AM Technical Profile: WAYE
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- Frequency:
- 1220
- Format:
- Regional Mexican
- Transmitter
Location:
- [map]
[bird's
eye] Just north of Pearson Avenue, off Garrison Avenue in
Birmingham. Diplexed with WJLD.
Previous site: [map]
[street
view] [bird's
eye] [google
aerial] Mims Avenue between 14th and 16th
Avenues in west Birmingham, near Elmwood Cemetery.
- Power (ERP):
- Day: 1 kW
- Night: 75 watts
- Antenna:
- 1 tower,
omnidirectional
- Other
Information:
-
0.5
mV/m Daytime
Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's
Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCData.org]
- [Radio-Locator]
-
[Wikipedia]
- [Facebook]
[Article]
NBC 13 story on Alabama's first "FM" Regional Mexican station
-
Owned by Riviera Communications
-
// W252BE Tarrant, AL (STA)
//
W226CT Leeds, AL
:
PS-La Jefa
Time-[?]
Text-[?]
PTY-Top 40
PI-
- History:
- AM 1240
history:
Came on the air in 1949 as WEDR by J. L. Doss (of WJLD fame), as the
second all-black staffed station in the country. The KKK blew
up the tower shortly after the station came on the air.
Locally famous personality Shelly "The Playboy" Stewart got his
start here thanks to help from blues legend Little Walter, who
hosted a blues show here in the early 60s.
- Tommy
Charles bought this station in 1964 and changed the calls to WAQY
(WAckY) and the format became Top 40. He bought it after being
dismissed from WYDE, where he'd teamed up with Doug Layton. (Charles
defected from WSGN in 1957 before going to WYDE.) Simple
intros and closes marked the sound of this station, a big difference
from the Top 40 sound with reverb on the mics and dramatic news
elements — sort of like an adult Top 40 approach.
- Layton
and Charles hosted the morning show on this station. The station's
only claim to fame is being the home of the "Beatle Boycott",
started after John Lennon's comment in 1965 about the Beatles being
"bigger than Jesus". A big contributor to the site notes, "clips of
Layton and Charles can be seen in Beatles documentaries, The
Compleat Beatles and John Lennon: Imagine." No
other stations in Alabama really joined the boycott, but the crazy
part was WAQY really played mellower top 40 and never touched the
Beatles anyway.
- By 1968
the station had changed to something of a talk station for women
after failing at Top 40. In 1969 they took a last stab at Top 40
before Tommy Charles sold the station to a group which switched the
format to R&B, with the slogan "The Bull" and WBUL calls. The
Bull was a major soul station in Birmingham until the 80's, when the
format was changed to the Stardust satellite programming with calls
of WTWG. Then it was to WAYE, and black gospel.
- In June
2009 the IRS got involved with WAYE due to unpaid taxes and
employees getting paychecks that bounced. The station has been
reported off as of mid-July 2010.
- One year
later in July 2011 it is reported the station has been sold to
Richardson Broadcasting, owner of R&B-flavored WJLD AM, who
announced plans to return the station to the air on 15 August as
"Praise 1220" with a gospel music format. The station was
confirmed on-air in September 2011.
- In early June 2013,
the station was observed to be broadcasting Spanish language music
programming, taking the "La 10 Q" regional Mexican format away from
WZGX in Bessemer. In August 2013 it was announced that
Richardson Broadcasting agreed to swap WAYE for ownership of WIXI in
Jasper. As part of the unusual deal, the swap involves the
payment of $275,000 in cash and several home improvements to owner
Gary Richardson's home, including, "enclosure of the patio deck,
construction of a two car garage, repair and replacement of gutters,
replacement of two windows, and repairs to the foundation."
After the swap, 1220 became "El Jefe" and WZGX's "La 10 Q" format
fell silent.
In June 2021, the
station applied to move the transmitter site from the Mims
Avenue site in Birmingham, to be diplexed with WJLD's tower on
Pearson Avenue, a few miles to the west. That permit was
granted in October 2021.
On the very last day the permit was valid, the station finally
filed a license to cover for the move to the WJLD site on
Pearson Avenue. That permit was not granted, however, due to
issues with some of the technical parameters for WJLD listed in
the filing. In early November 2024 the station filed an
amended license to cover with corrected figures.
- Translator
W252BE history:
- WAY Media, Inc. was
granted a new construction permit for a translator on 98.3 MHz,
licensed to the Centerville community, with a transmitter halfway
between West Point and Cullman in Cullman County. A licensed
to cover for the station was granted in 2005, when it was listed as
relaying WAY-FM's WAYH Harvest. Originally licensed for 10
watts, it got a boost to 27 watts and was relocated into Cullman in
2007.
