Technical Profile: WSHF-LP

FM Technical Profile: WSHF-LP

Station Name:: The Voice of the Shoals
Frequency:: 94.5
Format:: Country, Local Music
Transmitter Location:: [map] In the Cedar Hill Estates neighborhood southwest of Tuscumbia, near the intersection of Emmette Holland Road and Cedar Hill Lane.
Power (ERP):: 100 watts
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: -7 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :PS-[?] Time-[?] Text-WSHF REAL COUNTRY 94.5 GLAD TO BE YOUR COUNTRY NEIGHBOR PTY-Country PI-WSHF-FM
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCInfo]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]
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[Image] RDS display image showing the blank R-Text field and the PI (call sign) field, from June 2017.
Owner:: Northern Alabama Historical Foundation
History:: This new LPFM officially debuted on 3 July 2015, put on by the local historical foundation. The WSHF calls (Where the Shoals Has Fun) date back to 1950 when they were first on AM 1380, a station that was put on the air by Daylight Broadcasting (who later launched WOWL-TV). That AM went off when the TV station came on due to the ownership restrictions of the era. The calls later resurfaced on AM 1290 in 1963 at a station put on by J. B. Falt.; The station at debut appears to be playing a mix of music local to the Shoals area and other classics, as AM 1450 WLAY did before it fell silent. That AM had a translator on 92.3 at one time, so the music is back on the same (FM) dial position as it was before. The station has also partnered with ShoalsWeather.net for local weather and has its own in-house news and traffic reports, the only FM to do so in the area. As of the summer of 2016 it seems they've relegated the local music to specific times of the day. The transmitter site was initially in downtown Tuscumbia, giving good coverage to the immediate Quad Cities area.

The station received a construction permit in early February 2016 to relocate to a site outside of Sheffield along US-72 west of Tuscumbia. The cited reason was due to interference issues with an adjacent-channel station (WHHG Milan, TN) outside the metro area. The site selected will actually put the majority of Sheffield outside the main coverage area. A license to cover was filed for this change in mid-July 2017.

In the summer of 2019, the station applied to move frequencies to 94.5 MHz, citing continued interference from WHHG in Milan, TN to the station's coverage of The Shoals area. The application is also proposing to re-license from Sheffield to Hawk Pride, Alabama, which is not a Census Designated Place or an incorporated town. That permit was condtionally granted in early September 2019 and it was reported on air at the start of October 2019.