AUX: [map] [street view] West of Gonzalez, Florida, near the intersection of Muscogee Road, Jack Branch Road and CR-97.
: PS-WXBM FM
Time-Present
Text-Gulf Coast Country - 102.7 WXBM
PTY-Country
PI-WXBM-FM
HD-2: News/Talk
"News Talk 104.9"
// W285FY Pensacola, FL
// WCOA Pensacola, FL
AUX: 33.6 kW @ 528 feet HAAT. 60 dBu protected contour map, from the FCC.
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[Picture] Image showing the RDS text decoded by a Sony Bluetooth portable headset, showing the Radio Text field.
[Studio] Historical Street View imagery of the station's old studios on Quintette Road north of Milton. From April 2011.
[Studio] Street View imagery of the Cumulus Pensacola stations' studios off Marcus Pointe Boulevard in the Brent community.
There was an attempt to transfer the license to Lawrence Hankins Locklin in 1968, but it sat around the FCC until the fall of 1972 when it was dismissed.
In September 1974 the station was granted a construction permit to change to 102.7 MHz, and boost power to 100 kW using a Collins 831-G1B transmitter feeding a Collins 37CO-10 ten section FM antenna at a HAAT of 500 feet, from a site approximately four miles northwest of Pace, off Quintette Road (CR-184). A license to cover for this change was filed in February 1975. A few months later in July, they were granted the right to a dual city of license identification of "Milton-Pensacola". That same month they also filed to employ an auxiliary backup site using the old Gates transmitter and antenna combo. It's worth noting that around the time of this upgrade, Mapoles actually lost the license to their AM counterpart WEBY due to violations of the equal time provisions in the FCC rule book.
In early 1986 the station was granted a permit to move to one of the newly built tall towers in rural Baldwin County, Alabama, for improved coverage of both Pensacola and Mobile markets. With 100 kW at 1329 feet HAAT, the station's coverage area would be greatly expanded. A license to cover for this improvement was granted in May 1986.
The station was sold to June Broadcasting in 1992 for $4.5 million. In 1998, the station was sold again, this time to Atlanta-based Patterson Broadcasting. It was at this time that a flurry of sales would affect the station, as part of a wider trend in radio broadcasting towards rapid ownership consolidation. Before the ink on the contract had a chance to dry, Patterson was snapped up by Capstar; they in turn were bought by Chancellor in 1999, who in turn changed their name to AMFM. In October 1999 AMFM was bought by Clear Channel Communications. Due to exceeding market ownership caps set by the FCC, Clear Channel was forced to put both this station and its new sister WMEZ into a trust to be sold off to a third party buyer. That buyer was Pamal Broadcasting of New York who got the stations in 2001. (The name on the license, Albany Broadcasting, refers to Pamal's home town.)
From the mid-90's onward, the station has been a market leader in Pensacola, either in ratings or billing.
In March 2020, the station reverted to just using its call letters, with the slogan, "Your Country Station".
It was observed in early March 2024 that the station had added HD broadcasting, including one subchannel simulcasting with Cumulus' Pensacola-based News/Talk 1370 WCOA.