Technical Profile: WAPR

FM Technical Profile: WAPR

Station Name:: Alabama Public Radio
Frequency:: 88.3
Format:: Public Radio
Transmitter Location:: [map] Just west of the community of Mosses. West of where CR-12 and CR-17 meet, off Hulett Road.
Power (ERP):: 53 kW (vertical polarization only)
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 1,401 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

[Facebook] Facebook for Alabama Public Radio.

[Aircheck] APR top of the hour legal ID, featuring all the stations' call signs, read by various individuals. 32 seconds, 535 kb, M4A format.

// WUAL Tuscaloosa
// WHIL Mobile
// WQPR Muscle Shoals
Owner:: UA-ASU-TSU Educational Radio Corporation
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued in June 1995 to a partnership between the University of Alabama, Alabama State University and Troy State University for a noncommercial station licensed to Selma. A license to cover for the facility was filed in August 1996 and it debuted with the same technical specs and transmitter location it uses today. From the beginning the University of Alabama is the one who programmed it, simulcasting their “Alabama Public Radio” network along with WUAL in Tuscaloosa and WQPR in Muscle Shoals. Mobile's WHIL joined the simulcast in 2011, with APR now serving all of the western half of Alabama.

The station was reported of the air in late December 2013. They didn't file a Silent STA (Special Temporary Authority) until March 2013. The station stayed off for several months, citing multiple burned out sections of coax and the issues of having it trucked in from out of state during the holiday season. The station filed a resumption of operations notice to the FCC at the end of April 2013. In July 2013, the station was forced to file another STA, this time for reduced power operations of 6 kW. Again, they cited transmission burnout issues and noted they'd have to replace the entire feedline.

The station filed a resumption of full power operation in February 2014. Strangely, the station concurrently filed a licensed modification and another Silent STA the same day as their resumption of operations filing, citing more transmission line issues, but both were dismissed and the FCC portal has no further details as to why.

At the start of August 2023 the station filed an Engineering STA citing issues with the 30 year old transmitter and requesting to operate at 50% of licensed power until a replacement could be sourced. On 08 July 2024 the station filed a Silent STA noting that an issue with high VSWR was causing issues; with the new transmitter still yet to be delivered the owners opted to just take the station off until either repairs to the existing system could be made or the new transmitter delivered. The station was reported back on the air in mid-July 2024, even though the Silent STA was still in effect.