The first caller I heard saying goodbye to Christian AC WFSH (The Fish) Atlanta morning team Kevin Avery & Taylor Scott was Montell Jordan. The segment began with a clip of “This Is How We Do It.” It ended with “Shake Heaven” by Victory World Music, the collective that began Jordan’s career in Christian music in 2011.
Jordan had called in to be part of what he encouraged the team to think of as their “victory lap.” He talked about how feeling a connection with the duo when he moved to Atlanta 20 years ago and later went on to do vacation fill-in for Taylor. She thanked him for sharing his journey as a cancer survivor; now recovered, Jordan is planning a documentary.
Jordan reminded Kevin & Taylor, “Radio didn’t make you; you make radio.” Towards the end, somebody worked in the phrase “this is how we do it” and the three speculated about whether the station’s listeners would get the reference.
WFSH is one of seven Salem Media Group Christian AC stations being sold to Educational Media Foundation, effective Friday. In the just released Holiday ’24 PPM ratings, it was the No. 2 station in Atlanta overall with a 6.9 share. The Fish is the Christmas music station in Atlanta, but it has also been a major year-round presence in the market, even after EMF’s rival K-LOVE format came to the market on another frequency.
K-LOVE’s growth has claimed a succession of legendary radio stations in various secular formats, from WPLJ New York to WAAF Boston to WLUP Chicago to KRTY San Jose. This week, it’s having a seismic impact on Christian AC with similar scenarios being played out simultaneously in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Portland, Dallas, Colorado Springs, and Sacramento.
Salem’s KLTY Dallas was Christian AC’s original success story. Its predecessor launched in the ‘80s when full-time music stations with a general-market feel were still a rarity. (We last profiled them five years ago at a time when the station was No. 1 in the market. We’ve also written recently about sister KFIS Portland, Ore., for its holiday music programming.)
After KLTY, it was the Fish stations that were the next major showplace for the format, in part due to the then involvement of AC/CHR consultant Dan Vallie, which gave the Fish a presence beyond the CCM community. After the arrival of PPM, there would be many more stations that got the industry’s attention (although not quite as much as you’d expect, given the magnitude of the format’s growth).
After the call from Jordan, Kevin & Taylor asked listeners to guess the most-streamed show of 2024. (It was “Bluey.”) In their sign-off, they said that Thursday would be their last regular show, because Friday morning would be turned over to their listeners.
A few songs into middayer Kim Fitz’s show, the station played a customized version of MercyMe’s “I Can Only Imagine.” This one featured audio from the jocks and from listeners saying goodbye. “I’ve been calling you since I was 14” said one. Another thanked the station for helping their son through an illness. The song ends with MercyMe’s Bart Millard adding, “Well done, you good and faithful servant.” When Fitz opened the mic after, she told listeners “Here’s your tissue,” although she promised not to cry herself this time.
There were also tributes from station advertisers. In its ad, Loganville Ford tells listeners, “While the Fish might be going away, we’re still here in Loganville, committed to serving you with the same values.” On KLTY that morning, another sponsor, Slim4Life, was offering listeners a weight loss deal, good only through the station’s last day.
Last weekend, WFSH held a final listener event to give away its remaining station swag. That event went two hours longer than scheduled. In a promo, PD Mike Blakemore thanked listeners for their 25-year-support of the radio station, then asked them to keep in touch through the staff’s social media accounts. “God bless and keep the faith, Atlanta,” he said.
On KLTY, morning hosts Bonnie & Jeremiah were taking listener calls for songs that had been particularly special to them. A listener asked for DC Talk’s grungy 1995 “Jesus Freak”–a groundbreaking record before their move to pop with the more Modern AC “Just Between You and Me.” The three talked about what an important song it had been for Christian radio. The caller remembered driving three teenagers to school and being proud to have music that rocked as much as theirs.
It’s easy to be cynical about listener outpourings when a station is going away, just as radio stations sometimes seem needed only in times of catastrophe. But WFSH and KLTY were consistently successful stations. The outpouring from listeners, artists, and advertisers is a reminder that Christian AC has the built-in sense of community that eludes many others at the moment.
K-LOVE has a sense of community, too. They’ve more fully realized the power of a national format than any station since the days of 50,000-watt AM Top 40s. I’ve enjoyed the network’s new suite of side channels. But on Wednesday’s show, WFSH’s Fitz was talking about a struggling mall whose power was shut off for a day. At a time when radio is trying to avoid the abandoned mall syndrome as well, I only wish that K-LOVE had been additive in more of its markets, rather than replacing other anchor stores when radio needs as many as it can get.
Here’s WFSH in the 9 a.m. hour, January 29, according to Mediabase:
- Mercy Me, “Flawless”
- Needtobreathe, “Washed by the Water”
- Ben Fuller, “If I Got Jesus”
- Tobymac, “Nothin’ Sweeter”
- Steven Curtis Chapman, “Dive”
- We The Kingdom, “Holy Water”
- For King + Country, “Fix My Eyes”
- Victory World Music, “Shake Heaven”
- Elevation Worship, “Praise”
- Blessing Offor, “Your Love”
- Crowder, “Somebody Prayed”
This story first appeared on radioinsight.com