More Musical Chairs with WENN calls...Guess Where They Are Now?

[passtheword]

It hasn't been that long since Clear Channel bounced the WENN calls off of the former (and now current again) WACT in Tuscaloosa. Looks as though the WENN calls have now come full circle. After 26 years, the WENN calls have finally made their way back... on AM 1320 in Birmingham. I found this little tidbit on radio-locator again, just as I did when found the last two call letter changes for Tuscaloosa's 1420 (from WACT to WENN and then back to WACT).

I checked the FCC website and the WPSB calls were changed to WENN, as of 3/15. Birmingham's 1320 hasn't had the WENN calls since January 1983, when the station became WAGG.

Wonder with the new calls if Cox is getting ready to end the LMA they've had for the past couple of years and resume operation of 1320, or if Cox just wanted to snatch the WENN calls out of Clear Channel's hands?


_____________________
What If...
Radio Didn't Exist?
www.LifeWithoutRadio.com

 

[ALRocker]

They're back home where they belong.

 

[Nate Wesley]

You know, I honestly saw that the other day browsing around R-L, and it didn't pass my mind as being odd or noteworthy until now.

Cox's snatching of the WENN calls is smart for two reasons:
1) as mentioned, they just sort of 'belong' on 1320 and
2) Citadel can't use them to brand 107.7 against Kiss & Jamz. (Not that they would've, but they could've.)

 

[passtheword]

They're back home where they belong.

From what I've researched online and on wikipedia, the original calls for 1320 were WEZB, when the station signed on in 1950. Somewhere along the line (I'm guessing the 50's), WEZB moved to the 1220 frequency, the current WAYE. AM 1320, in turn, became WENN at some point afterward. I remember seeing something on one of the Birmingham radio history sites that WENN-AM was operating in the 60's, so 1320 must have had the WENN calls for some, if not all, of the 1960's. Anyone know when the WENN calls actually showed up on 1320 and how that all came about with the WEZB move to 1220? Did the folks who owned WEZB purchase AM 1220 (might have been WEDR then), move the intellectual property over to 1220, and sell 1320, which became WENN?


________________________
What If...
Radio Didn't Exist?
www.LifeWithoutRadio.com

 

[duncanalausa]

http://www.birminghamrewound.com/radio-tv2.htm

this site has a very good "family tree" of birmingham media.

(note that many of the pictures from this site are the ones featured in the wbrc 60 years anniversary promos)

 

[Charles1]

Now, if there was a way to snatch back a few other classic call signs for Birmingham: WSGN (now on Gadsden's repeater of WBHM), WVOK (K-98 in Anniston/Oxford), and WKXX (102.9 in Attalla/Gadsden). Are there any other defunct call signs in the state that have such an emotional appeal?

 

[BlueWanderer]

It's funny that I was thinking about the same thing yesterday about the WENN call letters. The earliest WENN that I've known was on 107.7 a year or two before The X shown up on that freq. I miss that WENN station, because it was the first Birmingham station I've listen to.

Now, if there was a way to snatch back a few other classic call signs for Birmingham: WSGN (now on Gadsden's repeater of WBHM), WVOK (K-98 in Anniston/Oxford), and WKXX (102.9 in Attalla/Gadsden). Are there any other defunct call signs in the state that have such an emotional appeal?

Up until February of last year, the WRAX call signs would've been another. They are currently on a Michigan station that's yet to be on the air from what I've read.

 

[ALRocker]

Bring back WRKK which was at first WVOK-FM. It was the best radio station in the history of the world!

 

[passtheword]

Now, if there was a way to snatch back a few other classic call signs for Birmingham: WSGN (now on Gadsden's repeater of WBHM), WVOK (K-98 in Anniston/Oxford), and WKXX (102.9 in Attalla/Gadsden). Are there any other defunct call signs in the state that have such an emotional appeal?

It'd be nice if Gadsden State would be interested in at least sharing the WSGN call letters with AM 610, or get the school to release the calls entirely by providing a nice donation...

That's interesting to note that three of Birmingham's historic radio call signs all wound up in the Anniston/Gadsden area. Along with WVOK, WSGN, and WKXX, I'd add WYDE to that list, also...those calls just kinda belong on 850. It's rather strange hearing them on 101.1 but even stranger on AM 1260, which I always remember as WCRT when I was a kid.


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