Technical Profile: WELR-FM

FM Technical Profile: WELR

Station Name:: The Eagle
Frequency:: 102.3
Format:: Country
Transmitter Location:: [map] About a mile and a half north of the town of Five Points, south of Roanoke, on the east side of US-431
Power (ERP):: 8.9 kW
Antenna:: Omnidirectional
Antenna HAAT:: 545 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :
PS-WELR
Time-present
Text-[?]
PTY-Country
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

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Owner:: Eagle's Nest Inc.
History:: This station dates back to an original construction permit issued to Earl E. Manning, Jr., owner of WELR 1360 in Roanoke, for an FM companion to that station. The original application filed in 1968 was for a station on 95.3 MHz, with 2.5 kW of power from an antenna height of 318 feet. The transmitter was listed as a Bauer 607 feeding a Jampro JA-3B three bay antenna, but that was later amended to a Jampro JCP-3. The original transmitter location cited in the FCC data is "4.5 NW of Roanoke on Old Highway 431" while the studios were with the AM at 801 North Main Street in town. No better description of the transmitter location was ever filed. A license to cover was filed in February 1969, with the station simulcasting the AM 80% of the time according to the Broadcasting Yearbook.

There are some discrepancies between what's included in those Broadcasting Yearbook editions versus what the FCC records show. FCC records only indicate a power of 2.5 kW, however the Yearbooks listed the power as split: 2.5 kW horizontal and 1.25 kW vertical. They also begin listing the station as broadcasting on 102.3 MHz as early as 1980, however no such record of a change is shown in the FCC history card for the station, or for other publicly available data. Instead, records indicate they applied in 1984 to move to 102.3 MHz with 2.9 kW H and 1.45 kW V power from a site further away from Roanoke in the Rock Stand community along old US-431, near the intersection of Randolph County Roads 65 and 61. While the permit was active, the station was sold in 1988 to Eagle's Nest, Inc. They flipped the station to a Country music format after moving the AM to southern gospel.

The permit to move to Rock Stand expired and had to be renewed in 1989. The facility was finally built out and a license to cover for that change was filed in March 1990.; In April 1991, the station received a permit to relocate to its current transmitter site halfway between Five Points and Roanoke on US-431. This change came with nearly a 100 foot boost in antenna height along with a change to Class C3 status and 8.9 kW of power. A license to cover for this change was granted just a few months later in June 1991. It appears another permit was granted in 1994 but superficially it didn't change any of the technical parameters.

For a long time in the 2000s the station was known to be carrying the Citadel satellite-fed Today's Best Country feed.