WATV
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WATV | |
| City of license | Birmingham |
|---|---|
| Branding | 900 Gold |
| First air date | 1958 |
| Frequency | 900 KHz |
| Format | Urban Oldies |
| ERP | 845 watts (daytime)/ 158 watts (nighttime) |
| Class | B |
| Owner | MCL/MCM ALABAMA, LLC |
| Website | www.900goldwatv.com |
WATV is a radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama, broadcasting at 900 AM. Its daytime power is 845 watts, and at nighttime, it broadcasts at 158 watts. Known on the air as “900 Gold”, WATV is an urban oldies music station, specializing in soul, R&B, disco, and early hip-hop from the 50's, 60's and 70's. It is owned by MCL/MCM ALABAMA, LLC, a subsidiary of Sheridan Broadcasting.
[edit] History of WATV
WATV took its present call letters in 1958, as a CBS Talk/MOR station. Prior to then, the call letters of the station were WLBS. Due to the restrictions of the Federal Communications Commission, the station originally broadcast only during daylight hours. In 1976, the owner of WENN, the #1 Urban station in Birmingham, died. WENN was bought by local businessman A. G. Gaston, who immediately fired Joe Lackey, the station manager. All of the DJs quit when Lackey was fired. He was given a job managing WATV, a radio station located on the 20th floor of the Thomas Jefferson Hotel (now the abandoned Cabana Hotel), where he brought all the former DJs with him. Lackey and the personalities from WENN immediately changed the station's format from talk and middle of the road music to soul and disco music. Despite operating with a relatively weak AM signal and broadcasting only from sunrise until sunset, WATV immediately became the #1 rated radio station in Birmingham. During the 1980's, the station's format evolved from soul music to the forerunner of today's urban adult contemporary format.
Eventually the station was forced to move to 3025 Ensley Avenue, where they remain to this day.
In 2002, the stations owners, Rev. Dr. Erksine Faush and Shelly Stewart, two longtime radio personalties in the Birmingham area, sold the station to MCL/MCM-INC, a subsidiary of Sheridan Broadcasting.
On September 14, 2006, Sheridan Broadcasting restructured their radio stations, and WATV was put under the control of MCL/MCM ALABAMA, LLC.
[edit] External links
- Official Website of WATV
- Radio/TV page of Birmingham Rewound
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WATV
| AM Radio stations serving the Birmingham / Anniston/ Gadsden area (Arbitron #57) | |
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WAGG 610 | WSPZ 690 | WURL 760 (St. Clair Co.) | WXJC 850 | WATV 900 | WERC 960 | WCOC 1010 (Jasper) | WAPI 1070 | WAYE 1220 | WLYJ 1240 (Jasper) | WLGD 1260 | WPSB 1320 | WIXI 1360 (Jasper) | WBYE 1370 (Shelby Co.) | WJLD 1400 | WFHK 1430 (Pell City) | WZGX 1450 | WRLM 1480 | WQCR 1500 (Shelby Co.) | WRSM 1540 (Jasper) | WCRL 1570 (Blount Co.) | |
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WZZX 780 | WEIS 990 | WHOG 1120 | WNUZ 1230 | WYEA 1290 | WFEB 1340 | WHMA 1390 | WDNG 1450 | WANA 1490 | WVOK 1580 | |
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WAAX 570 | WCKS 810 | WJBY 930 | WMGJ 1240 | WPID 1280 | WGAD 1350 | WZTQ 1560 | |
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