WUMJ

WUMJ (97.5 FM, "Majic 107.5/97.5") is a radio station simulcasting an urban adult contemporary format with sister station WAMJ 107.5 FM. Licensed to the suburb of Fayetteville, Georgia, it serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1978 under the call sign WKUE-FM. The station is currently owned by Radio One of Atlanta, through licensee Radio One Licenses, LLC. Since 1995, it has always been an urban station taking on three variations of the format due to frequency swaps in 2001 and 2009.

History

The station was originally assigned the WKUE-FM call sign on December 4, 1978 on 97.7 FM. On September 3, 1990, the call sign was changed to WQUL as "Kool 97.7 FM".

As WHTA "Hot 97.5"

When Griffin, then-owner of the station, upgraded to a class C3 station on July 17, 1995, its tower was moved closer to Atlanta and moved down to the 97.5 FM frequency. The format was changed to Mainstream Urban with the new callsign, WHTA. At the launch, then-"Hot 97.5" was the first urban station in Atlanta to feature hip hop and rap music in regular rotation, given the fact that hip hop and rap music on radio was still a niche genre at the time for Atlanta in spite of its major African American presence in the audience and the music culture. WHTA became the second permanent urban competitor behind WALR to challenge heritage station WVEE, although that station was primarily R&B/Soul-oriented until it incorporated hip hop full-time in 2000. (Former competitor WBTS did not compete directly with WHTA until 2001 when it gravitated its top 40 format from pop to rhythmic, two years after it launched.) Thus, it was the only pure hip hop and R&B station based in Atlanta for the first five years on the air.

While the station was an initial moderate success among the young adult audience in the region (especially inner-city Atlanta), WHTA suffered a setback with its signal coverage. Due to the transmitter location being based in Tyrone and a smaller signal wattage, it was barely audible in the northern portions of Atlanta beyond the downtown area (barely penetrating office buildings at all) or even the northern reaches of Fulton or DeKalb Counties, as it was a rimshot to the southwest of the city. When Radio One took over operations later on, there were plans to give WHTA a simulcast on 107.5 as WTHA until the new owners changed their minds instead and launched its adult urban format there as WAMJ. (This was the original incarnation of "Majic 107.5".) This led morning show host Ryan Cameron (now hosting mornings at WVEE) to lobby for a frequency change for WHTA by putting together a petition from listeners at the risk of losing his job under Radio One's management.^[1] It proved successful, and thus on October 22, 2001, owner Radio One finally moved the radio format and the WHTA call letters to the stronger 107.9 as "Hot 107.9" where it still airs today.

As WPZE "Praise 97.5"

WUMJ logo 2001-2009

After WHTA relocated to 107.9, 97.5 FM relaunched as urban gospel station "Praise 97.5" with the call sign WEGF originally until December 5, 2001 when the call sign was again changed to WPZE. This was one of the earliest Radio One gospel stations marked with the "Praise" nickname which spread to its other stations over the course of the decade. In March 2007, WPZE began to carry the Yolanda Adams Morning Show based out of Houston via sister KROI-FM, although that station has since been moved to a subchannel of KMJQ in that same city. In 2008, WPZE went on to become the flagship for the locally based CoCo Brother Live Show, which airs in the early nighttime. CoCo Brother originally worked at WHTA before landing the show, and in addition, also hosts Lift Every Voice on BET. In February 2009, the Praise branding moved to 102.5.

As WUMJ, simulcast of WAMJ

Logo as simulcast of 102.5, 2009-2016

After WPZE relocated to 102.5, the 97.5 frequency changed to a simulcast of Majic 107.5 with the new callsign WUMJ. This would also result in the end of smooth jazz music on 107.5 (then WJZZ) as the WAMJ call sign relocated back to that frequency to reincarnate the "Majic" branding there.^[2][3]

As WUMJ, simulcast of W275BK

On January 10, 2016, WUMJ broke from the "Majic" simulcast and began simulcasting translator W275BK's classic hip hop format as "Boom 102.9/97.5". The change is coordinated with the debut of the syndicated Ed Lover Show in mornings starting on the 11th on Radio One’s classic hip-hop stations. The addition of WUMJ increases Boom’s coverage to the south of Atlanta, including the Peachtree City and Newnan areas. General Manager Tim Davies stated in a press release that most of Majic’s audience moved over to 107.5 following the upgrade of its signal three years ago, making 97.5 expendable.^[4]

As WUMJ, simulcast of WAMJ

On July 29, 2016 WUMJ returned to a simulcast of urban adult contemporary-formatted Majic 107.5.^[5]

References

External links

• WUMJ official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WUMJ
• Radio-Locator information on WUMJ
• Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WUMJ