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WIHT (99.5 FM; "Hot 99.5") is a Top 40 (CHR) formatted radio station that serves the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, USA. Located on the fifth floor of 1801 Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland, the station broadcasts 24 hours a day and is licensed to, and owned by, Clear Channel Communications. The transmitter is located in Bethesda, Maryland.
Long known as WGAY and located in Silver Spring, Maryland, the station ran a beautiful music format in the 1960s and 1970s, which evolved to an easy listening format by the 1980s.
Television ads for the station in the 1970s and 1980s featured station programmer Bob Chandler relaxing in a recliner while listening to his station's light mix of music playing in the background. During the 1980s, WGAY was reported to be then President Ronald Reagan's favorite radio station.
At midnight on December 26, 1991, WGAY changed branding to "Easy 99.5". In 1995, WGAY switched its calls and became "Bright 99.5", but listeners didn't accept the more up-tempo music, and the station switched back to WGAY within 10 months.
WGAY switched from the still ratings successful format permanently by the late-90s although not because its listeners were too few, but because demographically they were getting too old and therefore less desirable for radio advertisers. On April 13, 1999, the end to "Easy 99.5". After two days of simulcasting WTJM in New York City, the station changed to an urban oldies format at 3 PM on April 15, known as WJMO-FM ("Jam'n 99.5"). At the time, they were co-owned with AM station WJMO in Cleveland, Ohio. The format lasted for almost two years. However, with ratings on the decline due to the arguable burnout factor of the music, combined with competition from WBIG-FM (which at the time played an oldies format; they now play a classic rock format), Clear Channel (who acquired the station in 2000 due to a merger with AMFM media and had dropped the format in other markets due to similar factors) decided to take the station in a different direction. Unlike other stations that dropped the format, however, WJMO gave its listeners the weekend to say goodbye.
"Jam'n" signed off at 7:00 a.m. on April 2, 2001; the last song played on "Jam'n" was "Last Dance", by Donna Summer. That was followed by a "Survivor Radio" stunt before the current contemporary hit radio format debuted as "Hot 99.5" at 5:00 p.m. on April 6, 2001. The first song on "Hot" was "Survivor" by Destiny's Child. With the change of format came a change in call sign to the current WIHT on April 18, 2001.
WIHT's full market signal helped competitor 104.1 WWZZ (Z104) evolve into a more modern AC direction in late 2001; WWZZ would be driven out of the format entirely in 2006 as a result of WTOP moving to WGMS' former 103.5 FM frequency. The station was also considered to be Baltimore's default Top 40 station since their previous Top 40 station, WXYV (102.7 FM, now WQSR), would flip in September 2001. (Baltimore finally got a Top 40 station in November 2009, when WCHH flipped from modern rock to Top 40 as "Z 104-3.") The station's main competitors are CBS Radio urban-leaning Rhythmic Contemporary WPGC-FM 95.5, CBS Radio's adult top 40 WIAD (94-7 Fresh FM) and Cumulus Media's adult top 40 WRQX (Mix 107.3).
WIHT-FM's HD Radio HD-2 format was flipped to Clear Channel's successful Pride Radio format at Midnight on July 16, 2013, replacing the "Hot Spot"-branded "New! Music" format that had been running on the HD-2 signal since 2007.
*source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIHT
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