AM Technical Profile: WDJL

Frequency:

1000

Format:

Urban Contemporary

Transmitter Location:

[map]

Power (ERP):

Day: 1.1 kW

Antenna:

1 tower

Other Information:

-

History:

Came on the air in 1968 as WVOV (Voice Of the tenneessee Valley) as competition to stodgy sounding WAAY. It was unusual in that it was a daytimer Top 40 station, but it really gave WAAY some competition. In 1979 WVOV went country after WAAY got back in the Top 40 game and started to make WVOV sound tired. In 1981 an AC format was put in place. It didn't work well because WAAY was going AC, since WZYP-FM had come on the air as Top 40 and was stealing all the AM thunder.  In 1983 the format went to oldies with WTAK as the callsign and a slogan of "Take 10". They pulled many songs from WVOV's old library. In fact the sound was reminiscent of WVOV, but it only lasted until 1985. A new CHR/Urban hybrid format debuted and failed miserably, and in late 1987, facing radio death, tried AOR. Success! "AM 1000, the Valley's Rock & Roll" was born, and was a top 5 performer in Huntsville ratings until they moved to FM at 106.1 MHz. After that, the format on this AM station eventually went to a black contemporary format with WDJL as the calls.

A contributor submitted this story about this station: "About a year ago, I noticed they had only one tower standing (used to be three).  I asked a local engineer who contracts for a lot of stations in the North Alabama area and he told me that the owner had hired a bulldozer to clean out a ditch in the transmitter  field, and the guy dug up the cables between two of the towers.  The owner got an insurance settlement but pocketed the money, rather than fix the cable.  They ran for several years non-directional illegally and finally got inspected.  The FCC made them re-file for non-directional at 1,100 watts rather than the former 10,000 watts directional, and made them take down the two unused towers.  Frankly, I'm surprised they were able to keep their ticket." The old studios have been sold and the new one is on Sparkman drive across from the Super Wal-Mart.  Another site contributor notes that it was a lawnmower, not a bulldozer, that mangled the grounding system and transmitter cables.

 

At the end of May 2009 it was reported that the station was sold by James K. Sharp to Gospel Explosion Ministries.