WBAV-FM (101.9 MHz, "V 101.9") is an urban adult contemporary radio station serving the Charlotte metropolitan area (Metrolina). Owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, WBAV's studios and offices are on South Boulevard in Charlotte's South End. In morning drive time, it carries the syndicated Steve Harvey Morning Show. WBAV-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum for most American FM stations. The transmitter is on Crowder's Mountain, along McSwain Groves Road in Gastonia (its city of license). The station broadcasts using HD Radio technology. It carries Smooth Jazz on its HD-2 subchannel. History WGNC-FM, WZXI and WLIT The station signed on the air on . The original call sign was WGNC-FM and it had a power of 11,100 watts, a fraction of its current output. It was locally owned by the McSwain Family. WGNC-FM was a full simulcast of co-owned WGNC 1450 AM. The stations normally ran a broadcast day of 5:00 AM to 12:00 midnight until the late 1970s, when it began operating 24 hours daily. WGNC-AM-FM were network affiliates of ABC. In 1976, WGNC-FM broke off from its AM sister station's programming and began airing a soft adult contemporary format. The call letters were changed to WZXI in 1978. The station was one of three soft AC stations in the Charlotte radio market. Protests over the programming change were launched by WEZC in December 1982. That led WZXI to change to beautiful music. In 1987, WZXI became WLIT and later switched to a satellite-delivered Middle of the Road (MOR) format. WCKZ On January 22, 1988, shortly after Beasley Broadcasting bought the station, WLIT became WCKZ, better known as "Kiss 102". "Kiss" aired a "Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio" format (commonly known as "CHURban," a precursor to what is today Rhythmic Contemporary). Artists included Lionel Richie, Shalamar, Whitney Houston, Lisa Lisa, Phil Collins and Jody Watley. The station also increased its transmitter's power on Crowder's Mountain and moved its studio from Gastonia to Charlotte. However, due to rival WPEG's increase in power, as well as increased competition from WAQQ, the station began falling in the ratings. That, along with financial troubles, resulted in the station filing for bankruptcy in 1992. In late 1993, Beasley announced it would sell WCKZ to Broadcasting Partners Inc. (BPI), which recently purchased WPEG. A local group, Citizens for Broadcasting in the Public Interest, started a petition to stop the sale, but the