WBHJ (95.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Midfield, Alabama, and serving the Birmingham metropolitan area. It airs an urban-leaning rhythmic contemporary radio format and is owned by SummitMedia, Inc. It shares studios in the Cahaba neighborhood in far southeast Birmingham with SummitMedia's six other stations.[4]

WBHJ is a Class C2 FM station. It has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 12,000 watts. The transmitter is off Industrial Drive, among the towers for other Birmingham FM and TV stations on Red Mountain.[5] In 2005, it also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity. Its HD2 subchannel rebroadcasts co-owned WAGG's urban gospel format. Its HD3 subchannel is leased to the WAY-FM Network. That feeds three FM translators with its Contemporary Christian music.

History

WTBC-FM Tuscaloosa

The station signed on the air in 1958; 67 years ago (1958).[6] Its original call sign was WTBC-FM. Its city of license was Tuscaloosa and it was the sister station to WTBC (1230 AM). The two stations were owned by the Tuscaloosa Broadcasting Company and were network affiliates of the Mutual Broadcasting System.

WTBC-FM's transmitter was on 15th Street. WTBC-FM mostly simulcast the AM station, playing a stack of middle of the road (MOR) albums on a turntable. A contributor who worked at WTBC said that when the stack of records was finished, it just started playing over. The program director would go live for a few hours each night and was probably the only live person on the air daily.

In 1969, it changed its call letters to WUOA, standing for the University of Alabama. It played adult contemporary music and was owned by the university. Another change occurred in 1984 with the call letters switching to WFFX. The moniker became "95.7 the Fox" and the station played modern rock.[1]

Move to Birmingham

The station moved its studios into the Birmingham radio market in the 1990s. During that period the transmitter moved to a taller tower near Vance. On July 15, 1996, the call letters were changed to WBHJ becoming "95.7 Jamz." The format switched to urban contemporary. The first Jamz program director was Mickey Johnson. Since that time, the station has been one of Birmingham's top rated radio stations.

WBHJ tower was roughly halfway between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. This gave it an inadequate signal into its primary listening area of Birmingham. In November 2004, the station applied for a construction permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to move its transmitter from Vance to Red Mountain. In June 2005, the station completed a move to boost its signal. It changed its city of license to the Birmingham suburb of Midfield. Its transmitter site was relocated from rural Bibb County (near Vance) to Red Mountain, where the other high-power Birmingham stations are located. Although the move required a reduction in power from 100,000 watts to 12,200 watts, the increased antenna height and proximity to the population center of Birmingham provided a stronger signal to listeners.

SummitMedia ownership

For much of the early 2000s, WBHJ was owned by Atlanta-based Cox Radio, Inc. On July 20, 2012, Cox Radio announced the sale of WBHJ and 22 other stations to SummitMedia LLC for $66.25 million. The sale was consummated on May 3, 2013.[7][8]

WBHJ is a rhythmic contemporary reporter on Mediabase and an urban reporter per Nielsen BDS. It carries the nationally syndicated wake-up show, The Morning Hustle, based at WGCI-FM Chicago. It is hosted by Kyle Santillian and Lore'l.

Station management

  • General Manager: John Walker
  • Program Director: NuYork
  • Music Director: Young Dil

References

  1. ^ a b "Call Sign History". FCC Media Bureau CDBS Public Access Database.
  2. ^ Nelson, Bob (October 18, 2008). "Call Letter Origins". The Broadcast Archive. Retrieved October 31, 2008.
  3. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WBHJ". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  4. ^ Ekman, Jennifer (September 1, 2006). "Cox rocks Birmingham". Birmingham Business Journal.
  5. ^ Radio-Locator.com/WBHJ
  6. ^ page A-110. Retrieved Marh 7, 2025.
  7. ^ "Cox Puts Clusters up for Sale". July 20, 2012.
  8. ^ "Cox Sells Stations in Six Markets to Two Groups". May 6, 2013.

33°27′36″N 86°51′07″W / 33.460°N 86.852°W / 33.460; -86.852

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