Sandra Parrish Puts Gold Dome Talk on a Jasper FM

Sandra Parrish, a 28-year WSB Radio journalist, has hosted a live Saturday show from 8 a.m. to noon on 101.1 The Pulse since January 17, 2026. The Jasper station hired the Georgia Radio Legend to spotlight North Georgia. The program that showed up also keeps putting statewide politics on the same air as farm stands and porch talk.

WLJA-FM named her the Saturday morning host on January 9, 2026, pitching “Saturday with Sandra” as a place where neighbors hear from neighbors. She lives in the Ellijay area. She also appears as a recurring contributor on the station’s other air and digital slots.

Gold Dome Guests Now Sit Beside Farm-Stand Owners

The first public read of the hire treated it as another landing pad for people who had been on Atlanta’s old Fish. What the archive actually holds is a news hour that still makes room for a porch and a cookout. Political reporter Greg Bluestein, who in July 2023 wrote that “Legendary reporter Sandra Parrish is retiring after 28 years at WSB radio,” now turns up as a regular Saturday guest.

On September 26, 2026, she had Bluestein on to talk through Georgia’s governor and U.S. Senate races. The same morning she interviewed Alexandra Sinclair, owner of Farmstand 382 in Gilmer County, about a passport that visitors stamp at local stands, and Brian Myk, a Pickens County singer-songwriter with a new way to move his music. Coleen, billed as the Community Queen, came on to talk about the start of fall.

A SATURDAY SAMPLE FROM THE SHOW FILE

Those on-demand Saturday interview clips sit in the same feed as lawmakers and a former governor. Rep. Rick Jasperse, a Republican from Jasper, has come on to talk about a legislative special session and when lawmakers might be called back to redraw maps. Sonny Perdue, the former governor who now leads the University System of Georgia, sat for a segment on the DREAM Scholarship, a needs-based aid idea aimed at students who might otherwise leave school over money. Bluestein has also walked through tax fights at the Capitol and a Trump stop in Rome.

A Four-Hour Saturday That Started in January

January 17, 2026, fell on a Saturday, so the first show landed on the day of the week it still occupies. The station billed the slot as an expanded Saturday morning program: interviews, local news, and conversations with the people and places that make the region distinct. Parrish’s own line in the hire note was plain.

Saturday with Sandra will be a place where neighbors hear from neighbors. I’m excited to bring Georgia’s stories home to North Georgia on 101.1 The Pulse.

Sandra Parrish, host, Saturdays with Sandra

The on-air clock still lists the show from 8 a.m. to noon. Clips often run a few minutes to a quarter hour because each interview is cut out on its own, which is why a single Saturday can look like four or five separate pieces in the feed. The live block is still one shift.

That mix is the job she actually took. A chili festival in Blue Ridge, Steel Magnolias at the Blue Ridge Community Theater, the Murray County Chamber, Ellijay Paws in Need, and a gardening segment with Coleen all sit in the same library as redistricting and a University System aid plan. The news craft from WSB did not get parked at the door. It got a Saturday clock on a music station.

Carriage Radio Flipped WLJA After Buying the Stick

The Pulse is a young brand on an older frequency. Carriage Radio, led by Gainesville auto dealer David Basha and president Darien Southerland, took the Ellijay-licensed station after the FCC granted the assignment on December 27, 2024, and accepted the consummation notice on January 23, 2025. The licensee is listed as Carriage Radio LLC in the FCC file. The studio remains at 134 South Main Street in Jasper.

HOW THE PULSE GOT ON THE AIR

1. July 2024: Southerland said he was drafting paperwork to buy a dirt racetrack when a broker called about WLJA.
2. December 27, 2024: The FCC grants the assignment of the FM to Carriage Radio.
3. January 23, 2025: Consummation is on file; Southerland said the group took over in January 2025 and hired Dan Ratcliffe for mornings.
4. February 2025: The station runs “40 Days and 40 Nights of Music Only” to move the format, then puts DJs back on.
5. January 9, 2026: The Pulse announces Parrish for the Saturday block.
6. January 17, 2026: Saturdays with Sandra begins live from 8 a.m. to noon.

Southerland had sold Christian pop in Atlanta and still talks about southern gospel as the music he actually lives with. He told a trade interviewer the plan was to pull listeners from Christian pop, from country, and from entertainment by playing country songs with a faith message, plus some gospel. Morning host Ratcliffe, middays with Kim Fitz, and later Griffin Adkins all came from the old Fish orbit after that Atlanta station went away. Industry people, Southerland said, told him to his face that the format would never work. He also said agency buys later jumped 200 percent over a three-month stretch, a figure that comes from him alone.

How Sandra Parrish Covered Georgia for WSB

Parrish spent 28 years at 95.5 WSB Radio on politics, schools, and roads. Friends of Georgia Radio, in the 2022 Legends material, traced a longer path than the Atlanta years. She joined WPLO in Lawrenceville in 1991 as a general assignment reporter, moved to WGAU and WNGC in Athens as assistant news director and drivetime anchor, and landed at WDUN in Gainesville in October 1994. WSB made her a legislative reporter in 1995, a beat she held from 1998 on.

HER STOPS BEFORE THE PULSE

• 1991, Lawrenceville: General assignment news at WPLO.
• Athens: Assistant news director and drivetime anchor at WGAU and WNGC.
• October 1994, Gainesville: NewsTalk 550, WDUN.
• 1995, Atlanta: WSB Radio; legislative reporter from 1998, 28 years at the station in all.
• July 28, 2023: Last day at WSB, after 32 years in radio by her own count.
• January 17, 2026: First Saturday on 101.1 The Pulse.

