Tag: Steve Barnes

I can say with particular pride that I was the first person to play tennis inside State Farm Arena. Elton John staged a tennis benefit for his AIDS Foundation at the newly opened building, then Philips Arena, in 2000, with Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Billie Jean King, and other legendary players on hand. I was a tennis newbie and arranged to hit with doubles star Luke Jensen before the event for a story I was writing.

Good things have a way of disappearing in Atlanta: New condos rise above historic neighborhoods like gravestones, an iconic doughnut shop burns to the ground, a legendary music venue gets gutted to make room for a shiny office space. But on Monday, December 5, a miracle happened. It came in the form of a familiar voice, edgy and distorted, creeping through car radios like the ghost of rock and roll: "You are listening to the original 99X."

In an inspired move, Atlanta Top 40 station 99.7 FM, Power 99, rebranded itself in October 1992 as 99X—with a lineup of Gen X-skewing grunge rock and attitude-laced talk. One of the most influential modern rock stations of the decade, 99X catapulted the careers of Atlanta-based acts like Shawn Mullins, Marvelous 3, and John Mayer; drove the rock charts; and even drew the older guard.