Technical Profile: DWXAL

AM Technical Profile: DWXAL

Frequency:: 1400
Format:: Adult R&B
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] On US-43, just south of where it meets US-80.
Power (ERP):: Day: 790 watts; Night: 790 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

[Street View] Image of the studio that's shared with WINL and WZNJ in Demopolis.; // WZNJ Demopolis

Owned by Westburg Broadcasting Alabama
History:: The station came on the air in 1948. In the late 50's was running 250 watts and had a dual relationship with the Keystone and Mutual broadcasting networks.

By the mid-70's, the station was listed as a Middle-of-the-Road (MOR) station with addition programming targeting black audiences. It was owned by Demopolis Broadcasting Company. In 1974, the launched the city's first FM outlet, WNAN on 106.3 MHz. Today it is known as WZNJ.

In 1986, the station and its sister FM WZNJ were bought by Southstar Communications, Inc., for $575,000. They flipped to a Country music format, with Black Gospel programming on the side. Of note is Southstar's president is notable meteorologist James Spann; his news director? Local TV news anchor Dave Baird. Both currently (as of 2023) work together at Birmingham's ABC 33/40.

The station was purchased by Edmonds Communications in 1992, along with the FM, for $316,776. The stations were sold again in 1998, this time to Ross Communications, who paid $456,300 for the pair. They flipped it to a News/Talk format, keeping the Black Gospel side programming that had been around for ages.

Went on the FCC silent list in August, 2009 and was off for a long time afterwards.

Previously run by West Alabama Broadcasting along with WINL and WZNJ in Demopolis as an ESPN affiliate, the station was sold to Westburg Broadcasting in June 2011. WXAL was rebuilt from the ground up and returned to the air in the second half of 2011. Reports from 26 June 2011 say the station is on the air and relayed FM sister WINL's Country format, out of Linden. The station is reported at full power. It's also listed as an affiliate of Yahoo! Sports Radio, along with WZNJ, but it's unknown what they're carrying, if anything.

In late November the station was noted to have dropped simulcasting WINL for WZNJ, and in December it took on WZNJ's R&B/Hip-Hop format after the FM went classic hits. The format was observed to be the syndicated "Touch" R&B/Adult AC format. This station was reported to be off the air at the start of June 2015, although it returned to the air, once again simulcasting FM sister WZNJ, which dropped its classic hits format on 1 June 2015 for Urban AC.

In early November 2023 it was announced that James Reynolds' BroadSouth Communications, Inc. was acquiring WINL Linden and WZNJ Demopolis for $25,000. As part of the deal, Westburg Broadcasting will surrender the license for this station and take it permanently off air. That happened around Christmas, December 2023.