Broadcast area Atlanta, Georgia Slogan Helping you find JOY First air date 1981 | Branding 93.3 The JOY FM Frequency 93.3 MHz | |
City Manchester, Georgia to be Greenville, Georgia | ||
WVFJ-FM (93.3 FM, "The JOY FM") is a contemporary Christian radio station that serves southwestern metro Atlanta and western central Georgia, and has listeners in the nearby metro areas of Columbus, Georgia and Auburn, Alabama, and to some extent west of Macon, Georgia. Its city of license is Manchester, Georgia (where studios and transmittor are co-located).
History
The station was originally known as WFDR-FM, the sister station to WFDR AM 1370, which still shares Manchester as its city of license. The stations' broadcast callsign is a reference to former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had his Little White House vacation home in nearby Warm Springs, Georgia. The callsign was issued on the first day of December 1978. On the last day of October 1981 it became WQCK, and two years later adopted its current callsign on July 7.
On February 13, 1981, Atlanta businessman Bill Watkins and his wife Joyce founded Provident Broadcasting Company in order to create a broadcast ministry for the benefit of Christian believers and those seeking spiritual inspiration. WVFJ, then called "The Joy FM", was their first station in this new ministry. In 1998, J93.3 moved its radio studios from the small community of Manchester, Georgia into Atlanta market as metro Atlanta's first contemporary-Christian radio station. Despite the move, the station still broadcasts from its tower atop Pine Mountain just south of Manchester on State Route 190.
The station was owned and operated by Provident Broadcasting Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Watkins Associated Industries, Incorporated. Their stated mission is to provide wholesome family programming filled with joy, hope, and encouragement.
In March 2011, WVFJ became officially owned by Radio Training Network. One of the changes under new ownership is that after 30 years, WVFJ is now-listener supported instead of advertiser supported. In May, WVFJ is expected to add 11,000 watts to its power and be officially a noncommercial station. Through HD radio and broadcast translators, WVFJ is planning to make other improvements to their signal in the Atlanta media market, although the power increase actually adds a minimal amount of broadcast range.
The station is currently retransmitted on W257AA 99.3 in LaGrange to the west, W270AS 101.9 in Carrollton to the northwest, and W231AO 94.1 in Columbus to the southwest, all located southwest of Atlanta in western Georgia. It is also listed as the primary station for 120 other translator applications filed by Edgewater Broadcasting in 2003, in what was called the "Great Translator Invasion".[1] All of these are in western Georgia and eastern Alabama.
On December 1, 2011, J93 became The JOY FM. [2] For the 2011 holidays, it was broadcasting all Christmas music, competing with Christian station WFSH-FM 104.7, and secular WSB-FM 98.5, both from Atlanta.