Technical Profile: WCOX

AM Technical Profile: DWCOX

Frequency:: 1450
Format:: Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] Located approximately 1.3 southeast of the Wilcox County Courthouse on Alabama highway 265.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 1 kW
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCData.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; Silent
History:: Black Belt Broadcasting Company put this station on the air in the winter of 1969, filing a license to cover for a facility on 1540 kHz in January. The station originally was a 1 kW daytime only operation, using a Continental CCA-AM-1000D transmitter, from a site southeast of Camden on what was then County Road 39. The call sign has always been WCOX — for WilCOX county.

The Camden branch of the NAACP filed a petition to deny the station's license renewal in 1972. Through most of the 70's, the station had a Full Service type format, as many small town stations had during those days.

In December 1979, the station moved to 1450 kHz and added 250 watts of nighttime power for the first time, and around this time the format flipped to Religious programming.

Ownership changed to Harry A. and Betty J. Taylor in the spring of 1981, as Taylor and Taylor. In 1986, the station was sold to Wilcox Network, Inc., although Harry Taylor stayed on as program director.

The station launched an FM companion in 1990, after several years of delays. In the early 90's the station boosted nighttime power to 1 kW, running that power 24 hours a day. By 1992 the station was running Rock and Blues music programming in addition to the Religious format. That same year, Down Home Broadcasting bought the stations for $30,000.

For a short time in the late 90's or early 2000's, the station had a News/Talk format, but later went back to Gospel and other Religious programming.; WCOX's license was deleted in June of 2005 because they failed to renew the license by the required date and failed to pay the regulatory fees. The station kept broadcasting despite losing its license, and was fined $14,000. The FCC restored the license in May 2006 after the station paid all necessary fees.

Sometime after returning to the air, the tower collapsed into the nearby woods. As far as anyone knows, the station continued to (try to) broadcast from the downed tower, ruining the transmitter. The transmitter itself was reported to be in an unprotected, open shack where the elements have basically rusted the entire setup into nothingness. Later, it was noted that the station moved the transmitter site across the street (without ever notifying the FCC) and forgot to connect the transmitter to the antenna, transmitting into a dummy load for a while until the transmitter burned out.

The FCC canceled the license for WCOX in April 2012. In October of 2012 a petition for reconsidering for the license was dismissed, and the call sign was officially deleted from the FCC records. Another petition for reconsideration was granted in May 2013 and the station's license (as well as that for WYVC) were re-instated. WCOX is off air with a special temporary authority to remain silent.

In early January 2021, the station's license was deleted per the request of the owners.