Technical Profile: WASG

AM Technical Profile: WASG

Frequency:: 540
Format:: Religious
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] Off Talisman Avenue, near the intersection of Interstate 65 & 165, co-located with WIJD.
Power (ERP):: Day: 2.5 kW; Night: 19 watts
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCData.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

[Image] Image of the temporary tower that was erected to put WIJD, its FM translator and WASG back on the air from Prichard in late 2012.
[Street View] Street View imagery of the old Atmore studios, now a podiatrist's office. Behind the building is the tower housing an old weather radar system, as well as a skirt antenna for nighttime AM operation. A two bay FM antenna is also visible, although it's unclear the purpose of that installation. From May 2024.

[Audio] Top of the hour ID audio, recorded 9 March 2021. M4A format. 77 kb, 6 seconds.

// W291CY Mobile, AL; Owned by Alabama Radio Corporation (Wilkins Radio Network, Inc.)
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to Alabama Native American Broadcasting Company (Randy Dale Gehman, Martin Eby Gehman, Vernie Lee Gehman, Martin Gerald Gehman and David Wayne Gehman) for a daytime only station on 1140 kHz, licensed to Atmore. When the station signed on in the fall of 1981 as WASG, it debuted with a mix of News/Talk, "Adult Music" and Native American programming, and was one of the few Native American owned stations in the country at the time. The studios were located at 501 North Trammell Street while the transmitter was listed as being "one mile south of Brushy Creek Bridge on US-31 South, Atmore". This would have been about 2.75 miles west southwest of the center of Atmore in a very wooded and rural area west of West Road. The station ran 10 kW days and 5 kW during critical hours. Seeking more power, later in 1981 the station applied to move to 1160 kHz with 50 kW days and 2.5 kW nights with a two tower directional antenna, but the proposal was rejected by the FCC. In 1983, they were granted the boost to 50 kW while remaining on 1140, and remaining as a daytime only operator. A license to cover for that change was filed in June 1985, at by that point the station was reported by the NAB to be broadcasting in the Motorola C-QUAM AM stereo system. At some point, the studios moved to 1318 South Main Street in Atmore.

In June 1987 the station was granted a permit to move down to 550 kHz with 3.4 kW of power, with 144 watts of nighttime power. A license to cover for this move was granted in September 1987. Despite having much less power, the coverage was virtually the same thanks to the low dial position. Of interest is that the nighttime power was transmitted from the studios on South Main Street, despite there being no clear authorization to do so. The station constructed a short tower behind the studio (visible in the Street View link, above) to hold a weather radar dome, something rather unusual for a small town radio station. The tower also housed a skirt antenna for the nighttime operation.

The station spawned an FM companion which signed on in February 1991, WYDH on 105.9 MHz, transmitting from the rural AM antenna location. Although it was originally reported here that the owners shut the AM down after launching the FM, it is possible that this was inaccurate; there are no Silent STA (Special Temporary Authority) filings with the FCC during this time period, and yearly editions of the Broadcasting Yearbook continuously list the station as on air, in stereo, with various news, talk, country and Native programming blocks through the 1990s. (Note: It's entirely possible the station was off and no one in a position of authority noticed, as small town AMs were already quickly being forgotten by this point.) 1991 is also the first year that the Yearbook is listing the station as having increased power to 5 kW days.

The stations were acquired by PCI Communications Corporation in October 1992. At this time, the format was listed as Country music primarily, but with farm and Native programming as added programming. By 1994, the station was listed as operating with 25 kW days, and still with 144 watts at night, although it's unclear if this was ever actually put on the air or not.

By 1998, the ownership was listed as 550-AM, which was Pensacola Christian Radio. They flipped the format to Christian preaching and music. In March of 2000, they were granted a permit to relocate the station a site north of Pensacola near Cantonement, Florida, co-located with their WNVY 1070. As part of the move, the station was able to drop down to 540 kHz, with 10 kW days and 143 watts at night.

The station struggled to stay on the air starting in 2007, filing a Silent STA in late August 2007 and having it extended well into March 2008. In January 2009, the station was granted a permit to move to Mobile County by re-licensing to the city of Daphne and placing the transmitter site in Prichard, co-located with 1270 WIJD. The power was dropped to 2.5 kW days and 19 watts nighttime. During this period the station remained off the air and was on the FCC silent list until a Program Test Authority was filed for the newly moved station in January 2011. A license to cover was filed in February 2011, but it was observed by locals to not actually be on the air and it's unclear if it was actually on the air at all or just long enough to be "legal" before being shuttered again. It wasn't until the end of July 2011 that locals finally noted the station on the air, with Contemporary Christian music without bumpers, liners, commercials or other announcements beyond a legally-required top of the hour ID.

In late September 2011 it was announced the station was sold to Alabama Radio Corporation, owned by Bob and Luann Wilkins, who also owned WIJD. The station fell silent on 23 October 2012 when the tower was taken down by emergency dismantling after being declared a safety hazard. This took off WASG, WIJD and FM station WAVH, who had relocated to the tower a few years prior. WIJD and WASG resumed low power broadcasting in mid-November from a temporary tower on the site of their previous license site. Wilkins eventually got a new tower built on the same site, and full power broadcasting resumed by March of 2015. During the rebuilding phase, Wilkins put the station up for sale for $540,000, but had no takers. In March 2016 they filed to modify the station to commercial operation. In the fall of 2016 the station began to be heard on FM translator W291CY on 106.1 MHz.