Technical Profile: WGOL

AM Technical Profile: WGOL

Frequency:: 920
Format:: Classic Country
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] On Underwood Road, north of where Russell Valley Road intersects.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 40 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]
[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio on Washington Avenue in Russellville. Co-located with WKAX.
Owned by Pilati Investments Inc. (Karl H. Pilati); Stereo
// W299CV Russellville, AL
History:: This station came on the air in 1949 as WWWR, put on by W. W. Bankhead (Bankhead Broadcasting) from the same site the station uses today. Lester H. Carr was the engineer. Originally it ran 1,000 watts, daytime only via a Western Electric 443-A1 transmitter. They upgraded to a Collins 20V just a few years later.

The station was acquired by Franklin Broadcasting Incorporated in 1965. By the early 70's, the station had a Country music format, which it would wind up keeping until well into the 2000's. In 1976 the station was known to be running a Gates BC-1G transmitter.

Franklin Broadcasting sold the station to SIS Sound of Russellville, Inc., in 1986, for $125,000. The station's call sign changed to WJRD (which had previously been on AM 1150 in Tuscaloosa) in March of 1987. The format remained Country. At some point, most likely in the mid-80's, the station began broadcasting in C-QUAM AM stereo, and it appears the station still uses it to this day.

The station's call sign changed to WGOL in August 1998, and it's likely that it was around this time the format flipped to Oldies. It was also at this time that the station had been acquired by McCurry Broadcasting, who paid $75,000 for it.

In 2005, the station was sold to Pilati Investments (Jimmie Pilati) for $171,500. It's around this time that the format went from Oldies to the current Classic Country format. When Jimmie passed, her husband Karl took over operations of the stations (WGOL and WKAX). Of interest is their son, John, who manages the station and was previously a District Attorney for Franklin County.

The station was granted a construction permit for a new FM translator for 107.7 MHz in April 2018. Although licensed to Russellville, it will be physically located in Florence.