101.1 FM When
WRFK-FM 106.5 was planning to sign off as an
NPR station in March 1988, it was clear that a new NPR station had to be found.
Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, owners of
WCVE-TV and WCVW-TV, applied for and received, a license to temporarily broadcast at 101.1 until a suitable permanent frequency could be found. From March 1988 to October 1989, 101.1 was the home of
WCVE-FM and NPR. After WCVE-FM moved to a permanent home at 88.9, the 101.1 frequency went dark.
WDYL In December 1968, WDYL signed on first as a country station, then later as a religious station, where it operated on 92.1 FM until 1995. Throughout its first stage of operation, WDYL-FM was a Christian music and ministry station, focusing on
contemporary Christian music. WDYL also was home to several sports teams, such as VCU basketball, VMI football, Virginia Tech football and basketball, and the Richmond Renegades pro hockey team. In a complicated series of events, on November 8, 1995, WDYL moved to 105.7 to allow
WCDX (which was on 92.7 FM at the time) to move closer to the city with more power on 92.1. The 101.1 frequency was allotted to Chester (the former city of license of 92.1). In September 1998, Sinclair Telecable sold the 101.1 frequency to Hoffman, who moved the WDYL
call sign and format to 101.1 and traded the 105.7 frequency to Sinclair. Sinclair then signed off WSMJ, which had been on 101.1 and airing a
smooth jazz format, and debuted the country-formatted
WJRV on their newly purchased 105.7 frequency. WDYL then continued on 101.1 with
Christian music. On July 16, 1999, Hoffman signed off the original Christian station, and sold the dark 101.1 frequency to
Radio One, who brought it back as
modern rock-formatted "Y101" on October 13, 1999, to fill the void after
WBZU flipped to
oldies. In 2001, Radio One sold WDYL to
Cox Radio. On September 1, 2009, WDYL moved to 100.9 FM, and kept the "Y101" moniker. On April 23, 2010, WDYL began redirecting listeners to
WMXB, which flipped to
adult album alternative "103.7 The River" the previous day. This led to rumors of a possible format change. Six days later on April 29, WDYL flipped to
rhythmic contemporary Hot 100.9, with new call letters WHTI. On January 6, 2012, WHTI relaunched the
Hot branding and segued to
contemporary hit radio, with a launch campaign attacking its competitor
WRVQ. On July 20, 2012, Cox Radio announced the sale of WHTI and 22 other stations to
SummitMedia for $66.25 million. The sale was consummated on May 3, 2013. On May 7, 2014, WHTI began redirecting listeners to new translator
W291CL, which began simulcasting WHTI via
WURV-HD2. After a 15-day simulcasting period, "Hot" officially moved to W291CL on May 22, and 100.9 FM began
stunting with nature sounds. On May 23, 2014, WHTI flipped to
soft adult contemporary as "Easy 100.9". On January 27, 2016, WHTI flipped to
classic hits as
Star 100.9. Bill Bevins and Shelly Perkins continued to host the morning show. The station's call letters changed to WJSR on February 9, 2016. On October 24, 2018, WJSR flipped to
adult hits using the
Jack FM branding. On October 1, 2020, WJSR dropped the adult hits format and began stunting with snippets of songs as "Short Attention Span Radio". The stunt continued well beyond the holiday season, until March 4, 2021 as WJSR returned to classic hits as
Awesome 100.9. On January 6, 2025, WJSR flipped to urban contemporary as
100.9 The Hip Hop Station. ==References==