Technical Profile: WAHR

FM Technical Profile: WAHR

Station Name:: Star 99.1
Frequency:: 99.1
Format:: Variety Hits
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] Off Juniper Drive NW, west of Pulaski Pike NW.
Power (ERP):: 100 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 984 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :PS-Star99.1 Time-[unknown] Text-song title / artist PTY-[unknown] PI-WAHR-FM

HD-2: Classic Hip-Hop/R&B
"98.1 The Beat"
// W251AC Capshaw
// W298BZ Huntsville
// WLOR Huntsville
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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[Image] Image of the RDS text display of an Insignia HD portable showing the PI (call sign) and Radio Text fields being decoded, from a few years ago.
[Image] RDS decoded on an AT&T Insite phone in Florence showing the PS and Radio Text fields as well as PTY (format), May 2019.
[Studio] Street View imagery of the Rocket City Broadcasting studios at The Boardwalk in Huntsville.
Owner:: Southern Stone Communications
History:: WAHR was put on the air in 1959 by Arnold H. Hornbuckle (Arnold Hornbuckle Radio or Arnold Hornbuckle Records), a local record store owner. The studio and transmitter were both housed in the Huntsville Times building, downtown.; .; The station was sold to former WAHR jock Steve Shelton (STG Media?) in July 1999 and now calls itself "Star 99". The transmitter is now off Drake Mountain off Juniper Road. In March 2001, the studios moved to a complex housing WRTT and WLOR at 1900 Memorial Parkway.; .; It's interesting to note that this is the only top rated FM in the market that's actually located in the city of Huntsville. All the other top FMs are located in Athens (WZYP), Decatur (WDRM), Trinity (WWXQ), Hartselle (WTAK) and even Tullahoma, TN (WPZM)!; Over the 2009 summer season this station transitioned from a sleepy soft AC into a more upbeat Hot AC type station, according to reports. After WWFF flipped to its "Journey" 80s and 90s format, Star moved off Hot AC And back to a more variety hits type format. In December 2011 the Black Crow stations, including WAHR, were transferred to Southern Stone Communications.

The station showed up on the iBiquity HD radio guide website in early 2019, although it wasn't active at the time. That HD signal signed on in early April 2019, and the HD2 came on in October 2019, airing the "98.1 The Beat" Classic Urban format from WLOR. After Thanksgiving 2019, WLOR and one of the translators it was feeding broke off to do Christmas music, but rejoined "The Beat" format heard here on the HD2 format after the start of 2020.