[FCC]
[FCCData.org]
[Studio] Street View imagery of the station's studio building on Motes Road in Sylacauga.
[Picture] RDS data image from a car radio in Birmingham showing the station's PS (station name), Radio Text and PTY (format) fields.
// W262DI Sylacauga, AL
: PS-YEA!106.5 Time-unknown
Text-Sylacauga's Yea!106.5 PTY-Pop PI-unknownIn the summer of 1953, Liles became sole owner of Marble City Broadcasting. The studio moved to the transmitter site on Motes Road in 1956.
The station spawned an FM companion in 1960, on 98.3 MHz, WMLS-FM.
From the mid-70's, the station was reported in Broadcasting Yearbook to have a Contemporary Country music format, with the FM simulcasting it part-time.
When Curtis O. Liles, Jr. retired in 1980, the station was sold to Summit Broadcasting, Inc., a company owned by a Columbus, Georgia TV station operator named Joseph Windsor. At the end of November 1981, the call sign changed to WYEA but the format remained Contemporary Country. By 1984, it appears the station had flipped to a Gospel format, leaving the Country music for the FM side. The stations were sold to Action Communications Enterprises in 1986.
The station was acquired by Powers Vogel Partnership in 1993, who seemed to convert to a more general Religious format. One year later they sold off the FM side to Alabama Broadcasting Company, Inc. for $425,000 (or $500,000 — both numbers were reported in the Yearbook entries in the late 90's.) Spirit Broadcasting purchased the station in 1997 for $300,000. They kept the Religious format but by the mid-2000's it appears they were programming in a Christian Country format.
On 1 January 2012, the station entered into a Local Marketing Agreement (LMA) with Marble City Media. One of the principals of Marble City Media is Curtis O. Liles, III, son of the station's original owner. Marble City Media dropped the Religious programming and flipped the station to Classic Hits. The station's original transmitter was still in operation at this time, and was finally retired at the end of the month.
Sometime in late 2013 or early 2014 the station picked up a translator at 106.3 MHz. The translator was moved in from Pelham, in the Birmingham area. At the end of May 2014 it moved up one notch to 106.5 MHz, increasing power and coverage in the process. The station's classic hits format was marketed with the FM frequency for the translator, W293CQ, as "Yea! 106.5".
The station won a construction permit for a second translator, on 100.3 MHz, in mid-April 2018.
The classic hits "Yea! 106.5" format (and translator simulcast) was migrated to sister station WFXO's HD2 subchannel in April 2018, and this station picked up a Country format, paired with the remaining translator, which was scheduled to go on the air in late May or early June 2018. This country format is branded as "Kix 100.3". The translator signed on in July 2018.
On May 16, 2023, the station celebrates 75 years on air. Governor Kay Ivey proclaimed the day “75 Years of Broadcast Excellence Day” in Alabama in honor of the milestone.