Technical Profile: WQRR

FM Technical Profile: WQRR

Station Name:: 101.7 The River
Frequency:: 101.7
Format:: Christian Contemporary
Transmitter Location:: [map] Near the intersection of Fife Road and Doctor Kirk Road in PIckens County, south of US-82.
Power (ERP):: 21 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 728 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :
PS-ALT 1017
Time-present
Text-[?]
PTY-Adult Hits
PI-WBEI-FM
Pictures:: [tower] view 1; [tower] view 2
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

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[RDS] RDS display from an Insignia portable radio in northwest Alabama, showing the Radio Text and PI (call sign) fields, from the WBEI "Star 101.7" era.
[RDS] RDS display from an Insignia portable radio in northwest Alabama, showing the alternate Radio Text and PI (call sign) fields, from the WBEI "Star 101.7" era.

[Studio] Street View imagery of the Townsquare Media stations in Tuscaloosa, off Skyland Boulevard.

[Article] AL.com article on the reaction to the station's stunting with Russian covers of Taylor Swift songs and the flip to a Christian format. From December 2024.
Owner:: Townsquare Media
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued in 1981, but it didn't get built out and put on the air by Rego Broadcasting until much later, in the summer of 1986. The original call sign was WVRT; as a little class A with a transmitter on a hill in Gordo, it barely reached the outskirts of Tuscaloosa. The format of this early era is unknown. In 1988, ownership passed to Amermedia and then a year later to Kudzu Broadcasting, who changed the calls to WTID (as in crimson TIDe). During a period of multiple ownership changes, the station sought and received a permit to increase their power significantly and began reaching the entire Tuscaloosa market as well as much of Columbus, Mississippi; during this era they had an adult contemporary format and was known as "Tide 101.7".

The station went through various format changes over the 90's. In 1991 it flipped to Classic Rock. In 1995, it flipped to Hot Adult Contemporary, later sliding back to just Adult Contemporary, before later attempting Contemporary Hit Radio. In 2003, the station dropped the WTID calls (which were immediately snapped up by a station in South Alabama, presumably for 'safekeeping') and re-launched as "B 101.7", with WBEI as the calls. The format at the time seemed to be a Hot AC-leaning CHR format. At some point after the year 2000, the station wound up in the hands of Cumulus Broadcasting. Cumulus sold the entire Tuscaloosa cluster to Townsquare Media in 2012.

In the early fall of 2016, the station re-branded again, this time as "Star 101.7", with a Hot AC format featuring music from the 90's through today. The change was brought on by declining ratings from both this station and their main CHR-competitor, WZBQ.

The station flipped formats to alternative rock, with the "Alt" branding, near the end of March 2018. The calls changed from WBEI to WQRR shortly afterwards. The station posted that the call sign is a reference to the promotion director's grandfather, whose ham call sign was WQ4R.

On 21 December 2024 the station began stunting, playing various songs including Taylor Swift tunes but in Russian. This generated some buzz on social media, with some wondering if the station had been hijacked or if it was sending coded messages (!) to operatives in the US. Later reports mentioned Christmas music and then Classic Hits being heard, with an announcement of a new format on 26 December. The Alt 101.7 website also began redirecting to a page for a "101.7 The River", with the slogan, "Lifting Tuscaloosa's Spirit", implying some sort of Christian Adult Contemporary or Gospel format would debut. The Christian Contemporary format debuted a few days early on 24 December.