Early years (WLTA)

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The station first signed on the air as WLTA on November 5, 1963. It was owned by Atlanta FM Broadcasters and had an easy listening format, playing 15-minute sweeps of instrumental cover versions of popular songs, along with Hollywood and Broadway show tunes. In 1974, the station was acquired by the Susquehanna Broadcasting Company.

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Oddly, one of its most popular music blocks in the late 1970s was Golden Sundays, created and hosted by Jim Rich. It was a rock & roll oldies specialty show, heard from 8 to 10 p.m., originating live from a restaurant in Sandy Springs. To appeal to younger listeners, WLTA began playing several soft vocals each hour. Around 1980, the playlist was approximately 50% vocals and 50% instrumentals; over time, the station gradually eliminated the instrumentals, switching to Soft Adult Contemporary. During the 1979-80 NHL season, WLTA served as the flagship station of the Atlanta Flames hockey team in their final season before being sold and moved to Calgary.

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Warm 100 (WRMM/WARM-FM)

(NOTE: The following 2 paragraphs were added to Wiki by long-time station personality George Montiel)

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In 1983, after WSB-FM also changed to Soft AC, WLTA increased its tempo and opened up its announcers' personalities, and would change call letters to WRMM and rebrand as "Warm 100." By 1985, with digital-tuning radios taking over from analog dials, the station began calling itself "Warm 99," since modern radios would show the dial position as 99.7 MHz. That did not sit well with WSB-FM's parent company, Cox Radio, who would sue, claiming "copyright infringement." In a landmark case, Cox v. Susquehanna Broadcasting, the judge was handed a digital radio and asked to tune to 100.0 MHz. There was no signal because it was between channels. To find the nearest station, he pressed the "scan" button, and it stopped on WKHX-FM at 101.5 MHz. Next, he entered 99.0 MHz, which again is between channels and so contained no signal. Scanning from there, the radio hit 99.7.

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In his precedent-setting decision, the federal district judge stated that on a radio dial "a radio station's frequency is its address" and one cannot copyright an address. He ruled in favor of Warm 99. A short time later, WSB-FM became known as "B98.5." WRMM would adjust its call letters slightly around this time, switching to WARM-FM.

 

Power 99 (WARM-FM/WAPW)

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Not to be confused with current Atlanta radio station WWPW.

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At 3 p.m. on March 5, 1986, Warm 99 went head-to-head with dominant local Top 40 station WZGC, becoming "Power 99.7." The new format launched with "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis & the News. Z-93 eventually lost its lead and shifted to a more rhythmic contemporary format as "Hot New Z-93" before flipping to classic rock in January 1989. WARM-FM changed its call letters to WAPW on February 10, 1988, and would rebrand as the more familiar "Power 99."

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In the early 1990s, "Power 99" was considered one of the dominant Top 40 stations in the Southeast. However, the success of Nirvana at the end of 1991 and the subsequent rise of "alternative" music gave station management pause. In early September 1992, Susquehanna brought in Will Pendarvis to host an all-alternative program on weeknights called "Power 99 On the Edge". After receiving a solid amount of positive feedback, the station decided to make the full switch.

 

99X (WNNX) (For the current incarnation of WNNX on 100.5 FM, see WNNX.)

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On October 26, 1992, at Noon, "99X" made its debut, with "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles being the first song played. A month later, on November 27, 1992, the WAPW call letters were replaced with WNNX.

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99X became one of the most influential alternative rock stations in the United States and played a key role in breaking numerous acts during its early years. Music director Sean Demery's push behind The Cranberries' "Linger" in 1993 helped earn the band national attention in the U.S. On a trip to Australia in early 1995, program director Brian Philips brought back a copy of fledgling band Silverchair's debut EP, which the station began to spin. The day after the release of the group's debut album Frogstomp, the band gave its first US performance at the Roxy in Atlanta as a "99X Freeloader Show."

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WNNX's personalities during this era included Steve Barnes, Jimmy Baron, Leslie Fram, Steve Craig, Fred "Toucher" Toettcher, and Rich Shertenlieb. The station also hosted a weekly live performance called "Live X."

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On May 5, 2006, Cumulus Media acquired Susquehanna Radio and all of its stations, including WNNX and sister station Q100. Over the next 20 months, Cumulus continued to support WNNX's alternative rock format, despite a noticeable decline in the Arbitron ratings.

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Q100/Q99.7 (WWWQ)

The current format for WWWQ originated on January 23, 2001, on 100.5 FM, when that frequency was reallocated to the Atlanta radio market from Anniston, Alabama. On January 11, 2008, Cumulus announced they would move the Top 40/CHR format of "Q100" from 100.5 to 99.7, and move "99X" to the HD2 sub-channel of 99.7 and 99x.com, on January 25. The final song on "99X" at 99.7 was "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" by Green Day. The call signs between the two stations would swap on January 29. (The current WNNX aired a mainstream rock format as "Rock 100.5," but in December, 2022, brought the 99X format back, and by January, 2023, had begun re-assembling some of the original airstaff on the new frequency.)

Under Cumulus ownership, WWWQ briefly moved to a Hot AC format in 2009, but by 2010, had returned to CHR.

 

NOTE: On January 2, 2019, WWWQ rebranded as "Q99.7".