Technical Profile: WFMA

FM Technical Profile: WFMA

Station Name:: Air1
Frequency:: 102.9
Format:: Contemporary Worship
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] Behind the North Perry Church near the intersection of County Road 154 and County Road 29 in rural Hale County, northeast of Greensboro.
Power (ERP):: 24 kW
Antenna:: Directional
Antenna HAAT:: 663 feet
Other Information:: 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.; :

PS-Air1 (song) (artist)
Time-present
Text-(artist) (song) Air1
PTY-Top 40
PI-[?]

AUX: 530 watts @ 382 feet HAAT. 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
More Information:: [FCC]; [FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Facebook] For the Air1 radio network

[Image] Picture of the RDS display, showing PI (call sign) and Radio Text fields, on an Insignia HD portable located in northwest Alabama, from when the station was Catfish Country prior to July 2016.
[Image] Picture of the RDS display, showing PI (call sign) and Radio Text fields, after switching to sports as Tide 102.9. (August 2016)
[Studio] Street view imagery of the barely-visible studio behind the Olive Garden on McFarland Boulevard in Tuscaloosa.
Owner:: Educational Media Foundation
History:: This station came on the air in 1988 as the FM counterpart to the Tuscaloosa AM station with the same WNPT calls (NorthPorT). The original ownership was listed as Linden Radio Joint Venture.; For reasons unknown, this FM counterpart to WNPT-AM (now WWPG) never actually served the Tuscaloosa area as far as is known, until about 2005 when a construction permit had the tower site moved from Linden to Marion. Around the time of this move, the station was playing JRN Classic Country and Paul Finebaum's show, but afterwards dropped both for live and local announcers. During this stint it was known as "Catfish Country". On March 1^st 2009 the station dropped the country music for variety hits, picking up the national "Jack FM" name. In early October 2009 the station signed on from their site closer to Tuscaloosa. In late September 2011 the station was reported to have dropped Jack for modern country, again with the "Catfish Country" nickname. In late August 2013 the format was said to be back to classic country. Various different groups owned the station between 1997 and 2003, with ownership at that point going to John Sisty Enterprises. Sisty also acquired WNPT (AM) at that time. In May 2016 it was announced that Townsquare Media would be buying the AM and FM stations for $550,000. As part of the deal, Townsquare was required to divest WDGM Greensboro. It went to Educational Media Foundation and the Tide 99.1 sports talk format landed here on 30 June 2016, at 2 pm. The station was later also heard on translator W265CG on 100.9 MHz, which is being used to fill in gaps in the station's coverage in town.

In late March 2018, the station changed called to WTID.

It was announced in early June 2019 that Townsquare was selling the station to Educational Media Foundation for $110,000. The sports format will continue to be heard on WTUG-HD2/W265CG and will re-brand as "Tide 100.9", while this station will flip to either the K-Love or Air1 formats from EMF. This is the second time the sports "Tide" has been displaced by EMF; the first time was when EMF bought WDGM in Greensboro, the original home of the sports format. After the sale is completed, the call sign will change to WFMA, which appears to point to a change to their Air1 format. As of July 2019 the station is reported off the air, likely in preparation for the switch to Air1.

The station returned to the air at the end of July with the same Tide sports programming, but eventually flipped to Air 1 on 1 August 2019.

In December 2022, the station received a permit to swap antennas from a 6-bay Jampro to an 8-bay Jampro, but keeping power and antenna height the same. In November 2023 the station was granted a Special Temporary Authority to operate from the co-owned WLXA site halfway between Tuscaloosa and Greensboro, with just 580 watts of power. The reason cited was the need to rebuild the WFMA tower. In January 2024 the station filed a license to cover for the new antenna from the (newly rebuilt) licensed tower site.

The station applied for an auxiliary station permit in early March 2024, to use the WLXQ transmitter site midway between Greensboro and Moundville with 580 watts. In early April 2024 the application was amended to correct a few technical parameters, including reducing the power to 530 watts. A license to cover was filed as soon as the amendment was granted on 3 April 2024.