The station was hopped into the Birmingham market and in 2013, a
licensed to cover for a facility atop Red Mountain was granted; with
it the power was raised to 250 watts, the city of license was
changed to Tarrant City, and the antenna employed used a strong
directional pattern pointed north. The parent station at this
time switched to Birmingham Gospel station WAGG. In 2014 the
station changed to a different antenna pattern, with 150 watts and a
more omnidirectional pattern. It was at this time that the
station switched to relaying WAYE. At this point, the translator
became the first FM outlet for a Spanish-language format not just in
Birmingham but apparently anywhere in the state of Alabama.
The license was transferred to Valleydale Broadcasting (an offshoot
of Reynolds Technical Associates, who have made owned several other
full power stations and translators across the state), in the summer
of 2014. In November 2015, Valleydale filed an STA (Special
Temporary Authority) to operate at variance with the license, citing
a cut transmission line as the reason. This resulted in a
lower antenna height but with more power. An issue arose in
late 2016 when Marble City Media's WFXO, licensed to Stewartville,
southeast of Birmingham, signed on with an improved facility.
After it commenced broadcasting, it began receiving interference
from W252BE, which kicked off a round of back-and-forth filings with
the FCC between Marble City Media and Valleydale Broadcasting to try
and deal with the situation. Valleydale Broadcasting
transferred the licensed to another Reynolds sub-company, Shelby
Broadcast Associates, in 2017; that spring they also were granted an
application with modified parameters to try to mitigate the
interference. Despite that, complaints from WFXO continued and
the FCC took the unusual step of rescinding the grant they'd
previously issues.
Shelby Broadcast Associates again filed to modify the facility with
an even more aggressive directional antenna in June 2017.
While waiting for that application to be granted, however, they
filed another STA citing the cut transmission cable and asked to
operate at lower power again. Shelby filed a license to cover
for the previous modification in October 2018, and Marble City
Media's WFXO once again filed objections based on various reasons to
try to deny the grant.
In June 2020 it was announced that Riviera Communications, owners of
WAYE and other stations in the state, agreed to purchase the
translator for $184,000. That transfer was put on hold while
the FCC investigated the issued raised by Marble City Media's
various objections to the translator's existence.
At the end of September 2022, the FCC dismissed the last objections
filed by Marble City Media against the translator.
The FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) to Shelby
Broadcast Associates in February 2024 for $16,500 for various
issues, including operating the translator at variance from licensed
parameters and failure to note character issues in applications
related to the translator. As part of the proposal, they also
rejected some of Marble City Media's claims against the
translator. For the full investigatory story from the FCC, see
this
link, which recounts the entire history between Marble City
Media and Shelby Broadcast Associates/Valleydale Broadcasting.
In April 2024 the FCC upheld the fine. Shelby claimed
inability to pay, but the FCC countered that the pending sale to
Riviera amounts to "substantial economic gain" which merits the
upholding of the fine.
The FCC granted the license transfer to Riviera as well as the
license renewal in mid-April 2024.
Translator W226CT history:
Glen Iris Baptist School was granted an original construction permit
for a 10 watt translator on 92.7 MHz, licensed to and located in the
city of Leeds, in November of 2013. A license to cover was
filed for this facility in October 2016, and the station was
reported on-air relaying Glen Iris' Religious noncommercial WGIB out
of Birmingham.
A construction permit to relocate the translator to an area just
east of Leeds was granted in October 2020; one month later Avondale
Metal Works filed to purchase the translator for $10,000. That
same month they filed a Silent STA in preparation for taking control
of the translator. In December 2020 they were granted a permit
to change the transmitter's location to a site southeast of Leeds,
with 99 watts and a directional antenna pointed southwest towards
Shelby County, along with a change to 93.1 MHz. A license to
cover for that change was filed in January 2021 and at that point
the translator was reported to be rebroadcasting WAYE. That
same month they were granted another permit to move the station
again, this time to its current location atop Double Oak Mountain in
Shelby County, overlooking the rapidly-growing US-280
corridor. They took the translator silent again in February
2021 citing the move; the STA was extended in September 2021.
A license to cover for this move was filed in December 2021.
With 99 watts from the mountaintop the translator's coverage area
now includes parts of Hoover and Chelsea.
The FCC granted the license transfer of the translator from Avondale
Metal Works to Riviera Communications, owners of WAYE, in March
2022, for a price of $110,000.