Technical Profile: WXVI

AM Technical Profile: WXVI

Frequency:: 1600
Format:: Gospel
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] [bird's eye] About due east of the New Town subdivision off North Ripley Street, near the intersection of North Decatur Street, at the end of the dirt road called Fourney Street.
Power (ERP):: Day: 5 kW; Night: 1 kW
Antenna:: Day: 2 towers, "angel" layout, with the body pointing barely SSW, and the two wings pointing ESE and NW [pattern - PDF]; Night: 2 towers, same as day layout [pattern - PDF]
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCData.org]
[FCCinfo]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
[Aircheck] Soul On The Air #14 sample of "Ugly" Al Dixon on WAPX, from February 24, 1975. External link, opens in new window.
[Studio] Street View of the station's studio on Perry Street in Montgomery.
Silent
History:: This station signed on in May 1947 as WAPX (APeX, for the "top of the dial" position of 1600 kHz), by United Broadcasting. With ABC affiliation, it was a Top 40 competitor to daytime-only WBAM. Originally, it ran 1 kW full time, with a directional antenna at night. The transmitter was an RCA-BTA-1L; the transmitter site has always been at the present location.

The station applied for a boost to 5 kW days in 1950 but the application was denied. In 1954 the studio moved from the transmitter site to 116 Catoma Street in Montgomery. The license was transferred to the Southland Broadcasting Company (Ralph M. Allgood and Grover Wise) in 1958. Through the 50's, it appears they were also affiliated with the Mutual network, in addition to ABC.

The station was sold to Walton of Montgomery in 1962. They appear to have had difficulties keeping the station profitable, and it was off the air in 1965 for a period of time, before being sold to Sparling of Alabama, Inc (Judson Sparling). They moved the studio to 211 Dexter Avenue in 1966.

The station was sold in 1975 to Brothers Broadcasting Corporation. They flipped it to Contemporary R&B as WXVI — the Roman numerals for the number 16. They used Mutual Black network affiliation, later moving to National Black. In 1978 they were granted a permit to increase daytime power to 5 kW; this facility signed on in late 1979 using a Gates MW-5 transmitter.

In 1980 the station's license was acquired by WXVI, Inc. They used the Sheridan network for affiliation during this period. It appears that this was short-lived as the Broadcasting Yearbook notes that Attaway Investment Corp. (Wes Attaway) acquired the station later in 1980. Later in the 80's the station was acquired by Capitol Communications.

The station was acquired by Sunshine 16 Radio Network for $225,000 in 1994; they used the American Urban network. Beaten by FM for Contemporary R&B ears, the station appears to have taken on an Adult R&B format in the late 90's, before transitioning to a Black Gospel outlet later, running ABC's "The Light" satellite-fed format.

In February 2021, the station was fined $3,000 by the FCC for failure to renew their license in a timely fashion, but the fine was cancelled when the station proved an inability to pay.

The station was reported off the air in October 2022, and has apparently been off for months prior with nothing filed with the FCC.