| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Washington metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 100.3MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Big 100 |
| Programming | |
| Format | Classic rock |
| Subchannels | HD2: Now and Then (all-Beatles) |
| Affiliations | Washington Commanders |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WASH,WIHT,WMZQ-FM,WUST,WWDC | |
| History | |
First air date | 1948 (77 years ago) (1948) |
Former call signs |
|
Former frequencies | 95.9 MHz (1951–52) |
Call sign meaning | "Big" |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 54459 |
| Class | B |
| ERP |
|
| HAAT | 149 meters (489 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 38°53′13.4″N77°12′1.9″W / 38.887056°N 77.200528°W /38.887056; -77.200528 (WBIG-FM) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wbig.iheart.com |
WBIG-FM (100.3MHz), branded asBig 100, is acommercialradio station licensed toWashington, D.C. It has aclassic rockradio format and is owned byiHeartMedia, Inc. Thestudios and offices are inRockville, Maryland.
WBIG-FM has aneffective radiated power of 50,000watts. Itstransmitter is off Tower Street inFalls Church, Virginia, unusually within a dense residential neighborhood with single-family housing surrounding it on all sides.[3] Besides a standardanalog transmission, WBIG broadcasts usingHD Radio technology, and is also available online viaiHeartRadio. The station is the official radio partner of the NFL'sWashington Commanders.
The station first broadcast on 95.9, signing on the air in 1948. It was owned by the United Broadcasting Company and had thecall sign WOOK-FM, as the companion toWOOK (1340 AM).[4] The two stations largelysimulcast their programming.
The FM station soon changed call signs to WFAN, apparently to emphasize its status as the flagship of theWashington Senators radio network.[5] The station moved to 100.3 MHz and upgraded power in 1952. WFAN broadcast in both English and Spanish, featuringtropical music programs for Washington's growing Latino population, mostly fromPuerto Rico,Cuba and theDominican Republic. By the late 1960s, WFAN was running its Spanish-language format full time, the first in the Washington area.[6]
In the mid-1970s, United Broadcasting, the owner of WFAN-FM, WOOK andWFAN-TV, along with semi-satelliteWMET-TV, was beset by legal issues.[7] In September 1975, theFederal Communications Commission (FCC) cited WOOK for broadcasting fraudulent advertising and denied renewal of its license.[8]
Faced with losing one of its two radio signals, United decided to preserve the more popularR&B format of WOOK. In December 1976, it moved the R&B format and WOOK call letters to 100.3 FM. Meanwhile, the WFAN call sign and Spanish tropical format, which had a smaller audience, moved to 1340 AM.[1][9] The AM station's license expired April 22, 1978, and the 1340 AM allocation was turned over toWYCB. The decision to sacrifice the Spanish-language format led to complaints to the FCC from the local Hispanic community. Unlike equivalent bodies such as theCanadian Radio and Television Commission, the FCC does not concern itself with the type of programming broadcast by licensed stations, so it did not take action.[10] In February 1984, WOOK rebranded as WDJY calling itself "DJ 100".[11]
Starting in October 1990, the station began playingsmooth jazz as "Jazzy 100", and would subsequently change its call letters to WJZE.[12]
WJZE was acquired by Colfax Broadcasting and adopted anoldies format as WBIG-FM "Oldies 100" at 4 p.m. on June 3, 1993.[13][14][15] The station was sold to Chancellor Broadcasting in 1996. Chancellor then merged with Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM, Inc. in 1998.Clear Channel Communications purchased AMFM in October 1999. Clear Channel later changed its name toiHeartMedia, Inc.
As an oldies outlet, WBIG-FM originally played mostly Top 40 hits from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In the early 2000s, many 1950s and early 1960s hits were dropped from the playlist. In 2002, the station changed its name from "Oldies 100" to "Big 100". It also aired the Saturday Night dance party playing mostly 1970s disco and dance music.
WBIG-FM "evolved" from oldies toclassic hits at 5 p.m. on April 3, 2006, featuring hits of the 1970s and 1980s. The last song to be played under its oldies format was "Shout" byThe Isley Brothers, while the first song under the classic hits format was "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" byBachman Turner Overdrive. This was accompanied with a slight branding change to "Big 100.3".[16] The changeover was not announced, and the new format saw several of thedisc jockeys removed. Jeff "Goldy" Gold, who spent 12 years at WBIG, was the morning host atWFVL inFayetteville, North Carolina, from September 2005 to February 2009. In 2012, Goldy became host of Good Morning Fayetteville onWFNC.[17] Kathy Whiteside moved to middays atWLIF inBaltimore, Johnny Dark worked atWTTR inWestminster, Maryland, until his death in September 2016, and Ira Melman worked for a while atWTOP-FM, and later forVoice of America (VOA) in Washington.
WBIG was the first station in the U.S. to work directly with one ofthe Beatles.Ringo Starr hosted and voiced the commercials for the "BIG Ringo Starr Art Show" in March 2007. It was the first time that artwork from all four Beatles appeared in the same exhibition. Proceeds from the sales of art benefited Ringo's charity The Lotus Foundations.
After the spring 2009 format change of rival classic rock stationWTGB toadult contemporary, WBIG-FM tried to appease listeners of WTGB by shifting to a musical position in between light classic hits and slightly heavierclassic rock, but still not becoming a full-fledged classic rock station. Four months later,oldies outlet WJZW (nowWMAL-FM) flipped tomainstream rock (mostly heavy classic rock with a few newer songs). Throughout 2010, WVRX slowly siphoned listeners from WBIG, especially in WVRX's target demographic of men 25-54. By the third week of August 2010, WBIG had plummeted to 14th in the overallArbitron radio ratings after rising to 8th place after the demise of WTGB.
On August 30, 2010, the station fired its morning show staff, host Jon Ballard and news anchor Bill Stabler. After being fired, Ballard called intoElliot in the Morning onWWDC, where Ballard worked afternoons until 2006. He began to discuss the incident withElliot Segal. Reportedly, although Ballard did not criticize WBIG-FM or Clear Channel, WWDC management cut off the conversation by ending the show early and "dumping" to music, a process normally used to avoid content that would garner FCC fines. After Ballard's firing, the station shifted itsplaylist completely to classic rock, and began promoting the fact that it was now running with nodisc jockeys. By October, DJs would return, with Lisa Berigan doing middays, Doc Reno doing afternoon drive, and Big Rig doing nights. On November 20, Tommy Griffiths became the station's morning host.[18][19] In July 2016, "Big 100.3" reverted to the "Big 100" branding.
Beginning with the2022 NFL season, WBIG-FM took over as the broadcast home ofWashington Commanders games, replacing a joint simulcast ofWMAL-FM,WSBN, andWTEM.[20]Don Geronimo, at the time the station's morning host, was fired after making disparaging comments on-air about a female sports reporter forWUSA (channel 9) during the team's 2023 training camp.[21]
WBIG-FM's last two live DJs, Berigan and new morning host Paul Jaxon, were laid off in November 2024 as part of a large round of staffing cuts at iHeartMedia. The station's broadcast day is now entirelyvoice-tracked.[22]
WBIG-FM is short-spaced toMedia, Pennsylvania-licensedWRNB, aRadio One station in thePhiladelphia market which transmits from theRoxborough section of the city. The transmitters of the two stations are around 131 miles (211 km) apart, 29 miles (47 km) short of the FCC's minimum distance guidelines for Class B stations, which is 150 miles (240 km).[23]
The two stations aregrandfathered for this short spacing of their allocations, and operate with some interference between Baltimore and the Pennsylvania–Maryland state line.