By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Monday, Januay 11, 2016
For the past 18 months or so WTBS-FM 87.7 had been a Spanish tropical station La Mega Mundial and was actually generating some ratings.
But Core Communications Broadcasting decided to team up with scrappy Atlanta owner Steve Hegwood, owner of hip-hop station Streetz 94.5. As of Saturday, he has resurrected his Old School format, which had been most recently on AM 1010.
The Old School station focuses on R&B music from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
This means acts such as the Gap Band, Barry White, Stevie Wonder, Keith Sweat, Cameo, the S.O.S. Band, Luther Vandross and Frankie Beverly & the Maze.
Some of these artists are heard on Kiss 104.1 but Kiss plays songs from the past 15 years as well. The average age of a song at Kiss on Friday was 1995. Fellow R&B station Majic 107.5 skews a little more recent than Kiss, with the average song at 1997 and more currents are played, according to data compiled by Mediabase 24/7.
You can listen online to Old School 87.7 here.
The FM signal is fairly strong, covering Decatur to Marietta. Someone on this radio discussion thread said they could catch it in Macon.
Hegwood is also trying to bring back a format at FM 99.3, which played classic hip hop for a few months until the FCC shut it down because of frequency interference.
