FM Technical Profile: WRTR

[ Home | Statewide: AM | FM | LPFM | Translators | TV | LPTV | LDTV ]
[ Metros: Birmingham | Mobile | Montgomery | Huntsville | Columbus, GA | Dothan | Tuscaloosa | The Shoals ]

Station Name:

Talk Radio 105.9

Frequency:

105.9

Format:

Talk, News

Transmitter Location:

[map] [street view] Along Crescent Road, at Hammer Lane, in Holt. Located on the same property as WMHZ, WJMY-CD and several low power FM translators.

Power (ERP):

25 kW

Antenna:

Directional

Antenna HAAT:

269 feet

Other Information:

60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.

Mono

:
PS-TUSCALOOSA'S NEWS AND INFORMATION 1059WRTR
Time-present
Text-Tuscaloosa's News and Information 1059WRTR
PTY-Talk
PI-WRTR-FM

More Information:

[FCC]

[FCCdata]

[Radio-Locator]

[Wikipedia]
[Facebook]
[Studio] Street View imagery of the iHeartMedia studios in downtown Tuscaloosa.

Owner:

iHeartMedia

History:

Originally was WACT FM, contemporary country companion of WACT AM. (ACT standing for Alabama Crimson Tide). Became WRTR when Capstar Broadcasting bought the station and sent in (then) Gadsden morning show hosts Rick and Bubba to "take over" the station. They played Sweet Home Alabama continuously for about oh... Six years... Before settling in on a straight up rock format.

.

WRTR will be moving down the dial and down the road as part of a massive radio restructuring that will allow WENN (Trussville) to better cover the city of Birmingham. The station will be relicesed to Brookwood and move to 105.9, with a power increase, lowered antenna height and a directional antenna. The transmitter site is shown to be at the corner of 20^th St. NE and 39^th Ave. NE in the Holt community of Tuscaloosa.

.

Testing of the new facilities was heard on Sunday morning, August 29^th 2005, simulcasting WENN-FM, Hallelujah FM.  The official flip occurred on the first of September.

 

The longtime rock format of the station was apparently dropped at the start of May '09 to simulcast AM news/talker WACT, as "Talk radio 105-9".  In July 2009 the station was reported to be simulcasting WERC in Birmingham, which picked up ex-rocker WVVB licensed to Hoover.  The simulcast either didn't last or was a case of mistaken identity, because in late September 2009 the station was observed to be running a slightly different program schedule than WERC in Birmingham. In May 2015 the station received a construction permit to move the antenna site east a few miles of Holt, with basically the same technical parameters, albeit with a slighter stronger null to the west in the directional antenna.  That facility signed on in late September 2015.