WYDE-FM
WYDE-FM (FM 101.1) is a news talk radio station owned by Crawford Broadcasting Company that serves Birmingham and most of north-central Alabama from a broadcast tower near the Cullman County/Blount County line. Launched under its present designation in 2002, the call letters are taken from the much older WYDE-AM. The production studio is located at 244 Goodwin Crest Drive on Red Mountain. Steve Armstrong is the station's general manager. The production director is Pat Bosley.
WYDE serves as the broadcast home for the UAB Blazers football and basketball, as well as the Birmingham Barons baseball team.
History
Crawford Broadcasting purchased Radio Disney affiliate WMKI-AM (850) in 1999 and re-launched it as a talk radio station. The station reacquired its heritage call letters, WYDE. The new WYDE established itself as a leader in conservative talk, becoming one of the more listened-to talk stations in Birmingham. The station’s reduced nighttime signal, however, limited its coverage area.
In 2002, Crawford, which was looking to expand the listening area of WYDE, purchased WRRS-FM and temporarily took the station off the air in order to upgrade its transmitter. In August of that year, 101.1 FM returned to the air as WYDE-FM "The Source", Birmingham’s first FM talk station. At first, both WYDE-FM and AM were full-time simulcast partners, but by the fall, the AM station changed its call letters, first to WDJC-AM, and then to WXJC-AM, restoring much of the Christian teaching and Southern gospel music lost from the airwaves during the station's previous incarnation.
The Source's on air personalities included Lee Davis (mornings), Burt and Kurt (mid-day), Matt Murphy (evening drive), and, until September 2006, Russ and Dee Fine. The Fines were replaced with "The Attack Machine" (Dale Jackson and Chris Hobbs).
In 2003, WYDE-FM began simulcasting its programming on co-owned WLGS-AM, which had been an oldies/adult standards station. The call letters of the AM station were changed to WYDE-AM. That simulcast continued until September 2006, when the AM station was taken off the air in preparation for its relaunch as an adult standards station. The new call letters of the AM station were WLGD-AM.
On June 27, 2007, weekend paid programming host David Billings of the Home 101 Show announced on his website that the station would be dropping the FM Talk format. On July 2 WYDE-FM began stunting with Christmas music, in a "Christmas in July" format, simulcasting with WLGD-AM. When it returned to full programming the following Thursday morning, the station took the name Fun 101.1 FM and played an adult-contemporary format. Some observed that the broadcast signal seemed weaker. The talk radio programs were moved to WXJC AM 850 and WLGD-AM switched its call letters back to WYDE-AM and resumed simulcasting its FM partner.
On October 17, 2008 the station began playing continuous music with a reduced staff and no live announcers. It switched to a news talk format in January 2009. Lee Davis returned with an afternoon talk show. The rest of the day is taken up with syndicated programs including "Mancow's Morning Madhouse", and shows hosted by Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, and Dave Ramsey.
References
- "WYDE-FM." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Mar 2009, 08:35 UTC. 9 Mar 2009 [1].
- Natta, André (July 2, 2007) "The “fun” starts at 12:01 a.m. Thursday". The Terminal.
- "Talk Radio Station Goes Adult Contemporary" (July 2, 2007) WVTM NBC 13
External links
- WYDE-FM website
- 1011TheSource on Twitter