Technical Profile: WJQX

FM Technical Profile: WJQX

Station Name:: JOX 2: ESPN
Frequency:: 100.5
Format:: Sports Talk
Transmitter Location:: [map] About a mile north of the intersection of Serty Boyd Road and North Scotsville Road in rural Bibb County.
Power (ERP):: 69 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 1014 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; Mono; :
PS-ESPN 100.5
Time-yes
Text-ESPN JOX 2
PTY-Talk
PI-KABJ-FM; AUX: 35 kW @ 812 feet. 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
How's the Signal?: Not bad, but not great. Strongest west of downtown and in the Hoover, Helena and Pelham areas of Shelby County. Really suffers east of downtown and in the far east suburbs.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Bhamwiki] Information on the station from the WRAX era; [Bhamwiki] Information on the station from the WWMM era; [Bhamwiki] Information on the station from the WAPI-FM era
[Studio] Street View imagery of the Cumulus Birmingham studio facilities.
Owner:: Cumulus
History:: Before moving to a new transmitter site in Bibb County this station was on 100.7 MHz, licensed to Northport. For as long as I can remember (Ed.) this station was WLXY-FM, "ARRO 100.7", the slogan an acronym for "All Rock and Roll Oldies". Sometime in December 2002 (?) the station changed to a modern rock format, changing to "Z-100, Bama's Best Rock". On April 15^th, 2003, the station moved facilities - a taller tower south of Tuscaloosa, more power and a move to 100.5 MHz.; The station acquired Birmingham morning show veterans Beaner and Ken, who were with the station until Dec 31 2004. They apparently left over contract issues.; Citadel Broadcasting bought WANZ from Apex Broadcasting in Tuscaloosa in the winter of 2005, and announced plans to move The X from Birmingham to 100.5. On March 3 2005 the station began simulcasting WRAX out of Birmingham, and at the end of March the station was the sole outlet for The X in the area. In June 2005 the station changed calls to WRAX. Shortly thereafter the station acquired a change to the city of license to Helena, a Shelby County suburb of Birmingham. The change keeps the transmitter location the same, albeit with more power, increased HAAT and a little bit better penetration into the eastern sections of the city. Except... That apparently never happened as the station continued to identify with "Northport-Birmingham".; On the 29^th of November, 2006 the station flipped to an all sports format, simulcasting WJOX-AM. With that simulcast, the WJOX calls moved to this station, and the AM became WSPZ.; On the 8^th of January 2007 the two stations split, with each carrying separate sports programming.; Citadel sister station WYSF in Birmingham began stunting on the fourth of July with a format flip. WYSF will become WJOX and take all of the sports programming to their stick in Birmingham proper. It is currently unknown what new format 100.5 will take on.; On the last day of July 2008 the calls changed to WWMM, as the WJOX calls moved to 94.5. On August 11^th the station stopped simulcasting 94.5 and began simulcasting another Citadel property, classic rocker WZRR 99.5 in Birmingham. Through all this stunting, the Reg's Coffeehouse program moved from 94.5 to 100.5. The stereo is back on now, too.; The move of Reg's Coffeehouse to 100.5 was an omen - on Friday August 15^th the station flipped to AAA.; The station changed city of license from Northport to Helena in October 2008.; In July 2009 it was announced that former MTV VJ and Birmingham native Alan Hunter would be joining the program b*SIDE on Live 100.5, with psychologist Dr. Josh Klapow. The show is not musical in nature and is mental-health/current issues oriented.; A week or so before Valentine's Day, February 2010, it was discovered that Citadel Broadcasting was planning to flip the station from music to a simulcast of AM-talker WAPI. This generated a lot of listener outrage and led to a "Save Live 100.5" page on Facebook, which grew to over 20,000 followers. Station management later confirmed the change after the entire staff was laid off. As of February 15^th, the station went automated with no jocks. The switch to talk happened at 12:01am on February 22^nd.; Although it shares the call letters with its AM sister, they are not in a direct simulcast. The AM carries more syndicated programming and the FM is geared towards more local shows. As of the start of 2011, the move seems to be working, with WAPI leading crosstown rival WERC in most dayparts. With many changes in the sports radio landscape around Birmingham in 2013, Cumulus announced a shuffle of its own: all local personalities on WAPI-FM are moving to the AM, the FM is switching to ESPN Sports and the calls (as of 1 August 2013) are WJQX. The sports format debuted on 12 August 2013 as "Jox 2: ESPN".