Technical Profile: WBPT

FM Technical Profile: WBPT

Station Name:: Classic Rock 106.9
Frequency:: 106.9
Format:: Classic Rock
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] On Beacon Parkway East next to the WTTO TV studios.
Power (ERP):: 100 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 1325 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :

PS-THE EAGLE (song/artist)
Time-Yes
Text-Now playing (song) (artist) ON 106.9 The Eagle
PTY-Classic Rock
PS-WBPT-FM; — Increased power: 3.3%; HD-2: Alternative Rock
"X 100.1"; // W261BX Birmingham

:
PS-X 100.1 (song/artist)
Time-[?]
Text-[?]
PTY-[?]
PI-[?]; HD-3: Adult Album Alternative "Birmingham Mountain Radio"
// W297BF Birmingham

:
PS-(song) by (artist) on BMR
Time-[?]
Text-(song) by (artist) on BMR
PTY-Rock
PI-WBMR-FM
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

[Facebook]; [RDS] RDS display from the station on a GMC Yukon's radio, from January 2012.
[RDS] RDS display from the station on a GMC Yukon's radio, from March 2017.
[RDS] RDS display from the station on a car radio, from December 2022.

[Studio] Street View imagery of the building housing the SummitMedia studios off Highway 280 in Hoover.
Owner:: Summit Media
History:: Was originally WTNB-FM in the 50's before becoming WBRC-FM, companion to WBRC 960 AM. Radio Cincinnati bought the AM and FM in 1957; they were soon acquired by Taft Broadcasting. Prior to 1970, the station was known to have an automated Easy Listening format. In 1970, the flipped to a Top 40 forma.

When Taft sold the stations to Mooney Broadcasting in 1972, they both took on the WERC calls. The AM moved to an AC Pop hits format as "96 ERC" while the FM dropped the Oldies for a rock-leaning CHR to take on WSGN directly. The station may have been more pop oriented in the day and then more AOR at night, with the "Stereo Rock, 'ERC-FM" slogan. They also, at one time, appeared to market as "Rock'N Stereo". As Birmingham's first Top 40 on FM, it eroded away the listenership of its AM sister station WERC-AM and also cross town competitor WSGN. Around the time of this format, the PD for both the AM and FM was David Gleason. For a short time in 1973, the calls were WERQ, but it soon reverted back to WERC-FM.; In 1977 the calls changed to WKXX, "Kicks 106", with a high energy "Rock 40" Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR)/Album-Oriented-Rock (AOR), personality-driven mix. Kicks 106 gave Birmingham its first personality-driven morning show, "Greg (Bass) and Courtney (Haden)", with high-IQ humor. The station found success with the format, but did it by cannibalizing their sister station WERC-AM.

By 1980 the station was straight-up CHR, competing against WAPI, I-95. After suffering in the ratings, they moved to modern rock in 1989 as "X 106". It didn't go over well, and it was back to "Kicks" until around 1991, when it had its final stab at hit music as "The Power Cow". Next in line came country music in 1991, as WBMH "Real Country 106.9". Very shortly after that, it was still country but this time as WIKX, with many of the old CHR-Kicks 106 jingles. The station went oldies in 1992 and had been sucessful with that format since then. On October 17^th 2001 the oldies format and WODL calls moved to 97.3 on Birmingham's FM dial, and a new format was put in place: 80's music. The calls have changed to WBPT and the slogan is "106.9 The Point".; The 80's format was tweaked to include the late 70's and early 90's several months after inception. The radio world's love affair with the 80's revival format came and went rather quickly. As such, The Point changed (slightly) in 2005 to a more diverse format, as "The Eagle", playing classic hits from the 70's through the 90's, with what appears to be an emphasis on classic rock.; In March 2011, the station finally stopped calling themselves "The New Eagle 106.9". The station called themselves new for about six years! In March 2013 the station began transmitting from an antenna location 200 feet higher than previous, on the new American General candelabra. After the demise of the city's classic rock station in 2012, The Eagle began moving more towards full classic rock and less pop hits, and is after the demise of their closest rival, Rock 99, is now a straight up classic rock only station. In 2013, Cox sold its Birmingham cluster to SummitMedia.

The station dropped the Eagle branding in December 2022, opting to just go by the generic "Classic Rock 106.9" name.

In December 2023 the station launched HD broadcasting with increased power of 3.3 kW for the digital portion. In January 2024 they launched an Alternative Rock format on the HD-2 called "X 100.1", using translator W261BX as an FM outlet for the station. From 1996 to 2006, the "X" branding was tied to WRAX, the city's pioneering alt rock outlet owned by Citadel Broadcasting. It was first aired on 105.9, then later 107.7, then finally 100.5, marking this as the fourth "X" frequency in the market.

On 11 July 2025 the parent station of translator-based "Birmingham Mountain Radio" was switched from WPYA-HD2 to WBPT-HD3. Summit sold WPYA to Educational Media Foundation, whose K-Love Christian music format is noncommercial, necessitating the change.