WSB History - the 1990s

Music had largely moved to FM and with “spoken word” the ascendant AM format in the 1990s, WSB ushered in the new era as home to many of the most trusted names in the metro. “Atlanta’s Morning News” host Scott Slade has won two prestigious Marconi Awards as “Major Market Personality of the Year”; Marcy Williams and Bob Coxe began as “AMN” news anchors in 1992 and 1993, respectively, alongside street reporter Richard Sangster. “Captain” Herb Emory took up residence in the “Skycopter Lounge” in 1991, hosted a weekend NASCAR show, and played Santa on the air every Christmas Eve for many years. News Director Chris Camp arrived in 1992, and several reporters hired in the ‘90s would also become mainstays, including capitol correspondent Sandra Parrish, Jon Lewis, court reporter Veronica Waters, health reporter Sabrina Gibbons, Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree, and others. In July, 1996, when a bomb exploded at Centennial Park during the Olympics, current “Atlanta’s Morning News” Skycopter reporter “Smilin’” Mark McKay, then an anchor for CNN Sports, was live on the air just feet from the detonation site. Walter Reeves began the still-running “Lawn and Garden” WSB weekend program in 1994; Mark Arum and Belinda Skelton were here by the end of the ‘90s. Clark Howard’s “Christmas Kids” debuted early in the decade, allowing listeners to shop for an individual foster child’s holiday gifts. Three decades later, the event routinely manages to collect gifts for every single foster child in Georgia. And doubtless, no one in Atlanta needs an explanation of the three famous WSB words from 1996: “Boo got shot!!”