WCRY-FM Macon The station began as WCRY-FM in
Macon, Georgia, about south of Atlanta. It
signed on the air on October 19, 1973, and was owned by Central Georgia Broadcasting. At first, it mostly
simulcast its AM counterpart, WCRY at 900 kHz (now
WYPZ). By the late 1970s, WCRY-FM was airing a
beautiful music format. In 1981, it switched its
call sign to WPEZ, playing
easy listening music, powered at 100,000 watts. It later shifted to
soft adult contemporary music as "Lite Rock" WPEZ. The station was later known as Z108 in the mid-1980s, which was one out of two stations using the "Z" name in the Macon market, with the other being
WQBZ. The station was acquired in 1996 by U.S. Broadcasting, which had plans to move it into the more lucrative Atlanta
radio market. To gain
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, a few stations in Middle Georgia were relocated: WPEZ's soft AC format was switched from 107.9 to an existing frequency at 93.7 in
Jeffersonville, while the original
Top 40 format on 93.7 was shifted to a new Macon-area station as
WMGB at 95.1 MHz. U.S. Broadcasting petitioned the FCC to
reallocate the
broadcast license for 107.9 from Macon to Hampton. With the FCC giving its OK,
Radio One, a large minority-owned broadcasting company, paid $60 million for the new "move in" Atlanta-area station at 107.9. Radio One already owned a station in the Atlanta market, 97.5 WHTA, in
Fayetteville, airing an urban contemporary format. WHTA had signed on as an urban station on July 17, 1995; Radio One had plans to put WHTA's call letters and format on its new acquisition.
WHTA Hot 107.9 At first, Radio One did not want its competitors in Atlanta to figure out its game plan, so in September 2001, the new Atlanta-area 107.9 transmitter signed on as WEGF "107.9 the End" with a
modern rock format.
Stunting on its first day, it played "
Smooth Criminal" by
Alien Ant Farm and "
Rollin'" by
Limp Bizkit continuously. After several weeks with the rock format on 107.9 FM, "Hot 97.5" morning host Ryan Cameron made an announcement that "Hot" was moving to 107.9, revealing that the rock format was a
publicity stunt. WHTA officially switched frequencies on November 1, 2001, and became "Hot 107.9", while 97.5 became WPZE, playing
urban gospel music. (
WPZE later moved to 102.5 MHz in
Mableton.) WHTA's move to 107.9 gave it a stronger signal over
Intown Atlanta and surrounding suburbs, despite being considered a "move-in" station. Residents in
Tyrone near the station's transmitter site complained to the FCC regarding
electrical interference to personal devices, and Urban One increased the antenna's height with FCC permission to address the issue, though some interference does remain.
Digital Hip Hop On July 31, 2007, WHTA began using a new slogan, "Hot 107.9, Your Digital Hip Hop Station". In October 2008, WHTA became the Atlanta
network affiliate of the
Rickey Smiley Morning Show. It was originally based at co-owned
KBFB in the
Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. In 2011, WHTA became the
flagship station for the show, and thus was the only radio station that was featured for the entire run (including as a pilot) of
Dish Nation, a syndicated program revolving around radio morning shows that aired on television from that year until its 2025 cancellation. In 2011, Radio One changed several of its Atlanta-area stations' formats and call signs;
WAMJ moved from 102.5 to 107.5, and began simulcasting its Urban AC format on 97.5 as
WUMJ, while WPZE's urban gospel format moved from 97.5 to 102.5. That left WHTA as the only station in Radio One's Atlanta
cluster that was unaffected by the change. Radio One was renamed
Urban One on May 8, 2018. ==HD Radio==