WERC-FM (105.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Hoover, Alabama, and serving Greater Birmingham. It is owned by iHeartMedia and it simulcasts a talk radio format with sister station WERC 960 AM. The studios and offices are in Beacon Ridge Tower on First Avenue South in Birmingham, off Interstate 65.
WERC-FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 29,500 watts. The transmitter is atop Red Mountain, off Valley Avenue in Birmingham. WERC-FM broadcasts using HD Radio technology. Its digital subchannels carry urban gospel and urban adult contemporary formats, which in turn feed two FM translators.
Programming
Weekdays begin with a local news and interview show, "Alabama's Morning News with JT and Leah." The rest of the weekday schedule is nationally syndicated shows, largely from co-owned Premiere 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 with George Noory" and "This 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 paid brokered programming. Syndicated weekend shows include "The Weekend with Michael Brown," "Travel with Rudy Maxa," "Sunday Night Live with Bill Cunningham" and "At Home with Gary Sullivan." Most hours begin with an update from Fox News Radio. WERC-AM-FM have a news and weather sharing agreement with WBRC-TV Channel 6, which at one time was co-owned with 960 AM.
History
Today's WERC-FM is the successor of two Birmingham-area FM stations, WWIV and WENN-FM.
WWIV
The WERC-FM debuted in . The call sign was WWIV, and it broadcast at 105.9 MHz with 1,400 watts, a fraction of its current power. The original city of license was Trussville. For a brief time, WWIV served as a simulcast of then-co-owned WYDE (850 AM, now WXJC), which at the time was a news-talk station. That October, WWIV changed its call sign to WWBR and became album rock station "105.9 the Bear". Though the station filled a niche in the market, signal limitations and a less than desirable tower location prevented it from making a significant dent in the local ratings.
On January 22, 1996, the music focus was shifted to modern rock and alternative music. The station changed its on-air name to 106X and took on the new call sign WRAX. The station remained with this format until it swapped dial positions with WENN in December 1997.
WENN-FM
WENN-FM signed on the air at 107.7 FM on .Broadcasting Yearbook 1995 page B-4, Broadcasting & Cable It was the sister station of WAGG 1320 AM (now WENN). WENN-FM originally simulcast the AM's urban contemporary format, primarily playing R&B, soul, and on Sundays, urban gospel. By the end of the 1970s, 1320 AM had broken away from the simulcast, airing an urban gospel sound while the FM station stuck with urban contemporary.
Both WENN-FM and AM were purchased in 1976 by Dr. A.G. Gaston, one of the leaders of the black business community in Birmingham. Throughout its time as an urban station, WENN-FM created local ties to the community through on-air personalities such as Tall Paul, Shelly Stewart, Jimmy Lawson, Stan Granger, Michael Starr, Roe Bonner, Chris Talley, Dave Donnell and James Gavin. The station used the slogan "WENN's gonna make me a WENNER!" It shot to number 1 in the Arbitron ratings and became one of the most popular stations of any format in Birmingham.
By the late 1980s, WENN-FM began to shift from an R&B/soul-based sound to a more Mainstream Urban playlist, with the introduction of hip-hop and rap music. The slower R&B and soul songs were moved to the Quiet Storm program at night. It also adopted the slogan 107.7 WENN, The People's Station. WENN-FM maintained a strong position in the Birmingham radio market, usually in Arbitron's top five stations.
Changes in ownership
In 1997, Gaston, died at age 101. His heirs wanted to sell their media properties. At about the same time, WENN-FM faced direct competition on FM for the first time, as both WBHJ (95.7 FM) and WBHK (98.7 FM) adopted formats that challenged WENN-FM for urban listeners. The ratings for WENN-FM faltered.
In the wake of the passing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, WENN-FM, and its AM sister station 610 WAGG, were sold to Cox Radio, owner of WBHJ and WBHK. A few weeks later, the FM station was sold again, this time to Dick Broadcasting, which already owned and operated five other stations in Birmingham: WYSF (94.5 FM), WZRR (99.5 FM), WRAX (105.9 FM), WJOX (690 AM), and WAPI (1070 AM).