AM Technical Profile: WTOF
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- Frequency:
- 1110
- Format:
- Religious
- Transmitter
Location:
- [map]
[bird's
eye] [street
view] East of US-31/AL-59 in eastern Bay Minette, on S White
Avenue/Nicholsville Street.
- Power (ERP):
- Day: 10 kW
- Critical hours:
2,500 watts
- Antenna:
- Day: 1 tower,
omnidirectional
- Other
Information:
- 0.5 mV/m Daytime
Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's
Public Files
[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]
- [Radio-Locator]
- [Wikipedia]
[Article]
Gulf Coast News Today story about the Buddy Tucker stations
in Mobile shutting down in November 2020.
Owned by UM Enterprise, LLC
Silent
- History:
- WBCA Bay Minette
signed on in 1957 at 1150 kHz; Wikipedia
lists ownership at this time as Southwest Alabama Broadcasting
Company. It was apparently later owned by prominent
local politician James Faulkner. The calls stand for "Wonderful
Baldwin County
Alabama". The
station received a power upgrade in 1967 to 10,000 watts, along with
a move to the current 1110 kHz frequency.
- James
Faulkner went on to sit on the board of Faulkner University, to
which this station was transferred in 1986.
- The
station has had a variety of formats over the years: country-oldies,
easy listening, contemporary country and adult contemporary.
In 1998 it was sold to the owners of Atmore's WYDH; it then began
simulcasting their "Eagle 105.9" country format, along with
Robertsdale's AM station. As part of this three way simulcast
(trimulcast?) the station was a party to several more formats:
rhythmic oldies "Boss 1110 AM", classic country, southern gospel… In
the summer of 2006 the station started simulcasting WABF Fairhope
and their nostalgia format.
- The
station was acquired in 2006 by Buddy Tucker Associates, who runs
WMOB Mobile. A few days after Thanksgiving in 2006, the
station changed calls to WTOF (Tower Of Faith) and picked up an all
syndicated religious programming format.
Buddy
Tucker passed away in mid-December 2017; the stations he ran
including this one were operated by his widow, Levaughn
Tucker.
The station had been reported off the air as of mid-November 2020;
around that time it was also announced that the station, along with
WMOB, would cease operations permanently due to Levaughn Tucker's
advanced age and inability to see to day-to-day operations, as well
as that of veteran station employee Debby Day. A Silent
Special Temporary Authority (STA) was not filed until February 2021,
however. The station returned to the air briefly in November
2021 to keep the license active.
In April 2022, it was announced that UM Enterprise, LLC (Dave
Minard) would be acquiring WTOF And WMOB from Buddy Tucker
Associates for just $100. The station filed another Silent STA
in June 2022, noting it had been off the air since 5 December 2021
due to “loss of program source”. In December 2022, it was
announced the station was being sold to Noah Britt's Tri-City Radio
for $25,000. Britt already owns WJNZ in Robertsdale and WPMO
in Pascagoula. A resumption of operations was filed with the
FCC in December 2022, although the station was not ever observed on
the air.
As of June 2023, the deal to sell to Tri-City Radio has yet to be
consummated. That same month, the owners filed another Silent
STA, citing the loss of the temporary longwire antenna. It
appears this is the first filing to mention running with a temporary
longwire antenna or that the licensed site was no longer available.