City Rantoul, Illinois Branding Quay 96 Frequency 96.1 MHz | Broadcast area Champaign, Illinois Slogan All The Hits First air date February 9, 1996 | |
WQQB (96.1 MHz, Quay 96) is a rhythmic-leaning CHR (Top 40) radio station broadcasting in the Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, radio market. The station is a class A licensed station transmitting from Rantoul, Illinois, at 3,800 watts and is owned by SJ Broadcasting, LLC.
WQQB was granted a broadcast license renewal on February 9, 1996 with that license expiring on December 1, 2012. Q96 uses the name All The Hits and broadcasts 24 hours a day from studios located in Champaign, Illinois.
History
WQQB was formerly WLTM (70s Hits - The Eagle) when it originated in 1993. The original owner was Rollings Communications. It was a predominately automated radio station with a live morning show. In 1994, in order to target an untapped part of the market, the station switched to Urban-CHR with the moniker Power 96. It kicked off on a Friday night with an entire weekend of looping the song "I Got The Power" by Snap, before going live on Monday morning.
In 1996, the station switched again to a regular CHR format when it was purchased by Liberty Radio II, Inc. The station (and its sister stations WGKC, WJEK, and WEBX) were sold to AAA Entertainment in 2000. The stations were subsequently purchased by one of the principals of Liberty Radio II, Jim Glassman, under his new company (RadioStar, Inc.) in 2006.
On May 21, 2010, it was announced that RadioStar, Inc. was in the process of selling WQQB to SJ Broadcasting LLC. SJ Broadcasting is operated by Steve "Stevie Jay" Khachaturian.