WUMJ
WUMJ (97.5 FM, "Boom 102.9/97.5") is a radio station simulcasting an classic hip hop format with sister station W275BK. Licensed to the suburb of Fayetteville, Georgia, it serves the Atlanta metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1978 under the call sign WKUE-FM. The station is currently owned by Radio One of Atlanta, through licensee Radio One Licenses, LLC. Since 1995, it has always been an urban station taking on three variations of the format due to frequency swaps in 2001 and 2009.
History
The station was originally assigned the WKUE-FM call sign on December 4, 1978 on 97.7 FM. On September 3, 1990, the call sign was changed to WQUL as "Kool 97.7 FM".
As WHTA "Hot 97.5"
When Griffin, then-owner of the station, upgraded to a class C3 station on July 17, 1995, its tower was moved closer to Atlanta and moved down to the 97.5 FM frequency. The format was changed to Mainstream Urban with the new callsign, WHTA. At the launch, then-"Hot 97.5" was the first urban station in Atlanta to feature hip hop and rap music in regular rotation, given the fact that hip hop and rap music on radio was still a niche genre at the time for Atlanta in spite of its major African American presence in the audience and the music culture. WHTA became the second permanent urban competitor behind WALR to challenge heritage station WVEE, although that station was primarily R&B/Soul-oriented until it incorporated hip hop full-time in 2000. (Former competitor WBTS did not compete directly with WHTA until 2001 when it gravitated its top 40 format from pop to rhythmic, two years after it launched.) Thus, it was the only pure hip hop and R&B station based in Atlanta for the first five years on the air.