WBIN (640 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia. It is owned by iHeartMedia, through its subsidiary iHM Licenses, LLC. It serves the Atlanta metropolitan area as its affiliate for the Black Information Network. The station's studios and offices located at the Peachtree Palisades Building in the Brookwood Hills district. The transmitter site is off Joseph E. Boone Boulevard Northwest in the Center Hill neighborhood of Atlanta.
History
The station signed on April 7, 1988, as WPBD, programming R&B oldies and soul. The original owner was the Phoenix City Broadcasting company, headed by Michael Hollins, under a Federal Communications Commission program promoting minority ownership. However, after it signed on, Hollins immediately began making arrangements to sell the station. A proposed purchase by Jefferson-Pilot Communications, owners of WQXI and WQXI-FM, fell through. However, in October 1988, it was announced that Jacor Communications, Inc. would buy the station.
At this time, Jacor was operating a station on with the call letters WGST (now WGKA). However, WPBD had a better signal than WGST. It operated at 50,000 watts during the daytime and 1,000 watts at night, a substantial increase in daytime power and signal coverage area compared to WGST's facilities. Effective June 30, 1989, WPBD's call sign was changed to WGST. The talk radio programming previously on was transferred to . Among WGST's staff of talk hosts was Neal Boortz.
In 1992, Boortz asked WGST management for a raise but he was turned down. Talk radio rival WSB hired Boortz, WGST then hired Sean Hannity to replace Boortz, after a few other hosts were tried out in his time slot. Hannity was brought in from a Huntsville, Alabama, radio station where he previously worked. He stayed at WGST until Roger Ailes offered Hannity a position on the soon-to-debut Fox News Channel in 1996. During his time at WGST, he was given the nickname "Hanni-Pie, The Tin Man" by fellow host Kim Peterson.
WGST was also the home for Atlanta Braves baseball broadcasts, from 1992-1994. WGST was the station that carried Sid Bream's winning slide in Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS. In May 1994, the station was outbid for Braves broadcast rights by WSB, which previously had carried the games from 1966 until 1991. WGST was also the home of the Atlanta Hawks basketball team until 1995, after which the Hawks followed the Braves to WSB. WGST carried NASCAR races in 1996 and 1997. It was the home of Atlanta Falcons football in 1998 when the team made its first Super Bowl appearance.
From 1993 until 2000, WGST programming was simulcast on WGST-FM (now WBZY). In 1999, Clear Channel Communications bought out Jacor, including WGST. Clear Channel was the forerunner to iHeartMedia, the present-day owner of the station.
2005 marked a year of change for WGST. The station won the rights to once again carry Atlanta Braves baseball. The station changed its moniker to "Braves Radio 640 GST." Many Braves fans who lived outside Atlanta and its close-in suburbs complained about the change from WSB, noting WGST's signal was much weaker at night than that of WSB's 50,000 watt clear channel broadcasts. To remedy the situation, WGST’s sister station WKLS (96.1 FM, now WWPW) began simulcasting Braves games. WKLS was powered at 100,000 watts, covering Atlanta and its growing suburbs.
Since the 1950s, WGST had been an ABC Radio Network affiliate. In 2005, as part of a Clear Channel corporate change, WGST switched to Fox News Radio as its national news provider. No longer affiliated with ABC, in March 2005, WGST dropped Paul Harvey's syndicated ABC news commentaries from its line-up.
On March 20, 2006, WGST's moniker became "Atlanta. Talk. Radio." On November 21, 2006, WGST announced that morning drive time host Tom Hughes had resigned, and that midday host Denny Schaffer, and afternoon drive talk host Kim Peterson (The Kimmer) and their staffs had been fired. On February 5, 2007, WGST announced that veteran Atlanta morning show hosts Randy Cook and Spiff Carner would be joining the station for a new live and local morning show.
On September 27, 2007, the syndicated Glenn Beck Program returned to WGST in the 9 a.m. to noon slot. Beck was previously heard on WGST from 2001 to 2005. Beck took over Mike McConnell's weekday spot, though McConnell was still heard on weekends.