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.

Translator Rodeo Hoedown

Some notable translator changes have begun to stack up at ABMP World Headquarters. (What? You didn't know we had a world headquarters?)  Let's go down the list, in no particular order:

First, in Bay Minette, W262AL "signed on" to its new dial position at 101.1 MHz after vacating the noncomm band.  The parent station is listed as WMEZ in Pensacola.  I use quotation marks because the station, like most translators on the move, never actually signs on for more than a moment, if that… It's just part of the circus of moving to greener pastures.  The translator's final destination is still assumed to be Pensacola itself, for the new ESPN sports talker at 1450.  As it can only "hop" so far each time, and the FCC has put the brakes on these kinds of moves, expect this station to finally land in town sometime well into 2012.

Up on Sand Mountain, W259AP Albertville has received a CP to relocate from 99.7 to 99.3 and mosey on down the highway from Boaz to Mountainboro.  It is listed as relaying WAY-FM's WAYU, licensed to Steele.  It's worth noting that WAYU already sort of covers the area, so while it's reasonable to assume this is for fill-in service on the area, it's possible it's being moved to Gadsden to pick up an AM station's signal.  We'll have to wait and see what the plans are for this lucrative setup.

In Birmingham, W281AB (104.1 The Beat, a relay of WMJJ-HD2) has received a permit to boost power from 125 to the full 250 watts, plus a rise in antenna height.  Expect a nice boost in coverage soon, if it hasn't already gone live.

In Madison, west of Huntsville, word is that W247AT (97.3) is now relaying 97.9 WQXD-LP in Athens, with their God's Country format.  This puts the tiny LPFM station on three translators in total, including a co-channel one in Huntsville and one on 101.7 in Priceville/Somerville.

Finally, in the south-B'ham suburb of Calera, W241BD (96.1, 8 watts, relaying WGIB) has received its permit to relocate to 106.7 MHz, with 50 watts from the same site off Highway 31 in Alabaster.  The parent station will change to WBPT, which is one click over at 106.9.  It is most curious that the translator will be on WBPT's first adjacent, but my theory is that this is just a temporary setup to wrangle around the translator rules a little.  A translator can make a "minor change" to its licensed facility and move up to 3 channels up or down from its licensed spot on the dial.  But it can also move 53 or 54 channels up or down.  This is a way for a noncomm translator to jump into the commercial band and vice-versa.  It also can allow a translator like this one, which is surrounded by occupied frequencies, to move to a clearer part of the band.  The translator will "sign on" at 106.7 briefly (in theory, anyway) then apply to move 1, 2 or 3 spaces away to a suitable dial position.  More than likely, this will mean moving to 106.5 or 106.3 MHz, neither of which has any active stations on it in the area.  Whether it stays in Alabaster or moves into Birmingham remains to be seen, but this one bares watching.  No other market has embraced translators relaying AM or HD2 signals like Birmingham and this one is set to move to one of the last frequencies available area-wide.

Birmingham shakeup: Paul Finebaum leaving JOX for The Zone.

I don't talk about rumors, usually, but this one involves some pretty big changes in Birmingham radio. If true, it would be a pretty major media story.  There's talk that venerable* sports host Paul Finebaum is ready to jump ship off Citadel's WJOX (due to the upcoming merger with Cumulus?)

That part's confirmed. And as noted in that story, we can expect to see "97.3 The Zone" on Tuesday, August 30th when Cox blows up "The Buck" WNCB for their own FM sports station.  Although unspoken, it appears that Finebaum plans on landing with Cox, with the sports format pretty much being tailored around his syndicated afternoon show.

Getting into even wilder territory, speculation is that once Finebaum gets settled in at his new digs, Cox will flip-flop The Zone with 106.9 The Eagle, giving Finebaum and friends 100 kW to go toe to toe with JOX.  The Eagle's classic hits format will be shuffled to the weaker signal, which almost certainly spells the death of the format in the ratings (see: CHR, oldies and "new" country).  Lending some credence to this far fetched idea?  Listed on the Atlanta Falcons' website as an affiliate for Birmingham is "WZNN" on 106.9 in Birmingham.

* - “venerable” means “a Jerry Springer-like circus” right?