Technical Profile: WBTG

AM Technical Profile: WBTG

Frequency:: 1290
Format:: Standards
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Located in northeast Sheffield, just west of US-43 (N Jackson Highway), at the corner of NE 16th Street and Gospel Road.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 79 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

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

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[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio on the appropriately-named Gospel Road in Sheffield. The AM station's tower is in back, with the call letters mounted about halfway up.

Owned by Slatton and Associates; // W290CZ, Florence
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to J. B. Falt, Jr., granted in March 1963. From the very start, the station has been licensed for 1290 kHz, 1 kW daytime operation, from studios and transmitter at the corner of NE 16th Street and Gospel Road in Sheffield. The original transmitter specified was a Gates BC-1G and the original call sign issued was WSHF. A license to cover was filed in October 1963.

The license was transferred to Sheffield Broadcasting Company in December 1975, with J. B. Falt as president. From the mid-70's the station was known to have a Country music format, although the Broadcasting Yearbook editions up through the mid-80's also list Top 40 as a format.

In July 1985 the station was sold to Comco, Incorporated; they changed the call sign to WHCM in November 1985 but kept the Country music format. Slatton and Associates acquired the station in December 1987 and flipped the format to Contemporary Christian music, while changing the call sign to WBTG to match the FM they already owned.

The station was an early adopter of an FM translator, picking up W232AH on 94.3 MHz in August 2008. This was before the FCC made translators "legal" to rebroadcast AM stations so it was done under a Special Temporary Authority (STA). The translator's range was terribly small thanks to broadcasting with just 7 watts of power, directional, from the WBTG studios in Sheffield.

As part of the FCC's AM Revitalization scheme, the station was able to move the translator to 105.9 MHz in April 2016, improving coverage by increase power to 250 watts vertical only.

On 19 April 2024 their sister station, WBTG-FM, took damage due to a lightning strike on their Hawk Mountain transmitter site. As part of the emergency operation to get the station back running, they took the translator from this station and retuned it to 106.3 MHz, broadcasting from their studios in town. They took a spare low power (7 watt) transmitter for the old 94.3 MHz translator and retuned it to 105.9 to keep this station on FM. As of 24 April 2024, however, no Special Temporary Authority (STA) has been filed for either operation.