AM Technical Profile: WAPI

Frequency:
1070

Format:

News, Talk, Sports.

Transmitter Location:

Tower Rd. in Forestdale. Towers are approx. 1 mile west of US 78.

Power (ERP):

50,000 watts day / 5,000 watts (authorized but not used) night

Antenna:

1 tower days / 2 towers nights: Directional towards Birmingham.

Other Information:
The station is reported to be broadcasting in HD.

Owned by Citadel Communications

History:

One of Birmingham's first radio stations, this is the oldest surviving station in the state, licensed in October 1922. It started out in Auburn, with the calls WMAV (We Make A Voice), broadcasting on 1200 kHz. The station was on no less than five frequencies before winding up on 1070 in the late 40's**. The calls later changed to WAPI while it was on 880 kHz in Auburn, which stand for "Alabama Polytechnic Institue" (Auburn University). WAPI was the first station in the nation to broadcast with a directional pattern. Owned later by both channel 13 and FM 94.5, they all shared the WAPI calls at one point. It was an CBS affiliate for much of it's past***, dating back to at least the 1940's. At one point it was also one of the last stations to carry CBS' Radio Mystery Theater. CBS cancelled that show in the 80's. For virtually all of the station's history, it had a middle-of-the-road and talk format, up until the 90's when it switched to all news briefly. Now it is a talk station, heavy on the news and traffic.

** -- Part of the reason why this station moved so much was because of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement that created Mexican and Canadian clear channels. Over 800 AM stations switched frequencies in 1941 because of this agreement.

*** - It wasn't always CBS! A big contributor to my site has this confusing switcharoo summed up: "WAPI was a CBS station, during the "golden age of radio" (WBRC was NBC, WSGN was ABC, and WILD the Mutual station). [However] WAPI hasn't always been with CBS.  In the late 1950s, WAPI went to NBC (when WBRC changed to Mutual after WILD became WYDE and dropped networks altogether).  WLBS (later WATV) then became CBS.  WAPI was an NBC affiliate for many years, until 1980-ish, when it went back to CBS.  Then, it was back to NBC for AM 1070 (WVOK for a stretch during the mid '80s was CBS) in 1984.  Confused yet?" But wait, it gets better. In 2005 the station switched from CBS news to ABC when WERC dropped them for Fox News. WAPI has also picked up Paul Harvey, who also got the boot from the competition.
 
 

Transmitter location: