FM Technical Profile: WALX
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- Station Name:
- Alex FM
- Frequency:
- 100.9
- Format:
- Variety Hits
- Transmitter
Location:
- [map]
Southeast of Selma on the north side of CR-460, about 1 mile north
of CR-462 and the Tyler community.
- Power (ERP):
- 50 kW
- Antenna:
- Omnidirectional
- Antenna HAAT:
- 492 feet
- Other
Information:
- 60 dBu protected
contour
map, from the FCC.
:
PS-WALX-FM 100.9 ALEX-FM (song/artist)
Time-[?]
Text-The Best Hits of All Time WALX-FM
PTY-Classic Rock
PI-WALX-FM
-
- HD-2:
Classic Country
"Kix Country 101.5"
- // W268BQ Selma
HD-3: Classic Hip-Hop
"96.3 Da Bomb"
// W242BW Selma
- AUX: 3 kW @ 299
feet. 60 dBu protected
contour
map, from the FCC.
- More
Information:
- [FCC]
- [FCCdata]
- [Radio-Locator]
- [Wikipedia]
- [Facebook]
for WALX
- [Facebook]
for Kix Country 101.5
[Facebook]
for 96.3 Da Bomb
[Studio]
Google Street View image of the station's studio, co-located
with WJAM.
- Owner:
- Scott
Communications
- History:
- In 1974, it
signed on from Selma as WALX (ALeXander Broadcasting, for Thomas and
Betty Alexander). The station was a class A (3 kW) and
broadcast from a site near Valley Grande, about four miles north of
Selma on Dallas County 37. The format virtually duplicated
that of then-WDAL 101.3 FM in Meridian, with beautiful music. When
the resident beautiful music station in Montgomery increased power,
WALX changed to a Top 40 format as "Stereo 101". That lasted
from 1981 to 1991, when they went to a more Hot Adult Contemporary
format as "Lazer 101" a nod to the era when CDs and digital music
hit it big in the mainstream. Betty, Tom's wife, continued to
run the station after his death, which happened in the late 80's,
around the time the station got a power boost to its current 50 kW
signal.
Ownership of the station changed from Alexander Broadcasting to
Scott Communications in January 2006, along with WMRK (AM) and other
Alexander properties. The price was part stock and the rest in
cash, $29,500. This was not so much a sell-out to a new
company as keeping it in the family; Scott Communications is merely
Scott Alexander's company and the station was sold after his mother,
Betty, had passed in 2005.
-
- In the spring
of 2006 the station acquired a construction permit to change their
city of license only, from Selma to Orrville. In late February
2007 they picked up Rick and Bubba. In February 2009 the FCC granted
the COL change. The station is now licensed to Orrville, a
process that allowed a sister station to beat cheeks to the
Montgomery market. On March 24th 2009 the station flipped from
its long-time unique format to a variety hits "Jack FM" type format,
which eventually became "Alex FM". The station was reported to
have picked up an RDS data feed in early 2010, and HD radio was
added in March 2013. In April 2013 the HD-2 was turned on,
with a mix of oldies and classic country. It's also being
heard on the W268BQ translator in Selma at 101.5 MHz. The
oldies were just a stunt, as it quickly changed to "Kix Country
101.5", returning country to the market after crosstown competitor
WDXX dropped it for a similar variety hits format to Alex FM.
After only a few months, WDXX dropped its experiment of pretending
to be a Montgomery station and returned to the country format.
On the first day of February 2016, Kix announced a big change at 6
am, touting a flip to classic country.
The station added a second HD subchannel in June 2018.
Initially simulcasting AM sister station WJAM, it was later revealed
that it was going to launch a Classic Hip-Hop format called "96.3 Da
Bomb", which debuted on 30 June 2018.