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99.1 FM Macon
WMAZ-FM > WAYS > WDEN
WMAZ FM
FM 99 1983 Aircheck
WAYS FM 99
WAYS Airstaff (L to R)- Unidentified morning news personality, Dee Shannon, Bill Elder, Mary Therese ("M.T."), Laura Worth, Jim Pryor, Mark McCoy
99 WAYS Christmas shift (Courtesy of Kenny Burgamy)
Trade ad (1988) - Front: Bill Elder, Dee Shannon, Laura Worth, "Wade Ryan" (Henry Brigmond) Back: Scott Taylor, Oscar Leverette, Jim Pryor (Courtesy Henry Brigmond)
WDEN FM99
IMorning show host Laura Starling moved with the country format from 105.3 to 99.1. She has now been doing country on WDEN for close to 40 years. (Photo courtesy of WDEN.)
History
Edited from Wikipedia
The History of WMAZ-FM and WAYS
The 99.1 FM license traces its history back to 1947 when WMAZ-FM signed on at 99.1 as Macon's first FM station. It was owned by the Southeastern Broadcasting Company, which also owned AM 940 WMAZ (now WMAC). WMAZ-FM mostly simulcast its AM sister station for its first couple of decades; in 1953, the Southeastern Broadcasting Company added Macon's first VHF TV station, channel 13 WMAZ-TV.
In the 1950s, as network programming moved from radio to TV, WMAZ-AM-FM switched to a full-service middle-of-the-road format of popular adult music, news, and sports. In the late 1950s, WMAZ-AM-FM-TV produced middle Georgia's first radio-television simulcast for the 24th Annual Bibb County Spelling Bee.
Southeastern sold WMAZ-AM-FM-TV to Southern Broadcasting Corporation in 1963, which merged with the News-Piedmont Company to form Multimedia, Inc. in 1967. Also in the late 1960s, WMAZ-FM broke its simulcast with AM 940; it began running an automated Top 40 format. In 1974, WMAZ-AM-FM-TV moved to a new studio facility on Gray Highway in Macon.
In 1984, to establish a separate identity, WMAZ-FM changed its call letters to WAYS, maintaining its Top 40 sound. By the middle of 1987, the station went CHR.
Multimedia merged with Gannett in 1995. Gannett had by this time decided to pull out of radio, concentrating on its TV stations and newspapers. It sold off WMAZ and WAYS in 1996 to Ocmulgee Broadcasting Company for $1.5 million. The next year, U.S. Broadcasting Limited Partnership, the owner of WDEN-AM-FM, bought both stations from Ocmulgee in a $4.7 million transaction; by this time, WAYS was an oldies station.
WDEN Moves to 99.1 from 105.3
In 2000, as part of an agreement to create a new move-in radio station in Atlanta, U.S. Broadcasting applied to downgrade WDEN-FM 105.3 from 100,000 watts to 6,100 and relocate it to 105.5 MHz. In order to preserve the country format's regional coverage, it was decided to move WDEN-FM to the 99.1 facility. The day after Christmas, WDEN-FM’s country format moved to 99.1; WAYS and its oldies format changed positions to the newly moved 105.5 MHz.