WBIN (640 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia, through its subsidiary iHM Licenses, LLC. It serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as its affiliate for the Black Information Network. The station's studios and offices located at the Peachtree Palisades Building in the Brookwood Hills district. The transmitter site is off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard Northwest in the Center Hill neighborhood of Atlanta.

History

The station signed on April 7, 1988, as WPBD, programming R&B oldies and soul. The original owner was the Phoenix City Broadcasting company, headed by Michael Hollins, under a Federal Communications Commission program promoting minority ownership. However, after it signed on, Hollins immediately began making arrangements to sell the station. A proposed purchase by Jefferson-Pilot Communications, owners of WQXI and WQXI-FM, fell through. However, in October 1988, it was announced that Jacor Communications, Inc. would buy the station.

At this time, Jacor was operating a station on with the call letters WGST (now WGKA). However, WPBD had a better signal than WGST. It operated at 50,000 watts during the daytime and 1,000 watts at night, a substantial increase in daytime power and signal coverage area compared to WGST's facilities. Effective June 30, 1989, WPBD's call sign was changed to WGST. The talk radio programming previously on was transferred to . Among WGST's staff of talk hosts was Neal Boortz.

In 1992, Boortz asked WGST management for a raise but he was turned down. Talk radio rival WSB hired Boortz, WGST then hired Sean Hannity to replace Boortz, after a few other hosts were tried out in his time slot. Hannity was brought in from a Huntsville, Alabama, radio station where he previously worked. He stayed at WGST until Roger Ailes offered Hannity a position on the soon-to-debut Fox News Channel in 1996. During his time at WGST, he was given the nickname "Hanni-Pie, The Tin Man" by fellow host Kim Peterson.

WGST was also the home for Atlanta Braves baseball broadcasts, from 1992-1994. WGST was the station that carried Sid Bream's winning slide in Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS. In May 1994, the station was outbid for Braves broadcast rights by WSB, which previously had carried the games from 1966 until 1991. WGST was also the home of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team until 1995, after which the Hawks followed the Braves to WSB. WGST carried NASCAR races in 1996 and 1997. It was the home of Atlanta Falcons football in 1998 when the team made its first Super Bowl appearance.

From 1993 until 2000, WGST programming was simulcast on WGST-FM (now WBZY). In 1999, Clear Channel Communications bought out Jacor, including WGST. Clear Channel was the forerunner to iHeartMedia, the present-day owner of the station.

2005 marked a year of change for WGST. The station won the rights to once again carry Atlanta Braves baseball. Johnson, Merlino, and Humphries were terminated, Limbaugh's show switched to WSB and Glenn Beck's show was picked up by WCFO. Coincidentally, Michael Savage suspended the broadcast of his show around the same time due to a contract dispute with his syndicator. On September 28, 2012, at 3 p.m., following Rush Limbaugh's program, WGST switched to a Spanish-language sports radio format, carrying the syndicated ESPN Deportes Radio Network.

On April 23, 2013, less than eight months after switching to Spanish-language sports, WGST announced it would return to an English-language talk format beginning June 3, 2013, featuring a lineup consisting entirely of syndicated programs, including Bloomberg's First Word with Ken Prewitt, America's First News with Gordon Deal, Glenn Beck, Michael Berry, and Coast to Coast AM among others. ESPN Deportes Radio moved to the FM translator 92.3 W222AF, replacing an all-comedy format.

In the early 2010s, WGST was simulcast on an HD Radio digital subchannel of sister station WUBL FM 94.9, along with FM translator station W222AF. WGST was also carried on the audio-only digital subchannel 32.21 of low-powered digital television station WANN-CD, as Clear Channel's other Atlanta holdings were. When WGST switched to Spanish-language sports, these three stations aired "Comedy 92-3." WUBL HD-3 and WANN-CA returned to running WGST after ESPN Deportes was dropped.

On August 30, 2019, WGST flipped to conservative talk as 640 Fox News Radio with a revised lineup. On June 29, 2020, the station began stunting with speeches by prominent African Americans. The next day, WGST flipped to all-news radio as Atlanta's BIN 640; it is one of the charter stations of iHeartMedia's Black Information Network — a multi-platform radio network serving the African-American community. On July 6, the station changed its call sign to WBIN to match the new branding.

Former staff

  • Sean Hannity, who hosted a local midday show in the early 1990s before joining Fox News Channel and having his WABC show picked up for syndication.
  • Tom "The King" Hughes, former morning show host.
  • Kim Peterson, former afternoon show host.
  • Denny Schaffer, former midday host. Moved to WRNO-FM in New Orleans.
  • Neal Boortz, talk host on WGST. Later syndicated nationally by Cox Radio and the Jones Radio Networks, while heard late mornings on WSB
  • Michael King, weekend morning anchor 1997-1999. Later a producer and reporter at WXIA-TV 11 Atlanta.
  • Brad Nessler, former sports reporter, later the play-by-announcer for CBS's SEC coverage.
  • Clark Howard, consumer adviser, is retired and spent years syndicated nationally and on WSB.
  • Matt McClure, former morning show producer, now with NY1 in New York City and CBS Radio traffic.

References

  • RecNet query for WBIN