101.5 has always been a country music station, previously as WBIE-FM. It signed on the air on November 11, 1959. WBIE-FM was co-owned with AM 1080WBIE. The station manager at the time, James M. Wilder, has a technology laboratory building named after him at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta. WBIE-AM-FM were owned by the Marietta Broadcasting Company and simulcasted their country music and local news programming. At the beginning, WBIE-FM was powered at 1,350 watts, only heard in and around Marietta. In the 1970s, WBIE-FM got a big boost in power, going to the current 100,000 watts, and became audible in Metro Atlanta. It's AM companion at 1080 switched its format to Adult Standards and its call sign to WCOB. The power boost made WBIE-FM a candidate to be bought by a large broadcasting company anxious for a strong FM signal in the growing Atlanta radio market. "Kicks 101.5" debuted in 1981 after Capital Cities Communications purchased WCOB and WBIE-FM. Capital Cities switched WBIE-FM's call letters to WKHX and made the station a contender in the Atlanta ratings. In 1987, WKHX programming began to be simulcast on AM 590. The AM station became WKHX, while 101.5 added an FM suffix, becoming WKHX-FM. Today, AM 590 is Christian radioWDWD, owned by Salem Media. Capital Cities took over ABC, including its television and radio stations, in 1985. In 1995, ABC bought WKHX-FM's rival country station, WYAY. Eventually, WYAY switched to news programming, and today is Christian Contemporary-formatted WAKL after it was sold to the Educational Media Foundation in 2019. In December 2006, WKHX-FM got a new country music competitor in WUBL, owned by Clear Channel Communications. WKHX-FM and other ABC Radio stations were acquired by Citadel Broadcasting in 2007, which became Cumulus Media in September 2011. In October 2011, WKHX-FM modified its playlist from playing only "new country" music to mixing in some older hits from the 1990s to the present. On November 13, 2019, WKHX began running liners promoting a "big announcement" to come at 3 p.m. the following day. Several liners had a wolf-howling sound effect, a nod to rumors on radio news websites that the station was to rebrand as "The Wolf". At that time, the station rebranded, but instead as "New Country 101.FIVE", and also introducing a new morning show host, JJ Kincaid, to team with existing co-host Dallas McCade, with the show being branded as "Kincaid and Dallas".
