WKHX-FM

WKHX-FM (101.5 MHz "New Country 101.5") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Marietta, Georgia, and serving Greater Atlanta. It is owned by Cumulus Media and airs a country music radio format. The studios and offices are in Sandy Springs near the Georgia Highway 400 and Interstate 285 interchange. The station features local personalities during daylight hours, but it also uses the national "Nights With Elaina" show in the evening from, syndicated by Westwood One, also owned by Cumulus Media.
WKHX-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum permitted for non-grandfathered FM station in the U.S. The transmitter is off Shepherds Lane NE just west of Emory University, in unincorporated DeKalb County. WKHX-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio hybrid format. The HD2 subchannel carries an urban contemporary format.
History.
101.5 signed on as WBIE-FM on November 11, 1959. under the ownership of Marietta Broadcasting. Initially, WBIE simulcast the variety programming of its sister station AM 1080 WBIE, but in February 1968 it adopted a full-time country music format.The station manager at the time, James M. Wilder, has a technology laboratory building named after him at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.
Initially, WBIE-FM was powered at 1,350 watts, only heard in and around Marietta. In the 1970, WBIE-FM boosted its power to the legal maximum of 100,000 watts, and became audible in Metro Atlanta. Its AM companion at 1080 switched its format to Adult Standards and its call sign to WCOB. The power boost made WBIE-FM a candidate to be bought by a large broadcasting company anxious for a strong FM signal in the growing Atlanta radio market.
"Kicks 101.5" debuted in November 1981 after Capital Cities Communications purchased WCOB and WBIE-FM. Capital Cities switched WBIE-FM's call letters to WKHX and made the station a contender in the Atlanta ratings. In 1987, WKHX programming began to be simulcast on AM 590. The AM station became WKHX, while 101.5 added an FM suffix, becoming WKHX-FM. Today, AM 590 is Christian radio WDWD, owned by Salem Media.
Capital Cities took over ABC, including its television and radio stations, in 1985. In 1995, ABC bought WKHX-FM's rival country station, WYAY. Eventually, WYAY switched to news programming, and today is Christian Contemporary-formatted WAKL after it was sold to the Educational Media Foundation in 2019. In December 2006, WKHX-FM got a new country music competitor in WUBL, owned by Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia).
WKHX-FM and other ABC Radio stations were acquired by Citadel Broadcasting in 2007, which became Cumulus Media in September 2011. In October 2011, WKHX-FM modified its playlist from playing only "new country" music to mixing in some older hits from the 1990s to the present.
On November 13, 2019, WKHX began running liners promoting a "big announcement" to come at 3 p.m. the following day. Several liners had a wolf-howling sound effect, a nod to rumors on radio news websites (based on web domains registered by Cumulus as far back as September) that the station was to rebrand as "The Wolf". At the promised time, the station rebranded, but instead as "New Country 101.FIVE", and also introducing a new morning show host, JJ Kincaid, to team with existing co-host Dallas McCade, with the show being branded as "Kincaid and Dallas".