Mobile's WABB-FM sold to EMF, will flip to religious programming March 1st

In a shocking development in Mobile broadcasting news, Dittman family owned WABB has been sold to Educational Media Foundation, a non-profit religious broadcaster.  They will take over programming of the station on 1 March 2012.  The station has posted a press release on their website and broken the news to their Facebook fans, who are unsurprisingly upset.  Discussion is ongoing on multiple forums including Radio-Talk and Radio-Info.  See also this Examiner article on the station.

Bernie Dittman acquired WABB-AM from the Mobile Press-Register in 1959 and took the little station to top 40 and ratings domination in the Mobile market. In 1984 WABB-FM abandoned its AOR format for CHR and the transition from AM to FM started for listeners.  The FM eventually became the legendary hit music powerhouse we know today.  Bernie Dittman was the driving force behind WABB's musical success, but after his passing in 2006 the remaining family members lost their passion for the day to day operations of the organization.  When the station flips to religious programming, it will mark the end of over 25 years of pop music on WABB and over 50 years of Dittman ownership.  

EMF operates two Christian religious music formats, the contemporary K-Love and modern/youth oriented Air1.  Although K-Love is on the air out of Navarre, it is expected that it will migrate to or simulcast on WABB.  Air1 is not currently heard in any of the coastal markets covered by ABMP.

Speculation abounds as to "what happens next" for the competition, which at this point is only Clear Channel's Hit Music Now at 107.3.  Is a swap with The Rocket in the cards?  Will Cumulus try one more time to get a toe-hold in the world of CHR?  One thing's for certain, this shake-up has just begun to be felt across the Mobile and Pensacola markets.

WDXX Selma receives construction permit, slight height increase

Longtime country station "Dixie 100" WDXX in Selma has received a construction permit to move to a new tower site.  The new facility, which will still be at 50 kW, will be on a 492 foot tall tower off River Road southeast of Selma, on the Selma Hunting Club grounds.

Thanks to the higher antenna height, the station will improve coverage into western Montgomery, Maplesville, Uniontown and Camden.

WKLF off air due to tornado damage

WKLF, whose license was deleted by the FCC years ago but remained on the air anyway, has been taken off air by tornado damage to their towers in Clanton.  The tornado, which hit Maplesville and Clanton in Chilton County, did significant damage to area but luckily no injuries or deaths have been reported so far by local media.

A picture of the felled WKLF tower can be seen in this Birmingham News photo on al.com.  Another photo of the studio (with completely intact signage) is available through the National Weather Service.  The FM translator they acquired, W238BS, remains on the air, broadcasting from a location on Lay Dam Road in Chilton County via Marti (wireless remote) relay.

Update (01-26-2012) It's being reported on Radio-Info that WKLF is back on air with a temporary longwire antenna.  The studio received little or no damage, but the AM tower folded in half.  It also held the relay to the FM translator and a TV antenna used to pick up EAS broadcasts.

WMWI Demopolis construction permit modified

Miles College's WMWI, a new construction noncommercial station in Demopolis, has received a demotion.  The original permit was for 13 kW at 407 feet and would have covered Linden, Thomaston and Linden in addition to Demopolis itself.  Alas, the permit is set to expire in March and there's no sign the facility has been built.  As such, a construction permit modification has just been approved by the FCC which will knock the station down to a bare minimum 100 watts at just 157 feet.

This new facility will allow them to get the station on the air quicker while reducing the coverage area to just barely covering all of Demopolis' city limits.  This is a similar tactic taken by another area noncomm, WQLS in Camden.  They went from 11 kW to just 400 watts to get on before the permit expired.

WETU-LP Wetumpka sold

WETU-LP TV in Wetumpka has been sold and the license has been transferred from ACN Sports to World of God Fellowship.

No word yet on whether a format change is in the works.  WETU-LP currently serves as Montgomery's ion television network affiliate.

"Revocation Radio" WKRE Argo should be back on the air soon.

Thanks to a tip from a friend in central Alabama, I got word that WKRE has been off the air recently for some tower work.  According to a representative with Revocation Radio, the station should return to the air in the next day or two.

New Year, new format for WZRR in Birmingham, plus WQLS is back from the dead… sort of.

First, I want to thank everyone who has written and contributed information, history and updates to my website over 2011.  Without people across the state keeping me posted, I would not have nearly as much current data as I do, and for that, I thank you all.  Radio will continue to be an interesting medium to watch into 2012, so when you hear of a change, my ears are always open at webmaster (at) almediapage (dot) info.

Now, for the first change of 2012, in Birmingham:  heritage classic rocker "Rock 99" WZRR has flipped formats to CHR as "99.5 The Vibe".  Cumulus is going head to head with Clear Channel's established hit station, WQEN "The Q".  WZRR's ratings have not been very impressive over the last few books and have been slowly eroding due to competition from classic hits WBPT "The Eagle", a Cox station.

Hopefully this signals a reprieve for Birmingham's WAPI-FM, which is currently doing talk with three local, interesting hosts.  Their ratings are also not very good and Cumulus has cut other talk stations it owns to the bone in markets like San Francisco in an attempt to save money.

Moving down south, word is in that WQLS is on the air in Camden.  This new station is a non-comm at 90.5 MHz running just 400 watts from a short tower south of town and is owned by Alabama Christian Radio.  The format is reported to be black gospel.  This station started off with much more power and a much larger coverage area, but financial trouble likely kept the owners from building out the facility.  Faced with a looming permit expiration date at the end of 2011, they filed a modification to reduce power to something they could toss on the air in a hurry.  And boy, did they.  It was less than a month from filing the modification to going on air.

Whether they try to go with more power later remains to be seen.  Right now they're still building things out, including a website whose background looks strangely of an illicit drug.

Finally, if this new station's calls seem familiar, it's because they were used on the (now) WTXK 1210 in the Montgomery area for nearly seven years.