Technical Profile: WMXN-FM

FM Technical Profile: WMXN

Station Name:: 101.7 The Torch
Frequency:: 101.7
Format:: Classic Rock
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view 1 | alternate view] Due east of Pisgah, on the north side of County Road 61, just south of Alabama Highway 71 in rural Jackson County.
Power (ERP):: 2.3 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 541 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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[Studio] Google Street View of the station's studios on John T. Reid Parkway in Scottsboro.
Owner:: Southern Torch Inc.
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to Lynn, Ltd. (Ted Edmiston, Jimmy D. Blevins, Charles M. Pendley) in March 1976, for a new Class A signal on 101.7 MHz with a power of 937 watts. When the station filed a license to cover in November 1977, it was transmitting with a Harris FM-1H3 transmitter feeding a Harris FMC-3A antenna, located in the Old Fabius community just east of Stevenson. The studios were on US-72 East in Stevenson. The call sign was WVSV for "Voice of SteVenson" and the format was Full Service/Diversified in nature. The studios moved to the (rural) transmitter site in 1979.

By the early 80's, the format had settled into Country music.

The station's license was transferred to George Guess in 1990. In 1991, the station was able to raise its antenna height while decreasing transmitter ERP. Shortly after the boost, the station migrated slightly towards a Modern Country music format. The call sign changed to WKZA in June 1993. The station's license was transferred to KEA, Inc., owners of WKEA in Scottsboro, in 1994, for $300,000. A year after the acquisition, they changed the call sign to WMXN and flipped the format to Adult Contemporary to remove a competitor to their main station.

In 2005, the station signed on from its current transmitter location, with more power to better reach Scottsboro and Fort Payne. Around this time, the format flipped to Classic Rock.

The station, along with Scottsboro sister-station WKEA, was sold to Southern Torch, Inc. in February 2019, for $600,000. Southern Torch is a DeKalb County-based weekly newspaper for Northeast Alabama. After the acquired the station, they changed the name to "101.7 The Torch".