Technical Profile: WTLS

AM Technical Profile: WTLS

Frequency:: 1300
Format:: Sports, Talk, Classic Hits
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] Just south of Tallassee on AL-229 (Tuckabatchee Road), a few hundred yards east of where AL-229 and Rifle Range Road split off, behind the AES plant.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1.2 kW; Night: 18 watts
Antenna:: Day & night: 1 tower, omnidirectional
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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// W234DL Tallassee, AL
// W295BL Tallassee, AL
History:: Put on the air in the early 50's by Bert Bank, who put WTBC-AM on in Tuscaloosa.; This station had a news, talk and music (Soft AC) format for a long time, but in January 2005 the station has dropped the music for pretty much an all-sports format. Oddly, the sports programming is duplicated by another, more powerful Montgomery area AM station, WIQR 1410 in Prattville. WTLS earned the Alabama Broadcasters Association's "Station of the Year" award for 2007. More history can be found on the WTLS page on Wikipedia.; .; It was reported earlier in 2008 that Tallassee-area FM translator W295BE was currently repeating WTLS' broadcasts, while trying to become WTLS-LP. Currently licensed to 106.9 (with an application to move to 106.5, which WTLS' website says is operational now, this was Alabama's first AM station to be granted authorization by the FCC to operate a low-power FM repeater. After it moved, the call sign changed to W293BK.; .; It was reported in October 2008 that the station moved from all-sports back to some news/talk programming, with 80's and 90's music on the weekend, especially Sundays.

The station won a construction permit for a new FM translator in July 2018. It signed on in late December 2021 with a directional antenna and 180 watts of power.

The original translator moved back from 106.5 to106.9 MHz in April 2022, going from W293BK to W265BL in the process. The station's branding as of this time is "Score 94.7 and Hits 106.9". The translator never filed a license to cover for this change, however, so it appears in FCC records that it never moved from 106.5 at all and is still listed as W293BK. In January 2023 the translator was granted another permit, this time to move to 101.1 MHz with 250 watts while dropping the previously-used directional antenna. If the FCC records ever gets cleaned up, it should have the W266DZ call sign when it signs on at that frequency.