Radio V101.9 (WBAV)

WBAV-FM (V101.9) is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station licensed to Gastonia, North Carolina and serving the Charlotte market on 101.9FM. Syndicated programs include Steve Harvey in mornings, and Michael Baisden in afternoons. WBAV can be heard throughout the Piedmont and Foothills, including the Greenville-Spartanburg, SC market.The station signed on in 1947 as WGNC-FM. It was locally owned by the McSwain Family. The station was a full simulcast of co-owned WGNC-1450 AM and was the only FM station ever licensed to Gastonia. The station normally ran a broadcast day of 5:00am to 12:00 midnight until the late 1970s when it began operating 24 hours daily.In 1975, it broke off from its AM sister and began airing an Adult Contemporary "soft rock" automated format. The call letters were changed to WZXI in 1978. The station was one of three soft adult contemporary stations in the Charlotte market. Protests over the programming change by WEZC led WZXI to change to beautiful music.In 1987 WZXI became WLIT and later switched to satellite-delivered MOR.In the late 80s WLIT became WCKZ "Kiss 102", a churban station similar in style to what is known today as Rhythmic CHR. Artists included Lionel Richie, Shalamar, Chicago, Lisa Lisa, Phil Collins and Jody Watley. The station also added to its tower on Crowder's Mountain and moved its studio from Gastonia to Charlotte. The current name and format were adopted in 1994.The WBAV call letters were assigned in 1993 to a co-owned station formerly known as WGIV at 1600 AM. Following a format change, the AM station returned to the WGIV call sign in late 1994.Tom Joyner used to be in mornings until Radio One acquired his show, and is now broadcast on WQNC-FM 92.7 (Q92).