Technical Profile: WHEP

AM Technical Profile: WHEP

Frequency:: 1310
Format:: Talk, News, Easy Listening, Agricultural, Community
Transmitter Location:: [map] [bird's eye] [street view] North of Foley on the city limits, east of Alabama 59 on Hadley Road.
Power (ERP):: Day: 2.5 kW; Night: 43 watts
Antenna:: Day and night: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata.org]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]; [Aircheck] Station jingle, intro to "Gospel Dynamite" program. 39 sec., 784 kb. (12-08-2011); [Aircheck] Full aircheck. Features jingles, commercials, local host banter, "this day in history", birthdays and more. 30'40", 14.1 MB. (12-08-2011)
[Aircheck] Baldwin County Trading Post, 9 am hour excerpt. Features jingles, commercials, selected calls (minus phone numbers and addresses). 22'48", 22.5 MB, M4A (AAC) format. (05-12-2016)
[Aircheck] Edited aircheck. Features jingles, host banter, local news and commercials. 31'35", 24.5 MB, M4A (AAC) format. (05-12-2016)
[Aircheck] Edited aircheck. Features jingles, local and regional commercials, a Shop Shop segment, and the first break of "From The Press Box", a local sports show. 33'00", 31.4 MB, M4A (AAC) format. (11-25-2019)

// W223AX Foley

Owned by Stewart Broadcasting
History:: WHEP:

An application for a new station was filed in February 1951 by Alabama-Gulf Radio, for 1310 kHz, licensed to Foley. In April 1953 the permit was modified to specify the location, which at the time was described as "1.6 miles north of Foley on Highway No. 3 at the Lane Road." Today this is Alabama Highway 59 and Hadley Road. The modification also specified a Collins 20-V transmitter. When the license to cover was applied for in May 1953, it was licensed as 1 kW daytime only and with the WHEP calls (which stand for the owner of Alabama-Gulf Radio, Howard E. Pill). The license was transferred to Southern Broadcasting Company in 1958.

In 1961, the license was transferred to Stewart Broadcasting Company (James E. Stewart), who has owned it ever since.

By the mid-70's, the station was listed in the Broadcasting Yearbook as having a Middle-of-the-Road (MOR) music format along with various special programming including Farm and Czech (!) which was listed as anywhere from ½ to 1 hour a week until it was dropped in the mid-80's.

The station began introducing some Talk programming into the lineup by the early 90's but was still listed primarily as a MOR station well into the 2000's Broadcasting Yearbook editions. At the turn of the century, the station was the epitome of small town local radio: a mix of music, talk, Trading Post, local sports, religion, agricultural information and more.

The station was granted a permit in June 2000 to increase power to 2.5 kW while remaining a daytime only operator. A license to cover for that change was filed in August 2003. By the middle of the 2000's the music had taken a back seat to talk-oriented programming. James E. Stewart passed away in 2003, moving his son Clark Stewart into the General Management position at the station, a position he still has to this day. The station acquired translator W223AX in 2009, making it possibly the second AM station in Alabama to be granted an FM translator.

Up until the early 2020's the station continued to air a small block of Oldies music programming during the mid-day between their swap shop and syndicated sports talk shows, but that was later dropped and the station went 100% talk programming. The AM station was noted to be off the air starting in the fall of 2023 and stayed off (while the translator continued to operate) until May 2024, when the AM was once again reported on air.

W223AX history:

This translator dates back to a grant to Radio Assist Ministry in 2004 for a station on 92.5 MHz, licensed to Fairhope. Originally licensed for 7 watts from a cell phone tower off Twin Beech Road near South Section Street, the permit was amended in 2007 for 3 watts vertical only to the water tower on Fairhope Avenue near the elementary school, repeating WPAS Pascagoula. A license to cover for this facility was filed in October 2007 and the station came on as W223AX.

Stewart Broadcasting Company acquired the license to the translator in August 2008 and began the process of walking it towards Foley. The first hope took it to a site off Sproch Lane near CR-9 east of Fairhope and west of Summerdale. Licensed with 18 watts, the parent station was changed to WBHY. In April 2009 the permit to move to the WHEP tower was granted and a license to cover for that change, including a boost to 250 watts, was granted in April 2009. Interestingly, it is listed in the FCC database as still relaying WBHY at this point; it wasn't until a Special Temporary Authority (STA) was granted in May 2009 that it began relaying WHEP. At the time, the FCC was still considering a change to their rules to allow AM stations to be rebroadcast by an FM translator. With WHEP's granted it would likely be only the second AM in the state to be granted this ability. Later in 2009 the FCC would enact new rules and open a floodgate allowing many AMs to also acquire translators.

Since moving to the WHEP tower, the translator has operated in mono to maximize range and fight interference on the ducting-prone gulf coast.