As of the 2022 honor she had covered 24 consecutive sessions of the Georgia General Assembly under four governors. The same bio credited her with more than a dozen regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for Best Use of Sound, Best Series, and Best Sports Reporting, plus honors from the Associated Press, the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Association of Black Journalists. She left WSB on July 28, 2023. On Facebook she called it “an incredible run at the best and most celebrated radio station in the country” and said she had spent most of her 32 years in radio there.

Capitol colleagues marked the exit in the language newsrooms use for someone who had been in the press room for a generation. Talk host Martha Zoller, pointing back to Gainesville, wrote that Parrish came from WDUN and called her a professional. The reporter who now sits with her on Saturdays is the same Bluestein who posted the retirement note. The beat did not vanish. It moved to a Saturday in the mountains.

Named a Georgia Radio Legend in 2022

Friends of Georgia Radio put Parrish in its first Legends class in 2022, with WABE host Lois Reitzes, Georgia football voice Neil Williamson, Bob Houghton, and Charles Giddens. The group honored them on August 27, 2022, at the Metropolitan Club in Alpharetta, with Jeff Foxworthy as host. The mission of Friends of Georgia Radio is the usual mix for a 501c3 of radio people: scholarships, mentoring, a place to keep station history, and a public nod to people who spent careers on Georgia air.

The 2022 write-up already described her as one of the most respected political reporters in Georgia radio news, a line that reads differently once the same voice is booking a Gilmer farm stand and a Safe Haven baby box on a Christian-country FM. She did not need Atlanta’s 50,000-watt news-talk clock to keep doing the interviews. She needed four hours and a station willing to let a news reporter talk for a whole morning.

What 21,500 Watts Reach Across North Georgia

WLJA-FM is licensed to Ellijay and holds a 21,500-watt Class C3 FM license. The tower height above average terrain is 110 meters. A translator, W229CE, repeats the main channel on 93.7 FM in Ellijay at 250 watts. The license runs through April 1, 2028. The FCC facility ID is 36892.

THE SIGNAL FROM JASPER

• Main stick: 101.1 FM, 21,500 watts, Class C3, licensed to Ellijay.
• Fill-in: W229CE, 93.7 FM, 250 watts, Ellijay.
• Studio: 134 South Main Street, Jasper, with a licensee address on file in Gainesville.
• Paper: License through April 1, 2028, facility 36892.

Southerland called it the largest stick between the Chattanooga and Atlanta markets when the broker phoned. That is sales talk, but the engineering is not a translator-and-hope operation. Braves baseball and Georgia football already lived on the frequency before the Pulse name. High school football still does. Parrish’s Saturday is the newsroom the music format did not otherwise have.

Fifteen Minutes After a Call, the Dirt Track Was Dead

Southerland has told the origin story in public. In July 2024 he was leaving agency and podcast work and had settled on buying a dirt track with his partner. The offer papers were in motion. Then the phone rang.

Bill West called and asked if we had any interest in purchasing WLJA, an FM Southern Gospel signal in North Georgia, the largest stick between the Chattanooga and Atlanta markets. I told him to send an NDA. Fifteen minutes later, dirt track racing was off the table, and I was back in my wheelhouse at 110%.

Darien Southerland, president, Carriage Radio

Parrish’s hire sits inside that bet. A car dealer and a former Fish salesperson flipped a gospel station, staffed it with Atlanta Christian-radio names, and then handed a Murrow-winning legislative reporter a live Saturday. The people who said the music format would never work were talking about playlists. The second thing the station built was a four-hour local news shift that Atlanta no longer programs on weekend mornings.

The September 26, 2026, clips are still up, Bluestein next to the farm-stand passport. The clock on the station site still reads 8 a.m. to noon. That is the show Carriage Radio bought when it hired her, and it is the show she has been doing since January 17, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Sandra Parrish and where did she work before 101.1 The Pulse?

She is a Georgia radio reporter who graduated from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism in 1989, then worked WPLO in Lawrenceville, WNGC and WGAU in Athens, and WDUN in Gainesville before WSB. A long-running WSB staff bio also notes that she is married with two daughters.

When did Saturdays with Sandra start on 101.1 The Pulse?

The first live program ran January 17, 2026, which was a Saturday, and the station framed it as an expanded Saturday morning show rather than a one-hour insert. She was also hired as a recurring contributor on The Pulse’s other on-air and digital platforms, so the Saturday shift is not her only listed role.

What is 101.1 The Pulse and who owns WLJA-FM?

101.1 The Pulse is the on-air name for WLJA-FM, a Christian country station licensed to Ellijay and based in Jasper. Carriage Radio LLC holds the license; David Basha of Carriage Auto Group and Darien Southerland run the company, and the FCC accepted their consummation filing on January 23, 2025.

What awards has Sandra Parrish won in radio?

Friends of Georgia Radio’s 2022 Legends biography credits her with more than a dozen regional Edward R. Murrow Awards specifically in Best Use of Sound, Best Series, and Best Sports Reporting. The same write-up lists additional awards from the Associated Press, the Georgia Association of Broadcasters, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Association of Black Journalists.

How can listeners hear Saturdays with Sandra besides 101.1 FM?

The station streams at 1011thepulse.com and through its iOS and Android apps, and it also feeds a 250-watt Ellijay translator, W229CE, on 93.7 FM. Interview cuts from the Saturday show are posted on the station’s Omny on-demand page after they air.