Technical Profile: WDJL

AM Technical Profile: WDJL

Frequency:: 1000
Format:: Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] On Stringfield Road NW, between Blake Bottom Road NW and AL-53 (Jordan Lane NW).
Power (ERP):: Day: 1.1 kW
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]

[Facebook]; [Wikipedia]

Owned by Gospel Explosion Ministries, LLC
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued in 1967 to Tennessee Valley Broadcasting Company, Inc. The original plans were for a two-tower directional array, which would have been located on what is today the site of Montview Elementary School on Garvin Road in northwest Huntsville. It came on the air in late 1968 as WVOV — Voice of the (Tennessee) Valley — on 1000 kHz, with 10 kW from a Bauer FB-10J transmitter, but with three towers, from the current transmitter and studio location on Stringfield Road. The format was Top 40, and despite being a daytimer, it gave serious competition to the stodgy WAAY.

The license was transferred to Powell Broadcasting in 1974. The competition forced WAAY to up its game a bit, and by the late 70's, WVOV was beginning to sound tired, so it flipped to a short-lived Country format in 1979. They tried going up against the dominant country player in Huntsville, WBHP 1230, but couldn't make much of a dent, especially once WDRM put country music on FM.

The station's financial situation came to a head in early 1981 when Powell defaulted on a loan and the bank foreclosed. It's said that one afternoon, possibly in February 1981, the General Manager walked in with a First Alabama Bank employee and told the jock to sign-off right away. The station stayed silent for several months until it was acquired by Peter Barber of Barber Broadcasting, who brought it back on air as WTAK "Take 10" with a fairly basic Adult Contemporary music format. A year later in 1983, the format flipped to Oldies, where it finally found some footing… for a little while, anyway. It helped that they played some of the songs from the WVOV era, along with some WVOV signature sounds. That same year the station was sold to Gant Broadcasting for $400,000. In 1985, they decided to try something different: a Top 40/Urban hybrid format. It failed miserably, but managed to last until 1987, when they flipped to Album-Oriented Rock (AOR). It managed to crack the top 5 in the ratings with this format, as "AM 1000, The Valley's Rock and Roll" station.

In 1994, the station acquired an FM sister station in the Hartselle-licensed WYAM (re-christened as WTAK-FM) and moved the AOR/Classic Rock format there. In April 1994 the station's call sign changed to WDJL and the format flipped to Black Gospel. The next year, the station was acquired by DEBCO Production, Inc. They, in turn, sold the station to 5th Ave Broadcasting (James K. Sharp) in 1996; in 1999 the license was transferred to STG Media, LLC.

A contributor submitted this story about this station, from the late 90's era:

“About a year ago, I noticed they had only one tower standing (used to be three). I asked a local engineer who contracts for a lot of stations in the North Alabama area and he told me that the owner had hired a bulldozer to clean out a ditch in the transmitter field, and the guy dug up the cables between two of the towers. The owner got an insurance settlement but pocketed the money, rather than fix the cable. They ran for several years non-directional illegally and finally got inspected. The FCC made them re-file for non-directional at 1,100 watts rather than the former 10,000 watts directional, and made them take down the two unused towers. Frankly, I'm surprised they were able to keep their ticket.” Another site contributor notes that it was a lawnmower, not a bulldozer, that mangled the grounding system and transmitter cables.

The old studios were sold and the new one is on Sparkman drive across from the Super Wal-Mart.

At the end of May 2009 it was reported that the station was sold by James K. Sharp to Gospel Explosion Ministries. He changed the format to gospel music as "Love 1000".

In early 2019, it was discovered the station was listed as the parent of FM translator W234AD in Decatur, which at the time had a permit to move to Athens. That was later changed to a different station, and it does not appear that WDJL was ever actually related on the Decatur translator.