City Leland, North Carolina Frequency 94.5 MHz | Branding 94.5 The Hawk First air date 1995 (as WAAV-FM) | |
Broadcast area Wilmington, North Carolina Slogan The Port City's Classic Hits | ||
WKXS-FM is a radio station broadcasting a classic hits format and airing John Boy and Billy in the morning. Licensed to Leland, North Carolina, USA, the station serves the Wilmington area. The station is currently owned by Cumulus Media.
History
Cumulus Broadcasting purchased four Wilmington radio stations in Spring 1997. After a survey, general manager Clay McCauley said, "Basically, we found a hole in the market big enough to drive a Mack truck through." 25 percent of the market's population was African-American, but only one radio station was reaching that audience.
On Friday, October 3, 1997, WAAV-FM began repeatedly playing "Kiss" by Prince. The new Kiss 94.1 was "All Prince, All the Time" until program director Ken Johnson (from WILD in Boston) played "If Only for One Night" by Luther Vandross on Monday, October 6. The new urban adult contemporary format would include Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker and Michael Jackson. The target audience would be similar to that of 97.3 Coast FM, which had been the area's only urban contemporary station since 1992. However, Kiss would lean more toward older songs, and the station would not play rap. Local DJs and community involvement were a priority, and Tom Joyner did the morning show.
On March 8, 2000, the call letters changed to WKXS-FM.
Kiss received a signal improvement that included a move to 94.5. Still, because of low ratings, the format that included Teddy Pendergrass and Aretha Franklin was changed to classic rock on September 21, 2006. The first song was "Take the Money and Run" by the Steve Miller Band. In December 2006, the station added John Boy and Billy, who had been under contract with WRQR. 94.5 The Hawk now plays classic hits from the 1960s-1980s.