henderson, Kentucky Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,781 at the 2020 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville–Henderson, IN–KY Combined Statis ...
markets with a
contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...
format. Today, HOT 96 is regarded as a heritage and regional Top 40 station, thanks in part to its longevity in the format. It is licensed to Owensboro and broadcasts from a 1,000-foot tower located midway between these cities in the Kentucky town of Hebbardsville. WSTO's studio is located at the Midwest Communications offices on Mount Auburn Road in
Evansville, Indiana Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is Indiana's List of cities in Indiana, third-most populous city after India ...
, near the studios of
WFIE-TV WFIE (channel 14) is a television station in Evansville, Indiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Gray Media. The station's studios are located on Mount Auburn Road in Evansville, and its transmitter is located in the Wolf Hills s ...
.


History

The
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
granted an application by AM radio station WVJS for a new FM radio station in Owensboro on March 24, 1947. ( Guide to reading History Cards) The frequency of 96.1 MHz was assigned, and Owensboro got its first FM station on June 2, 1948, originally operating more than 18 hours a day and duplicating the AM station's output. Aside from occasional splits for specific programs, WVJS-FM continued in this role until the end of 1962, when the call letters were changed to WSTO on December 14; the station went off for equipment changes and returned on March 1, 1963, with stereo broadcasts. In September 1964, a fire tore through the portion of the WVJS-WSTO building housing all of the newly added stereo equipment; WSTO was out of service for two and a half months. In 1980, Owensboro on the Air, the licensee of WVJS, requested to build a new tower for WSTO in Hebbardsville, which would increase the station's coverage area. Henderson County officials objected, claiming the site was too close to a proposed airport; Owensboro on the Air sued. A judge approved the tower that August and also proceeded to invalidate every zoning law Henderson County had passed dating to 1971; the chairman of the county adjustment board resigned. The format was shifted from
easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to the 1970s. It is related to middle of the road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit s ...
, used since 1963, to
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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
that December; when the new facility was activated in June 1982, WSTO—which claimed to be the first station to put a Grade A signal into both Owensboro and Evansville—shifted to contemporary hit radio, a format that was predicted to reach a younger and more desirable audience to advertisers. It worked: ratings increased, and in 1987, the station rated with a commanding 31.5 share among persons 12 and older, unseating Evansville's WIKY-FM as the market leader. After V. J. Steele died, his children sold WVJS and WSTO, along with the co-owned Owensboro Cablevision cable system, to Century Communications in 1983. The radio stations were Century's first. However, Century was part-owned by Sentry Insurance, which already owned the maximum of radio properties for the time in other ventures in the Northeast, and Sentry's other partner in Century Communications, Leonard Tow, ended up owning the stations outright until Century could repurchase them in 1987. In 1996, WSTO and its sister AM station were acquired by Brill Media, which also owned Owensboro stations WOMI and WBKR; operations began under a time brokerage agreement on December 1 until the sale closed. WBKR, a country outlet, had taken over the ratings lead in the Owensboro area specifically, leaving WSTO in second. Ratings continued to decline in the wake of the Brill purchase, as the station shifted to hot adult contemporary as "Mix 96STO". Just as WSTO faced a challenge from WDKS, a hot AC station that retooled, Brill Media faced major financial problems. At the start of 2002, some of its bondholders filed a petition to place the company in involuntary bankruptcy. Brill then filed itself and sold WSTO to South Central Communications, the Evansville-based owner of WIKY, as a "tactical move", with Brill Media owner Alan Brill declaring that he expected to keep control of the station; this was possible because Alan Brill owned WSTO outright and not through the bankrupt company. That never occurred; Brill attempted to reorganize the company, but a federal bankruptcy judge accepted a bid by
Regent Communications Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...
for the company's other 13 broadcast properties. In 2004, the station rebranded as "Hot 96" and ultimately regained a significant market lead over WDKS. By 2020, the station had a five-share lead over its CHR competitor. It was announced on May 28, 2014, that
Midwest Communications Midwest Communications, Inc. is a Wausau, Wisconsin–based radio broadcasting company. It owns 82 radio stations located primarily within the Midwest United States, in Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Il ...
would purchase all but one of South Central's 10 radio stations, including its Evansville–Owensboro cluster. The transaction marked the entry of Midwest Communications into the markets of
Evansville Evansville is a city in Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 118,414 at the 2020 census, it is Indiana's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the most populous city in S ...
,
Knoxville Knoxville is a city in Knox County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the Tennessee River and had a population of 190,740 at the 2020 United States census. It is the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division ...
and
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
. The sale was finalized on September 2, 2014, at a price of $72 million.


Personalities

Clay Roth & Makenzie Hart, Sarah Pepper, Tyler Foxx, R Dubb, Jay Mac, Kane Jones, Drake Meredith


References


External links



* {{coord, 37.772, N, 87.358, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations in Kentucky, STO Owensboro, Kentucky Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1948 Midwest Communications radio stations 1948 establishments in Kentucky