Technical Profile: WALX

FM Technical Profile: WALX

Station Name:: Alex FM
Frequency:: 100.9
Format:: Variety Hits
Transmitter Location:: [map] Southeast of Selma on the north side of CR-460, about 1 mile north of CR-462 and the Tyler community.
Power (ERP):: 50 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 492 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

:
PS-WALX-FM 100.9 ALEX-FM (song/artist)
Time-[?]
Text-The Best Hits of All Time WALX-FM
PTY-Classic Rock
PI-WALX-FM; HD-2: Classic Country
"Kix Country 101.5"; // W268BQ Selma

HD-3: Gospel
"Praise 96.3"
// W242BW Selma; AUX: 3 kW @ 299 feet. 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Facebook] for WALX; [Facebook] for Kix Country 101.5
[Facebook] for Praise 96.3

[Studio] Google Street View image of the station's studio, co-located with WJAM.
Owner:: Scott Communications
History:: In 1974, it signed on from Selma as WALX (ALeXander Broadcasting, for Thomas and Betty Alexander). The station was a class A (3 kW) and broadcast from a site near Valley Grande, about four miles north of Selma on Dallas County 37. The format virtually duplicated that of then-WDAL 101.3 FM in Meridian, with beautiful music. When the resident beautiful music station in Montgomery increased power, WALX changed to a Top 40 format as "Stereo 101". That lasted from 1981 to 1991, when they went to a more Hot Adult Contemporary format as "Lazer 101" a nod to the era when CDs and digital music hit it big in the mainstream. Betty, Tom's wife, continued to run the station after his death, which happened in the late 80's, around the time the station got a power boost to its current 50 kW signal.

Ownership of the station changed from Alexander Broadcasting to Scott Communications in January 2006, along with WMRK (AM) and other Alexander properties. The price was part stock and the rest in cash, $29,500. This was not so much a sell-out to a new company as keeping it in the family; Scott Communications is merely Scott Alexander's company and the station was sold after his mother, Betty, had passed in 2005.; In the spring of 2006 the station acquired a construction permit to change their city of license only, from Selma to Orrville. In late February 2007 they picked up Rick and Bubba. In February 2009 the FCC granted the COL change. The station is now licensed to Orrville, a process that allowed a sister station to beat cheeks to the Montgomery market. On March 24th 2009 the station flipped from its long-time unique format to a variety hits "Jack FM" type format, which eventually became "Alex FM". The station was reported to have picked up an RDS data feed in early 2010, and HD radio was added in March 2013. In April 2013 the HD-2 was turned on, with a mix of oldies and classic country. It's also being heard on the W268BQ translator in Selma at 101.5 MHz. The oldies were just a stunt, as it quickly changed to "Kix Country 101.5", returning country to the market after crosstown competitor WDXX dropped it for a similar variety hits format to Alex FM. After only a few months, WDXX dropped its experiment of pretending to be a Montgomery station and returned to the country format. On the first day of February 2016, Kix announced a big change at 6 am, touting a flip to classic country.

The station added a second HD subchannel in June 2018. Initially simulcasting AM sister station WJAM, it was later revealed that it was going to launch a Classic Hip-Hop format called "96.3 Da Bomb", which debuted on 30 June 2018. That lasted until late October 2024 when the format flipped to an Urban Gospel music format as "Praise 96.3".