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[Street View] Image of the studio that's shared with WXAL and WINL in Demopolis.
// WXAL Demopolis
With the Beautiful Music format quickly in decline in the early 80's, the station jumped into a Modern Country format. In the late summer of 1986, the station and its AM sister were sold to Southstar Communications for $575,000. Under their ownership, Southstar changed the call sign to WZNJ and flipped the format to Adult Contemporary. A few years later the station was listed as having a Contemporary Hit Music (CHR) format. Of note is that Southstar's president at the time was none other than famous meteorologist James Spann. The company news director was longtime TV anchorman Dave Baird. Both (as of 2023) work for Birmingham's ABC 33/40.
In November 1991, the station was granted a permit to boost power to 50 kW at 492 feet HAAT from a site east of the Dayton community southeast of Demopolis, along with a change to 106.5 MHz. The permit was never built out, and expired unbuilt after several extensions to complete were filed. By 1993, the station was listed in the Broadcasting Yearbook as having a Rock and Roll Oldies format. It's likely around this time the slogan became "Z-106". The station was also known for having a weekend Christian Contemporary music program known as "Alive 106". The station was purchased by Edmonds Broadcasting, Inc. in 1992 for $316,776, along with the AM.
The station was granted a more modest change in April 1994, to use 11.5 kW from 305 feet HAAT from the existing tower site, with a change to 106.5 MHz. A license to cover for that change was filed in May 1995. The license was transferred from Edmonds Broadcasting, Inc. to Debco Productions, Inc. in June of 1997 for $275,000. In August 1998, the license was transferred to Ross Communications, Inc. (Amy Ross Douglas and Randall W. Douglas) for $456,300.
The license was transferred from Ross Communications to West Alabama Radio, Inc. in October 2006 after Ross defaulted on their loans. Under their ownership the station flipped to a Rhythm and Blues format as "106 ZNJ".
The station was sold from West Alabama Radio to Westburg Broadcasting in June 2011. Westburg immediately embarked on technical improvements to make the station sound better. Under the previous ownership, the station was noted for poor sound quality and programming sounding muffled or nearly inaudible at times. The audio improvements were noted to be complete by late summer of 2011. In November 2011, the station was reported to be simulcasting on Demopolis AM station WXAL. Approximately one month later, the R&B was shuffled off to live on the AM exclusively while this station launched a Class Hits format as "The River".
On 1 June 2015 the station dropped Classic Hits for Adult Rhythm and Blues, with the syndicated Steve Harvey morning show. With this change, the station was once again simulcasting with WXAL.
In November 2023, it was announced that Westburg Broadcasting would be selling this station and WINL in Linden to James Reynolds' BroadSouth Communications, Inc. for $25,000. As part of the deal, AM station WXAL would have its license turned in. The license transfer was approved by the FCC in early July 2024.