Technical Profile: WIZB

FM Technical Profile: WIZB

Station Name:: The Joy FM
Frequency:: 94.3
Format:: Christian Contemporary
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Between Headland and Abbeville, east of US 431 at the intersection of Henry County roads 64 and 18.
Power (ERP):: 19.5 kW
Antenna:: Directional
Antenna HAAT:: 410 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

:

PS-(song title/artist)
Time-[?]
Text-[?] PTY-[?]
PI-WIZB-FM

AUX: 500 watts @ 118 feet HAAT. 60 dBu protected contour map, from FCCdata.org.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio on Highway 53 in Dothan.

// WTID Marianna, FL
// WPHH Hope Hull
// WAXU Troy
// W241CB Dothan
Owner:: Radio Training Network
History:: This station started off as WARI-FM, spawned from 1480 WARI in Abbeville. It was put on the air by John V. Mizell (as Abbeville Radio, Inc.) The original construction permit was issued in the spring of 1967; it signed on in early 1968, mostly duplicating the AM's Country music format. The station started off as a Class A with 3 kW, transmitting from the AM's stick about two miles northwest of Abeeville on AL-10 (today, this at the western corner of AL-10 and US-431.) The transmitter was a Bauer 603, feeding a Jampro 3 element model J3B/3V antenna.

Around 1976 the AM tried a more Diversified approach with a mix of Country and Rock, and the FM by this point was duplicating the AM 75% of the time according to that year's Broadcasting Yearbook. By the end of the decade, this station was doing a Middle of the Road (MOR) music format while the AM remained country.

In early 1980, ownership of both the AM and FM was sold to Henry County Radio, Inc. They flipped the station to Urban Contemporary as WXLE. That lasted until the station was sold to Abbeville Wireless Corp. in 1985. They flipped both the AM and FM to oldies around that time.

The station was acquired by Genesis Radio, Inc. in 1995, and they tried several formats, including Rock, Top 40 and Classic Hits, but nothing stuck. By 1998, the station had finally flipped to its current Christian Contemporary music format.

More recently, it was "His Radio", but at some point in 2013 it changed over to the Joy FM network, consisting of a station in Atlanta and a few others in Florida. That same year the station began being heard on translator W241CB in Dothan on 96.1 MHz. It transmits with 155 watts from a site south of Ross Clark Circle on Twitchell Road, behind Midsouth Paving.

The station was taken off the air by Hurricane Michael, which hit the area on 10 October 2018, but it was back on just a day later.

In July 2023 the station was granted a permit for an auxiliary backup station, with a transmitter running 500 watts from a single bay FM antenna on a short tower at their studios on AL-53 in Dothan. That same month they also filed an application to move the translator from Twitchell Road to this same short tower behind the studio, with 99 watts.

In August 2023 the station's translator construction permit was granted for the move to the tower behind the studios off AL-53 in Dothan. A license to cover was filed for that at the end of September 2023.