Technical Profile: WVOB

FM Technical Profile: WVOB

Station Name:: Tri-States Gospel
Frequency:: 91.3
Format:: Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] About a half mile west of the intersection of Ross Clark Circle with South Oates Street (US-231), behind the Hyundai car dealer.
Power (ERP):: 3 kW
Antenna:: Nondirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 318 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
[Facebook]

[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's office/studio space on Highway 29 in Dothan.
Owner:: Bethany Bible College & B.T.S. Inc.
History:: WVOB (Voice of Bethany) signed on in October 1989, put on the air by Bethany Bible College. The station signed on from a tower off Southgate Road south of Ross Clark Circle, with 2.5 kW. From the beginning it has always had some form of Religious programming.

In March 2019 the station received a permit to move to a tower on Cowarts Road, where WAGF-FM is located. The move comes with a slight decrease in antenna height, but the same power.

In June 2022, the station filed a second Construction Permit with the same technical details as the previous one, only with slightly changed coordinates. In early July 2022, the station filed a Silent STA (Special Temporary Authority) citing loss of tower site and lack of finances. In September 2022, they renewed the Silent STA and also concurrently filed a modification to the Construction Permit, changing from the WAGF-FM tower to the WESP tower off Ross Clark Circle on the southwestern side of Dothan. These were both granted with the FCC but with the same expiration date as the previous construction permit.

As the station had technically been silent for over a year, the FCC sent a letter to the owners in February 2024 asking for clarification of the station's status; the query went unanswered.

An updated STA was filed on 9 April 2024. It stated that the construction permit was built but that the used transmitted they installed had failed. It also noted that they resumed operations with a 200 watt temporary low power transmitter on 5 September 2022 from the CP site but failed to notify the commission. As of the start of May 2024, both the license to cover for the CP and the STA remain pending with the FCC, but the station is presumed to still be operating with the 200 watt transmitter.

In May 2024, T. P./ Arrington's WFPW, licensed to Battens Crossroads, filed to increase their power, citing WVOB's lack of licensed broadcasting and asked the FCC to delete the WVOB license. The FCC dismissed that application, but in late September 2024, the organization again filed for increased power and again cited the lack of licensed broadcasting by WVOB as reason that the license should be deleted.

In February 2025, one year after the FCC's initial inquiry into the station's status, they again inquired as to the station's status, asking for clarification of coordinates from the various permits and STAs filed and whether the station had ever broadcast in the applicable periods from licensed sites. The owners answered but not to the Commission's satisfaction.

In early June 2025, the FCC dismissed the station's license as expired and declined to reinstate it. In the license dismissal, the Commission noted that the station had failed to operate from its licensed transmitter site for more than a year, as through all the previous permits and STAs, the station never filed a license to cover for any of those different transmitter sites.