Technical Profile: WJHX

AM Technical Profile: WJHX

Frequency:: 620
Format:: Regional Mexican
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Located off McGuire Lane, near the intersection of Albert Brewer Drive and AL-101 (Wheeler Dam Highway), north of the town of Lexington.
Power (ERP):: Day: 5 kW; Night: 99 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: [FCC]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; Owned by Bar Broadcasting
Silent - License Deleted 10/2014
History:: This station has had many owners and many call signs. It came on the air in February 1981 as a 500 watt daytime only station on 620 kHz as WWLX, with a mix of Middle-of-the-Road, Country and Oldies music programming along with other "small town" type programming. The ownership was Wright, Wright and Sanders (Roger W. Wright, k. Dwayne Wright and John C. Sanders) according to the Broadcasting Yearbook. The transmitter site appears to be the same one used through the station's lifetime. Just two years after coming on, the station was sold to Roger Wright in 1983. By this point, the station had managed to upgrade to 5 kW while adding a 99 watt nighttime service. The station was sold yet again in 1986, this time to Allen Carwile. The call sign changed to WKNI in 1987, although the format stayed the same.

The station was acquired by Creative Broadcasting Company, Inc. in early 1991 for $220,000. Under their ownership the format roulette was dropped, leaving just Country as the only music played. Before the year was out, however, the station was acquired by Country Boy Communications in December for $85,000. Oddly, at this point, the station was reported to have a Sports Talk format. The station was sold again in 1996, this time to Richard W. Dabney for $125,000.

The call sign changed to WZNN in May of 2000, but the Sports Talk stayed the same. In May 2002 the station was sold to Hispanic broadcaster Manuel Huerta for $100,000. He flipped the format to a Spanish language service, later changing the calls to WJHX in 2004. Huerta appears to have also had a stake in Bar Broadcasting, which at the time also owned WZGX in Bessemer. For a time, these stations simulcast with Alabaster-licensed WQCR as "La 10 Q" with a Regional Mexican music format.

At this point, things get a little murky. WQCR ended the trimulcast in the fall of 2012. After that, this station may have stayed in a simulcast with WZGX as "El Patron", however it was noted around the time of this that the Bessemer station was not actually on the air, so it's unclear if this one was also off the air or doing the format alone. By 2014 both this station and the one in Bessemer were noted to be off the air completely. At the end of October 2014, the FCC deleted the licenses for both this station and the one in Bessemer. Bar Broadcasting eventually got the Bessemer station's license reinstated but this one was allowed to stay deleted.