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| Broadcast area | Atlanta metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 790kHz |
| Branding | Radio Korea |
| Programming | |
| Format | Korean |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | 1948; 77 years ago (1948) |
Call sign meaning | "Quixie" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 30825 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 33°48′42″N84°21′12″W / 33.811566°N 84.353322°W /33.811566; -84.353322 |
| Translator | 96.7 W244EI (Atlanta) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WQXI (790kHz "Radio Korea") is anAM radio station licensed toAtlanta, Georgia. The station has a power of 28,000 watts in the daytime, and 1,000 watts at night. WQXI's signal is non-directional during the daytime, and directional at night. As of 2009, the station broadcast in theIBiquityHD Radio AM hybrid digital mode during daytime hours.
WQXI first went on the air in 1948 as an all-music station, playing pop standards. Their independent status was unique programming as the established stations, WAGA (590 AM, nowWDWD),WSB (750 AM), WGST (920 AM, nowWGKA), and WATL (1380 AM, nowWAOK) were all network affiliates. By the 1960s, WQXI was Top 40 with themoniker "Quixie inDixie". Among the station's personalities in the late 1960s wasDr. Don Rose, who went on to near legendary status atKFRC in San Francisco.
For a time, it was owned byEsquire Inc. In the 1970s, WQXI became anoldies station. By the 1980s, WQXI was simulcasting with itsFM sister station. In January 1990, WQXI began airing anadult standards format.[2] When Atlanta hosted the1996Olympic Games, the station simulcast the French radio news channelFrance Info for several hours a day. During the mid-1990s, WQXI began leasing airtime to various broadcasters, and also aired Spanish-language music for several hours a day as "La Pantera" (The Panther).
The former WQXI-FM "94Q" (originally WDJK) became WSTR (94.1 FM) "Star 94", and WQXI-TV becameWXIA-TV.
On January 1, 1997, WQXI became the Atlanta affiliate of the KidStar children’s radio network; however, this would only last a few months.[3] On April 7, 1997, WQXI flipped to asports radio format as "790 the Zone", programmed by Big League Broadcasting under alocal marketing agreement with WQXI's owner,Jefferson-Pilot Corporation.[4] Jefferson-Pilot merged withLincoln National Corporation in 2006; in 2010,Lincoln Financial Media bought the assets of Big League Broadcasting and retook full control of WQXI's programming.[5][6] WQXI was the AM radio flagship of theAtlanta Falcons,[7] and until 2013, WQXI was the flagship station of theGeorgia Tech Yellow Jackets radio network.[8] The station formerly broadcast the syndicatedYahoo! Sports Radio during the overnight hours.
For many years, WQXI was hobbled by signal issues. Even with its 28,000-watt daytime signal, it only provides grade B coverage to several of Atlanta's outer suburbs. At night, it is almost unlistenable outside of Atlanta itself. To solve this problem, it was simulcast inHD Radio on WSTR's HD2 subchannel. WQXI's audio was also broadcast on Channel 18 of theGeorgia Tech Cable Network.
On May 20, 2014, Lincoln Financial Media dropped WQXI's local programming and became a full-time affiliate ofESPN Radio. The station's Atlanta Falcons broadcasts were not affected by the change.[9]
On December 8, 2014,Entercom announces that it was purchasingLincoln Financial Group's entire 15-station lineup (including WQXI) in a $106.5 million deal, and would operate the outlets under aLMA deal until the sale is approved by theFCC.[10] The sale was approved on July 14, 2015.
On July 1, 2015, ESPN Radio announced it would end its programming on WQXI and move it to Dickey Broadcasting-owned rivalsWFOM andWCNN on August 17.[11] After that date, WQXI began simulcasting sister WSTR, effectively taking it back to its roots as an all-music station.
On September 30, 2016, Entercom announced that it had sold WQXI to Kyung Sook Park's Atlanta Radio Korea, Inc. for $850,000 plus a time brokerage agreement prior to closing.[12] The sale was approved by the FCC on November 29, and completed on December 14.[13] On December 15, WQXI flipped to the Radio Korea format.
In 1978, WQXI provided inspiration forWKRP in Cincinnati, a television sitcom about a radio station. Series creatorHugh Wilson dealt with WQXI when he worked in advertising. WKRP's early episodes about dropping turkeys from a helicopter and the "dancing ducks promotion", in which ducks danced onhot plates, were stunts actually done byJerry Blum at WQXI in the early 1970s. Blum had leased an 18-wheeler from which he tossed hundreds of live turkeys at a suburban Atlanta shopping center.[14]
On June 17, 2013, during WQXI's morning programMayhem in the AM hosts Steak Shapiro, Chris Dimino and Nick Cellini mockedNew Orleans Saints playerSteve Gleason and his battle withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known asLou Gehrig's disease. The trio used a robotic-sounding voice to imitate Gleason, who speaks with avoice synthesizer, and told severalknock-knock jokes about him. Station management suspended the three hosts as soon as the program went off the air, and fired them later that afternoon. Station vice-president and General Manager Rick Mack apologized for the incident.[15] Shapiro and Dimino subsequently moved to rivalWCNN, which overtook WQXI as Atlanta's leading sports talk station. WQXI never recovered from the loss of Shapiro and Dimino, a factor behind its decision to become a full-time satellite of ESPN Radio.[9] It soon later became the factor behind WQXI to drop its sports radio format in favor of simulcasting WSTR due to declining ratings because of this controversy.
Authority control databases: Geographic |
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