WNOR

WNOR (98.7 FM "FM99") is a radio station licensed to Norfolk, Virginia, United States, serving the Hampton Roads (Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News) radio market. WNOR is owned and operated by Saga Communications. It airs an active rock radio format.[1]

WNOR
Broadcast areaHampton Roads; Northeastern North Carolina
Frequency98.7 MHz (HD Radio)
BrandingFM99 WNOR
Programming
FormatActive rock[1]
Ownership
Owner
  • Saga Communications
  • (Tidewater Communications, LLC)
WAFX
History
First air date
July 19, 1962 (1962-07-19)
Former call signs
WNOR-FM (1962–2002)
Call sign meaning
Norfolk
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID67080
ClassB
ERP46,000 watts
HAAT166 meters (545.00 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
36°50′4.9″N 76°16′9.3″W
Links
Public license information
WebcastListen Live
Websitefm99.com

WNOR broadcasts in the HD Radio (hybrid) format. Studios and offices are on Greenbrier Circle in Chesapeake; the transmitter is next to Riverside Memorial Park in Norfolk.[3] The Class B signal covers Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina.

History

On July 19, 1962, WNOR-FM first signed on the air, owned by the Norfolk Broadcasting Company. It was the sister station to WNOR (1230 AM) and presented a mix of easy listening "semiclassical music" and show tunes.[4] WNOR-AM-FM was sold for $1.23 million in 1967 to Arnold and Audrey Malkan and Stanley Wilson.[5] The new owners then sued the sellers, claiming among other things that WNOR-FM used equipment that did not meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements.[6]

The station maintained an all-female air staff until 1974, when the general manager felt the concept had run its course; citing high turnover, he released two female DJs and reassigned others, telling Broadcasting, "Females and males alike would rather hear a male voice on the radio."[7]

In 1969, WNOR-FM began airing a progressive rock format at night.[8] Eventually, the rock music proved more popular than easy listening, with WNOR-FM abandoning the "split-format" approach in 1974. The station's Arbitron ratings quickly took off, culminating in the station's rise to number one in the rock radio ratings beginning in the early 1980s[9] and the total-market ratings from 1986 to 1988 as well as being the market's highest-billing station from 1986 to 1993.[10]

By the 1980s, the station had moved to an album-oriented rock format, based more on album sales than the previous progressive rock format. In 1980, Marvin Josephson Associates acquired the WNOR stations;[11] company president Edward K. Christian led a leveraged buyout of the Josephson radio stations in 1986, forming Saga Communications.[12] Saga decided to simulcast the FM station's rock format on the AM station. WNOR gained notoriety in 1992 when, as an April Fool's Day prank, it claimed that the Mount Trashmore landfill in Virginia Beach was about to explode; callers jammed the 9-1-1 telephone system in the area, and the station apologized at the behest of local police.[13] Saga then suspended the morning show hosts for two weeks in an effort to show, per CEO Ed Christian, that the station was "taking very seriously its obligation to refrain from deliberate distortion or falsification of programming";[14] later that year, the FCC admonished the station.[15]

In 1994, Saga Communications acquired another FM station in the market, WAFX in Suffolk. WAFX had flipped to classic rock in 1989, with the two stations feuding over the use of the term in the market,[9] and the new station made a dent in WNOR's ratings.[16] While WAFX shifted to classic hits,[17] WNOR-FM evolved into a current-based, harder-edged direction, bringing it into the active rock format; the changeover in music mix was completed in February 1996.[8] In 1999, the AM station went to an adult standards format and changed its call sign to WJOI.[18][19]

In 2019, Saga demolished the tower used to transmit WNOR and WJOI for 48 years; the new 545-foot (166 m) mast was completed in January 2020.[20]

References
  1. "Arbitron Station Information Profiles". Nielsen Audio/Nielsen Holdings. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  2. "Facility Technical Data for WNOR". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. "Radio-Locator.com/WNOR-FM". Archived from the original on 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2018-02-24.
  4. "Sixth FM Station To Go on Air". Ledger-Star. July 18, 1962. p. 20. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Station sales total $10.7 million". Broadcasting. May 1, 1967. pp. 58–59. ProQuest 1014524080.
  6. "Hearing set in WNOR lawsuit". Broadcasting. April 15, 1968. p. 50. ProQuest 1014529946.
  7. "No time for Lorelei". Broadcasting. September 16, 1974. p. 36. ProQuest 1016878491.
  8. Maxwell, Cyndee (August 1, 1997). "Targeting Norfolk's Active Rock Audience". Radio & Records. p. 80. ProQuest 1017298377.
  9. "WNOR vs. WAFX: The war's on for classic-rock radio listeners". Daily Press. April 5, 1989. pp. C1, C4. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. Duncan, James H. Jr. (2004). "Norfolk". An American Radio Trilogy, 1975 to 2004 (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-09-23. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  11. "MJA to purchase WNOR-AM & FM for $2.6 million". The Hollywood Reporter. December 3, 1980. p. 15. ProQuest 2598221963.
  12. Raphael, Steve (May 19, 1986). "Radio Chain's Buyer Seeks Acquisitions". Crain's Detroit Business. p. 3. ProQuest 212264215.
  13. Worrell, Kris (April 2, 1992). "WNOR prank explodes in station's face". Daily Press. p. A1. Archived from the original on September 23, 2023. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Stone, Steve (April 4, 1992). "WNOR's morning team is suspended: April Fool's Day prank draws blast". The Virginian-Pilot. p. A1.
  15. Bonko, Larry (December 5, 1992). "WNOR admonished by federal agency over April Fools' Day hoax". The Virginian-Pilot. p. D3.
  16. Pryweller, Joseph (October 14, 1989). "Veteran WNOR returns to top". Daily Press. pp. F1, F4. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. Nicholson, David (February 5, 1994). "'Fox' shifts to a softer rock format". Daily Press. p. D7. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Bonko, Larry (October 31, 1999). "Local actors have role in new CBS miniseries". The Virginian-Pilot. p. E2.
  19. Bonko, Larry (December 12, 1999). ""The Sopranos" surprises Norfolk with high honor". The Virginian-Pilot. p. E2.
  20. Bonko, Larry (January 30, 2020). "WVEC welcomes new meteorologist". Daily Press. p. B10. Retrieved September 23, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
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