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Iconic Alabama Radio Formats

phildmills said:
WTXT Fayette/Tuscaloosa has not been around nearly as long as the others, but it has been WTXT since the early 90's if I remember correctly. It's marketed as Tuscaloosa's Country Music Station, 98 'TXT, since forever.

My favorite days of Tuscaloosa were with WFFX "95.7 the Fox," "100.7 WLXY" Northport/Tuscaloosa, WTID Reform/Tuscaloosa "101.7 The Tide" (now WBEI, although I think it pulled a brief stint as WTID again?) I miss the days when there were so many classic rock stations on the dial to choose from. I didnt get to experience a lot of the music during its time as I was born in the mid-80's but Tuscaloosa was a classic rock haven for a long while when I was a kid.

de NV4P
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The WTXT format change occurred on 1/8/90 (I was listening to them the day 98.1 went country). That would make 22 yrs for the WTXT format...not as long as the other stations mentioned earlier, but by today's standards of stations' longevity (or lack thereof), it's noteworthy. Another iconic station I can think of worth mentioning would be WZHT, "Hot 105.7" Troy which changed to urban on 8/1/88....that would be 24 yrs in the format this coming August.
 
passtheword said:
The WTXT format change occurred on 1/8/90 (I was listening to them the day 98.1 went country). That would make 22 yrs for the WTXT format...not as long as the other stations mentioned earlier, but by today's standards of stations' longevity (or lack thereof), it's noteworthy. Another iconic station I can think of worth mentioning would be WZHT, "Hot 105.7" Troy which changed to urban on 8/1/88....that would be 24 yrs in the format this coming August.
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And to think I can remember when 98.1 was WHKW, doing top-40 out of a Jim Walter home outside of Fayette, and programmed more toward Columbus and Starkville. Wasn't it some time in the '80s when it flipped to country, and began aiming at T-town?

Regarding WQLT/Florence, I'm not sure at what point they drifted into adult contemporary, but in the late '70s and well into the '80s they were a straight-ahead hits format.

As for the Dothan stations mentioned, WTVY-FM has been country since at least 1976. I think they were MOR to start with. WOOF-FM has been doing adult contemporary since 1985-ish. Prior to that it was easy listening from day one in 1964. (side note: another heritage FM blowtorch under a longtime single owner)

And we can't forget the iconic black stations in Alabama:

WBLX/Mobile ... 1978 at the latest. Not sure how much earlier, though.

WEUP/Huntsville ... original at 1600 powered up in 1963.

WXVI 1600/Montgomery ... although more of a gospel station now, and a stint doing talk, it's targeted African-Americans since the mid to late 1960s (when it was WAPX).

And Birmingham:

WATV 900 = black since 1976, when Joe Lackey and fellow exiled WENN jocks invaded that sleepy, struggling talk station and took it urban.

And all of the above are beat by: WJLD 1400, which has programmed a black format of some type since (I believe) 1954.

--Russell
 
Re: WQLT: I went to grad school in Louisville from '83-'86, so I became familiar with a lot of the radio stations along I-65 between Birmingham and Louisville. All during that time frame Q-107 was Top 40. Picking them up was a challenge, because they got a lot of interference from Lebanon/Nashville's Y-107 (WYHY), which was still on 107.3 until '85, I think.
 
WBLX's origin goes back to more like 1973. Crosstown competitor WGOK 900 was black/soul, then black gospel, continuously back to 1958.
 
A little off topic, but what was the first radio station in Alabama? I had thought it was WAPI, but Wiki say's they were second....
 
Seeing the post above about "black" radio stations. How about WTUG in Tuscaloosa? I remember them when I lived there as a weak station on 92.7 FM before the frequency change and massive power upgrade. I'll never forget the van they paraded around down for remotes, flagging cars down with bumper stickers and such. "The Soul Patrol".

Also, a big congrats to the one class C station licensed to Tuscaloosa which <still> focuses on Tuscaloosa, not the bigger city 55 miles to the northeast. They always seem to fractionalize a point or so in the Birmingham ratings though.
 
StrayKats said:
Seeing the post above about "black" radio stations. How about WTUG in Tuscaloosa? I remember them when I lived there as a weak station on 92.7 FM before the frequency change and massive power upgrade. I'll never forget the van they paraded around down for remotes, flagging cars down with bumper stickers and such. "The Soul Patrol".

Also, a big congrats to the one class C station licensed to Tuscaloosa which <still> focuses on Tuscaloosa, not the bigger city 55 miles to the northeast. They always seem to fractionalize a point or so in the Birmingham ratings though.
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Wasn't WTUG mass-appeal urban until 95.7 Jamz came along?
 
Charles1 said:
StrayKats said:
Seeing the post above about "black" radio stations. How about WTUG in Tuscaloosa? I remember them when I lived there as a weak station on 92.7 FM before the frequency change and massive power upgrade. I'll never forget the van they paraded around down for remotes, flagging cars down with bumper stickers and such. "The Soul Patrol".

Also, a big congrats to the one class C station licensed to Tuscaloosa which <still> focuses on Tuscaloosa, not the bigger city 55 miles to the northeast. They always seem to fractionalize a point or so in the Birmingham ratings though.
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Wasn't WTUG mass-appeal urban until 95.7 Jamz came along?
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It may have been at one time, but when I was in school there in the mid-90s it was urban AC. That was back when Fox 95-7 was going through their changes from AC to a more alternative-leaning format, if I remember correctly.
 
WDRM in Decatur switched from rock to country sometime in the 80's then moved their transmitter to North Huntsville and have dominated the ratings ever since.
 
re: WTUG - before 1990 or so, was there really a demonstrated difference between mainstream urban and urban AC back then? As I remember they were very interchangeable in the pop-flavoured late 70s (disco) and early to mid 80s anyway, before rap made its so-called inroads and hip hop was laying dormant. I seem to remember in the old Broadcasting magazine "Across The Dial" books which were published each year or two (imagine what an undertaking that would be now), urban formats of any kind, except gospel, were referred to merely as "Black".
 
poledo said:
WTGZ "The Tiger" in Auburn has been alternative since we all learned the word "alternative". Also for Auburn, predating the Tiger, WEGL has always been one of my favorite "road stations". Those kids always plug together a playlist of good songs when I drive through, kinda like they know I'm on I85.

WVAS Montgomery too maybe?
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When I lived in Alabama I also enjoyed both of those stations (Tiger and WEGL). Both had presets on my radio's at home and in the car. The were scratchy up in the hills our in the fringes of their coverage but they both played great music at the time. My other presets were WQEN (Rick and Bubba still there doing mornings at the time) and WJZN 104.1.

At work it was mostly Mix 103 most of the time. There were not many choices in Alex City inside a building with a metal roof and lots of computers around.
 
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