Technical Profile: WRNE

AM Technical Profile: WRNE

Frequency:: 980
Format:: Adult R&B
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] Out towards Garcon point, west of where Escambia Co. roads 191 & 281 meet. Very close to a monopole cell phone tower.
Power (ERP):: Day: 4 kW; Night: 1 kW
Antenna:: Day: 1 tower; Night: 2 towers [pattern - PDF]
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]
[FCCInfo]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Pensapedia]
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[Picture] Image showing the FM translator's RDS text display on a Toyota HD radio.

Owned by Media One Communications, Inc.; Stereo (inactive)

// W229CV Pensacola, FL

:
PS-CHOICE 106.9 WRNE
Time-[?]
Text-WRNE 980 AM & CHOICE 106.9 - YOUR COMMUNITY STATION-
PTY-Rhythm and Blues
PI-[?]
History:: 980 started as WBOP around 1956. Became an R&B ("Bop") station within a few years after it started. For several decades, it was Pensacola's only station programming to the black community. Since 980 was a daytime frequency, WBOP bought the fulltime 1230 signal in the 80's and moved there. 980 then stayed more or less an Adult Contemporary station as WCHZ (Big Cheese) and WFXP (The Fox), during which time it was re-licensed from Pensacola to Gulf Breeze to get full time operation. The tower was originally near Bayou Chico, co-located with WCOA. With re-licensing to Gulf Breeze, the station constructed the current site on Garcon Point, added night service and AM stereo. One worker was killed in the construction of one of the towers.; Later, WBOP (now on 1230) abandoned it's black format after 30+ years, leaving a format void. 980 returned to the black format as WRNE (Rhythm Nine Eighty), as it is today. To avoid competition with FM stations, WRNE leaned mostly towards Oldies and Gospel and was known as "Touch 980", carrying the Touch-braded Citadel canned music service. Sadly, the stereo was turned off some time ago. In more recent time the station's name was updated to "Choice 106.9 and 980" to reflect the addition of an FM translator that was moved in from Bay Minette in Alabama. The format as of 2015 is more modern Urban adult contemporary with some public affairs/talk programming aimed at the black community in the panhandle.

WRNE and TV station WBQP-CD are co-located together at the same office complex.

W295AP Pensacola:

This FM translator dates back to an initial Construction Permit in May 2004 to rebroadcast WAOY out of Gulfport, Mississippi to Bay Minette on 106.9 MHz, issued to Radio Assist Ministry. The initial call sign was W295AP. In the Spring of 2007 they transferred the license to Faith Broadcasting, Inc. A license to cover for that facility was granted in July 2007 after undergoing a modification to reduce power and locate the transmitter site closer to Bay Minette.

In October 2010 Media One Communications acquired the translator and began the arduous task of moving it slowly towards Pensacola by hopping it (on paper) from site to site while staying within the FCC's quirky rules for moving stations. By the summer of 2011 it had been licensed to a site in the Gateswood community of Baldwin County, relaying WBHY-FM in Mobile, running 250 watts horizontal only power.

At the start of 2013 the station was granted a permit for a location right in the heart of Pensacola on a tower off North Palafox Street on Industrial Boulevard. A license to cover for that facility was filed in February of that year. In December 2013 they were granted another permit, this time to move to the WDWR AM tower that's more centrally located in town, off East Jordan Street and North Palafox Boulevard, near I-110. A license to cover for that facility was not filed until February 2016, likely due to issues with the WDWR tower. That was a story worth reading on that station's history page!

The station applied for a permit in August 2017 to move to 93.7 MHz after WAAO in Andalusia vacated the frequency as part of a wider south Alabama frequency switch-a-roo, but that permit was granted then later cancelled for unknown reasons.

In October 2021, the FCC granted a new Class A FM station licensed to Fort Walton Beach, which would displace this translator. To prepare for this, the station was granted a permit to (again) relocate to 93.7 MHz in June 2021. While waiting on the station in Fort Walton Beach to commence broadcasting, the permit to move the translator was set to expire, but it was extended twice by the FCC due to a stipulation that the translator could not actually move to the new frequency until the displacing station signed on. In September 2024, the Fort Walton Beach station (initially licensed as WFWO) filed a license to cover and was later confirmed on air while the translator remained on 106.9 MHz, causing interference in some parts of the panhandle between Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach. In early November 2024, it was reported that the translator was being heard on both 106.9 and 93.7 MHz, despite the (twice extended) permit having expired, and against FCC rules to transmit on two frequencies at once. Media One filed a license to cover for the 93.7 MHz frequency in mid-December 2024, with the translator's ID changing to W229CV.