Technical Profile: WVSA

AM Technical Profile: WVSA

Frequency:: 1380
Format:: Southern Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Behind the studio on Highway 17 in Vernon.
Power (ERP):: Day: 5 kW; Night: 39 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
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// W264DD Vernon, AL
Owned by Lamar County Broadcasting Company, Inc.
History:: This station was put on the air in June 1966 by H. D. Thompson, Minnie Thompson, Olvie E. Sisk and Ivous T. Sisk (Lamar County Broadcasting Company). When it signed on, it was a 1 kW daytime only station, transmitting from a site just west of the Vernon city limits on AL-18, using a Collins 20V transmitter. The studio was at the same site. The calls have always been WVSA (which stands for "Vernon and Sulligent, Alabama").

In 1974, the station signed on from the site it uses today, just north of Vernon on AL-17. The station boosted power to 5 kW daytime only in 1977, after installing a CSI AM-T-5A transmitter. It appears that in the early-to-mid-70's, the station experimented with an black-targeted format, but it appears to have been replaced by Contemporary Country by the late 70's. The station would continue to have a Contemporary Country and Southern Gospel mix well into the mid-2000's. The owners spawned Vernon's first FM station in 1991, when they put WJEC on the air.

The station was listed as airing a Sports Talk by 2005, and had picked up ESPN Radio as of 2009. They dropped the sports for Country in May 2011, while keeping all the local high school sports on air. The company acquired an FM translator in the summer of 2016, bringing W237AQ from Killen (in the Shoals area) down to pair up with the station. In the process of moving, the translator was relocated to 100.7 MHz (and became W264DD in the process) and went on the air in September 2016.

The format as of November 2018 has been reported to be Southern Gospel as "The Voice — Your Southern Gospel Connection". It's possible the format had flipped as far back as April 2017, when the FM companion dropped gospel for country.