| Simulcast ofWERC-FM,Hoover, AL | |
|---|---|
| |
| Broadcast area | Greater Birmingham |
| Frequency | 960kHz |
| Branding | News Radio 105.5 WERC |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Network | Fox News Radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WDXB,WERC-FM,WMJJ,WQEN | |
| History | |
First air date | May 25, 1925 (100 years ago) (1925-05-25) |
Former call signs |
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Former frequencies |
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Call sign meaning | Derived from original WBRC call sign |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 2112 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
Transmitter coordinates | 33°32′02″N86°51′07″W / 33.53389°N 86.85194°W /33.53389; -86.85194 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | wercfm |
WERC (960AM) is acommercial radio station licensed toBirmingham, Alabama. It is owned byiHeartMedia and it simulcasts atalk radio format with sister stationWERC-FM. The studios and offices are in Beacon Ridge Tower on First Avenue South in Birmingham, offInterstate 65.
WERC transmits with 5,000 watts. By day, the signal isnon-directional, but to protect other stations on960 AM from interference, at night it uses adirectional antenna with a two-tower array. Thetransmitter is off Arkadelphia Road nearInterstate 20 in Birmingham.
WERC was the first station in Birmingham to carry an all-talk format. Weekdays begin with a local news and interview show,Alabama's Morning News with JT and Leah. The rest of the weekday schedule isnationally syndicated shows, largely from co-ownedPremiere Networks:The Glenn Beck Program,The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Sean Hannity Show,The Michael Berry Show,The Jesse Kelly Show,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory andThis Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.
On weekends, WERC-AM-FM air mostly specialty shows on money, health, gardening, home repair and travel, some of which are paidbrokered programming. Syndicated weekend shows includeThe Weekend with Michael Brown,Travel with Rudy Maxa,Sunday Night Live with Bill Cunningham andAt Home with Gary Sullivan. Most hours begin with an update fromFox News Radio. WERC-AM-FM have a news and weather sharing agreement withWBRC-TV Channel 6, at one time co-owned with 960 AM.
The forerunner of WERC was the first radio station in Birmingham, and the second station in Alabama. Itsigned on the air on May 25, 1925. Thecall sign was WBRC, owned by Birmingham doctor J. C. Bell. The call letters stood for Bell Radio Corporation.[2] It broadcast with 50 watts power on 1210kilocycles from a transmitter in Bell's home. In 1928, businessman M. D. Smith bought a controlling stake in the station from Bell for $2,000.
Throughout the 1920s, the station increased its power several times and moved its broadcast frequency. It also relocated its studios, eventually moving to the Bankhead Hotel in downtown Birmingham by 1932. In 1935, the station became anaffiliate of theNBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows andbig band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".[3] In 1947, WBRC advertised that it "was the first radio station in the Deep South to subscribe to full day and night news wire service--INS".[4]
Smith died in 1937 and his wife, Eloise, inherited the station. She remarried several years later, becoming Eloise Hanna. In 1940, she became full owner of WBRC, in an era where it was rare for a woman to serve as a radio executive. In 1941, with the enactment of theNorth American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), WBRC moved from 950 to its current home at 960 AM. It also increased its fulltime power to 5,000 watts.[5]
In 1946, WBRC introduced the first FM station in Birmingham. But few people owned FM receivers in those days and management decided to end the FM experiment, taking WBRC-FM off the air two years later. (A new WBRC-FM at 106.9 MHz signed on in 1959.)
In 1949, WBRC launched Channel 4WBRC-TV, Alabama's second television station. Because WBRC had been a long-time NBC affiliate, WBRC-TV originally carriedNBC TV shows, with secondary affiliations withABC and theDumont Television Network. The stations were sold toStorer Broadcasting in 1953. Four years later, the stations were sold toTaft Broadcasting.
The advent of television in the 1950s caused network programming to shift from radio to television. By the early 1960s, WBRC was one of twoMiddle of the Road (MOR) stations in Birmingham, airing a mix of popular adult music, news and sports. It continued in that format until 1972, when Taft Broadcasting sold WBRC-AM-FM to Mooney Broadcasting. Taft retained ownership of WBRC-TV until 1987. AsFederal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at that time prohibited stations with different owners from sharing the same call letters, Mooney changed the call signs of the radio stations to WERC and WERC-FM—a nod to the old callsigns. WERC was christened "96-ERC" and it flipped toTop 40, launching an all-out assault on the market's leading contemporary hit station, WSGN (nowWAGG).
For much of the 1970s, WERC and WSGN were two of the most listened-to stations in Birmingham. The beginning of WERC's demise as a Top 40 powerhouse came in 1977, when its own FM sister station was relaunched ascontemporary hit radio (CHR) station WKXX, "Kicks 106" (nowWBPT). By 1980, 960 WERC modified its format tofull service,adult contemporary music coupled with a sizable news and sports department, and was known as "News Plus 960, WERC". In 1981, the station launched an afternoondrive time sports call-in show hosted by future University of Alabama football announcerEli Gold.
Competing unsuccessfully against WSGN andWAPI as an adult contemporary station, WERC dropped music in May 1982. It flipped to a news-talk format, which continued until January 2011. The station was an early affiliate for the syndicatedRush Limbaugh Show. For much of the 1990s, the WERC line-up featured TC and John Ed as morning hosts,Paul Finebaum hosting a sports show in the afternoon, and Russ and Dee Fine hosting evenings.
During a 1993 snowstorm that paralyzed the Birmingham area, WERC became the primary source of information and assistance for hundreds of thousands of residents that were stranded by the weather without power, in some cases, for weeks. In 1997, WERC was bought by Capstar Broadcasting.[6] Capstar was later acquired bySan Antonio-basedClear Channel Communications.
WERC began to transition its talk format to the FM dial on July 6, 2009, when a new incarnation ofWERC-FM replacedmodern rock station WVVB ("The Vulcan") at 105.5 FM. 960 AM simulcast with 105.5 FM until January 7, 2011, when it began originating separate programming, simulcasting on a newFM translator, 103.1 W276BQ.
Afterstunting with several formats, ranging fromoldies toclassic country toadult album alternative tourban contemporary, the station settled on a permanent format on January 13, 2011, reviving the "Vulcan" branding with anactive rock format. In addition to broadcasting on 960 AM and 103.1 FM, "The Vulcan" also broadcast onWQEN-HD2 103.7. The transition was completed on February 15, 2011, when the WERC call sign was replaced with 105.5's former WVVB call letters.
On June 23, 2011, WVVB returned to news/talk, simulcasting on both 105.9 FM and 960 AM. On July 14, 2011, WVVB changed its call letters back to WERC.
In 2014, WERC's owner, Clear Channel Communications, became iHeartMedia, Inc. Other stations in the Birmingham market owned by iHeartMedia includeWMJJ (96.5 FM),WDXB (102.5 FM),WQEN (103.7 FM), and WERC-FM (105.5 FM). iHeartMedia also programs W276BQ (103.1), a translator owned by Red Mountain Broadcasting, LLC. W276BQ rebroadcasts the programming of the HD2 channel of WQEN, branded as "103.1 The Vulcan".
