Technical Profile: WBHJ

FM Technical Profile: WBHJ

Station Name:: 95-7 Jamz
Frequency:: 95.7
Format:: Hip-Hop
Transmitter Location:: Red Mountain, just off Ishkooda Rd.
Power (ERP):: 12.2 kW.
Antenna:: Directional
Antenna HAAT:: 1,004 feet.
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

:

PS-95.7 JAMZ (artist/song)
Time-[?]
Text-Now playing (song/artist) on 95.7 Jamz
PTY-[?]
PI-WBHJ-FM; HD-2: Black Gospel "Heaven 610"
// WAGG Birmingham
// W271BN Birmingham; HD-3: WAY-FM; // W256CD Fultondale; :
PS-WAY-FM (song/artist)
Time-[?]
Text-WAY-FM (song/artist)
PTY-Top 40
PI-WAYU

More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
[Facebook] For 95-7 Jamz
[Facebook] For the WAY FM network; [Bhamwiki]; [Image] RDS display data for the HD-3's FM translator, as shown on a Mazda OEM stereo, from 2020.
[Image] RDS display from a GMC Yukon's radio, from 2012.
[Image] RDS display from an Insignia HD portable in northwest Alabama, showing the Radio Text and PI (call sign) fields.; [Image] HD-2 display from a Polk HD radio.
[Image] HD-3 display showing no PAD data on a Polk HD radio.
[Image] HD-1 PAD data with station logo, as shown on a Mazda OEM stereo, from 2020.

[Studio] Street View imagery of the building housing the SummitMedia studios off Highway 280 in Hoover.
Owner:: J. S. Kelly, LLC
History:: Was originally a Tuscaloosa station, with transmitter on 15th Street across from Taco Casa. Came on the air in 1958 as WTBC, companion to WTBC-AM 1230, by Tuscaloosa Broadcasting Company. Later had a separate identity as WUOA (University of Alabama), as an Adult Contemporary station. As WTBC-FM, the station was just a placeholder for the AM station, playing a stack of Middle-of-the-Road (MOR) format LP's on a turntable. A contributor who worked at WTBC-AM notes that when the stack of records was finished, it just started playing over! Station IDs weren't done regularly as they were done by the AM jocks, who often forgot. The program director would go live for a few hours each night and was probably the only live person on the air daily.

Sometime in the early 80's the station decided to try a more upbeat format, and flipped to an Album Rock (AOR) type format. In March 1984, the station and its AM companion were sold to Keymarket Communications of Alabama. They flipped this station to Adult Contemporary as "95-7 The Fox" with the WFFX call sign.

The stations would be purchased by Alabama Universal Corporation for $1,000,000 in November of 1992. Shortly thereafter, they were granted a permit to relocate the transmitter site to the old WDBB-TV tower on Jug Factory Road, with a boost in height to 521 feet HAAT (Height Above Average Terrain). The 15th Street transmitter site topped out at 300 feet HAAT, so this would have increased coverage quite a bit. That facility was never built out, however, as it was superseded by a move to a rural site near Vance, to put the station as close as possible to the much larger Birmingham radio market nearby. That change was granted in April 1994. It's likely around this time that the station flipped briefly to Modern Rock, ostensibly to gain younger college--aged listeners in Tuscaloosa and siphon off some of the modern rock fans on the west side of Birmingham who struggled to pick up that city's "106X" alt rock station, whose small coverage area favored eastern suburbs of the city.

In July 1995 a license to cover for the taller tower near Vance was filed, bringing the station significant coverage of the Birmingham market. In 1996, the station (and its AM companion) would be sold to Cox Communications for an undisclosed amount. They quickly flipped the station to a Hip-Hop format as "95-7 Jamz" with the WBHJ (BirmingHam Jamz) call sign.

Aside: Despite the less-than-optimal signal in Birmingham, Cox quickly became the dominant player in African-American oriented radio programming after flipping this station to Hip-Hop. The same month this happened, they'd purchased and flipped a rimshot FM in Warrior to Urban Adult Contemporary as WBHK (BirmingHam Kiss), a one-two punch covering the younger and adult ends of the Black radio market. They would further cement their position in the market with purchase of Black Gospel 1320 WAGG.; In June 2005 the station completed a move to boost its signal in the Birmingham market by getting re-licensed to the Birmingham suburb of Midfield and moving their transmitter site from rural Bibb County (near Vance) to the Red Mountain, where the other high-power Birmingham stations are located. Although they've had to reduce their power from 100kW to just 12.2kW, the in-town location provides a good signal to listeners in the immediate area. The move has been made just in time as they now have competition from "Hot 107.7", formerly a rock station, with a much bigger signal in and out of the metro area.; The station, along with all other Cox radio stations in Birmingham, were put up for sale in the summer of 2012. They eventually sold to SummitMedia and the deal closed in 2013. In September of that year, the morning show (Roy Wood, Nu York and B. Money) was terminated while the host was in Los Angeles filming a television program. He and the others found out about it via social networking. In November 2012 the station's HD broadcasts resumed, adding Contemporary Christian-themed WAY-FM to its HD-2 subchannel. WAY-FM is being heard on Birmingham translator W210CA, at 89.9 MHz.

In June 2021, Way Media purchased W256CD (iHeart's "Alt 99.1" Rock format) from Red Mountain Ventures for $350,000. The sale closed in November 2021, and the translator began broadcasting WAY-FM on 12 November 2021.

In July 2022, it was reported that the original WAY-FM translator at 89.9 was removed from the lineup, changing to a Spanish Christian music network out of Texas, fed by a station in Evansville, Indiana.

In early June 2026, Summit Media filed a change to translator W222BK on 92.3 MHz, licensed to Chelsea. The station, which had previously been simulcasting WENN 1320 as "Star 92.3", was submitted as changing to 92.5 MHz with a highly directional antenna and a change in parent station to WBHJ-HD4. It's unclear if this is to make way for a new format, or to carry the existing "Star" Classic Hits on a frequency other than the AM signal of WENN. The FCC granted this frequency change request on 26 June 2026. In mid-August 2026, it was observed that the station had moved to 92.5, as well as dropping this HD4 simulcast for an HD2 simulcast on sister station WBHK. It's unclear if the station was ever actually heard on the HD4 of this station, as no local listeners ever reported seeing it.