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.

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?