Technical Profile: WHOS

AM Technical Profile: WHOS

Frequency:: 800
Format:: Talk
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] In west Decatur, south of AL-24 (Moulton Street), on the west side of 14^th Street SW.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 215 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] Google Photos image of the iHeartMedia Huntsville studios.
[Studio] Street View imagery of the iHeartMedia studios on Peoples Road in Madison.
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to H. H. Kinney and D. T. Kinney, as North Alabama Broadcasting Company, for a daytime-only 1 kW station on 800 kHz, licensed to Decatur. When the permit was granted in June 1947, the station was listed as having transmitter and studio on the "Bee Line Highway", or US-31, but without a more specific location given. Before the station went on the air, the studios were updated to be at 212 Jackson Street in Decatur with the Western Electric 443A-1 transmitter to be on 2nd Street West in Decatur.

A license to cover for the station was filed in September 1948, and from the beginning it had the WHOS call sign. Less than a year after going on the air, H. H. Kinney passed away, causing D. T. Kinney to also get out of the company. In early 1950 the studios appeared to move to the site of the transmitter on 2nd Street West. In 1951, North Alabama Broadcasting Company's operations were given over to Barrett C. Shelton and John H. Jones. According to FCC records, it appears the studios were either never moved to the transmitter site, or they were moved back to 212 Jackson Street; inthe summer of 1953 the station filed to operate the transmitter remotely from that address. In December of that same year, however, the studio location was updated to the second floor of the Masonic Building on Johnson Street in Decatur. In 1955, Barrett Shelton exited the company and was replaced by Jeffie Jones. In October of 1956 the station filed to replace the transmitter with a Raytheon RA-1000A unit. A license to cover for that change was granted three months later, in December.

In the winter of 1962 the studios were moved to the Chenault Building at 107 Grant Street in Decatur. It's likely that, by this time, the station would be airing a Country music format. Jeffie Jones passed in 1966, leaving John H. Jones as the sole person listed operating the company.

Dixie Broadcasting, Inc., would acquire the station in January 1970. Under their ownership, the station would continue as WHOS, and with the Country music format, for decades. Well, almost. There are some other details about financial issues and a six-month long stunt as "Elvis Radio" that are worth reading about on the station's Wikipedia entry. That article also mentions that ownership of this station and the owners of Huntsville's WBHP would eventually merge in 1991 to form a company called Mountain Lakes Broadcasting, so it's worth reading that section as well. In a nutshell, after Dixie's legal issues were resolved, they merged with the company running WBHP in Huntsville and FM country powerhouse WDRM in Decatur. Together under one umbrella, they all simulcast the same country music format for a while.

In January 1997, Osborn Communications acquired the three stations. In November of that year, WBHP and WHOS dropped the country music for a 24-Hour All-News format featuring CNN Radio. Osborn wouldn't own the station very long, as this was an era of consolidation in the radio industry. Osborn sold to Ameron Broadcasting Company, who in turn was a part of the growing AMFM, Inc. company. That, in turn, quickly became Clear Channel Communications. Today, they're known as iHeart Radio.

At some point after becoming a Clear Channel-owned station, the WBHP/WHOS simulcast dropped the all-news for News/Talk. Around 2010, the station began being heard on FM via translator W293AH in Huntsville, which in turn was fed by Meridianville-licensed WQRV's HD2 subchannel. These two signals would break away from the talk format to go all-Christmas in November 2012.

The station was granted a construction permit for a new FM translator on 101.5 MHz in June 2018, but it was never built and the permit was cancelled.

The station would later be heard on FM again via Decatur's WDRM HD2 subchannel, which in turn feeds a translator in Huntsville, W273CX.