Technical Profile: WWIC

AM Technical Profile: WWIC

Frequency:: 1050
Format:: Classic Country, Farm
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] On AL-35 (Willow Street), the main drag into Scottsboro, on the west side of town and the south side of the road.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 100 watts
Antenna:: Day: 1 tower
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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Owned by Scottsboro Broadcasting Corporation, Inc.
// W283CM Henegar, AL
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit, issued to Pat M. Courington, in the winter of 1950, for a new daytime only station on 1050 kHz in Scottsboro. Of interest is that there was a petition for reconsidering of the grant, filed by a Mrs. Rose M. Kirby The FCC did not grant her petition. She would go on to launch the city's other station, WROS (later WZCT) in 1952. When this station signed on in June 1950, the power was 250 watts, fed by a Gates BC-250-GY transmitter. The original call sign was WCRI. It's unclear exactly where the studio and transmitter were located, as early FCC records only indicate "0.7 miles east of Scottsboro city limits on Lee Highway". Today, this is known as Willow Street but without knowing the exact city limits in 1950, it's hard to pin down where this was.

In 1959, the station applied to move to its current location west of downtown Scottsboro. A license to cover for that move was filed in March 1960. The station was acquired by Jackson County Broadcasters in 1965.

By the late 70's, the stations was reported to have a Middle-of-the-Road (MOR) music format. The station applied to boost power to 1 kW in 1979, using a Harris MW-1 transmitter, but that application was dismissed by the FCC for unknown reasons.

In February 1982, the station was sold to Scottsboro Christian Broadcasting. They flipped the format to Gospel under the WWIC calls. By 1987, however, the station was back playing Country music. The station was sold to Kenneth Thomson, Deborah Thomson and Ron Dykes in August 1989. (Note: The Broadcasting Yearbook lists one of the owners as Kenneth Thomson, but under the entry for General Manager, Kenneth Thompson. It's unclear which is correct.)

The station was acquired by Scottsboro Broadcasting Company, Inc. in June 2001. It appears that this company was led by Greg Bell, who was General Manager when the station was under its previous ownership. By the midpoint of the decade, with contemporary country music becoming fully entrenched on a competing FM station, the format moved towards a mix of Classic Country and Sports Talk programming.

In late November 2022, Scottsboro Broadcasting Corporation acquired the license to Fort Payne area translator W283CM, owned by Sand Mountain Broadcasting. At the time, the translator was located in Fort Payne and listed as rebroadcasting Huntsville's public radio WLRH. At the end of June 2023 the new owners filed a permit to move the translator to a site halfway between Henegar and Valley Head, with just 1 watt vertical, to rebroadcast this station. That permit application was granted in mid-July 2023. A license to cover for the Henegar-licensed facility was filed in mid-December 2023. The filed application shows 100 watts vertical instead of the original one watt.