WJOX
WJOX is an
AM radio station licensed to
Birmingham, Alabama. Its daytime power is 50,000 watts and at nighttime it broadcasts at 500 watts. Calling itself
"The Sports Monster", it is an all-sports station. It is the
Birmingham affiliate of the Crimson Tide Sports Network, the Auburn Network, Titans Radio, the Braves Radio Network, and
ESPN Radio. WJOX features locally hosted call-in shows from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. WJOX is owned by
Citadel Communications. Other Birmingham area stations owned by Citadel include WTUG-FM (92.9),
WYSF-FM (94.5),
WZRR-FM (99.5), WRAX-FM (100.5),
WUHT-FM (107.7), and
WAPI-AM (1070).
The station that now broadcasts from 690 AM in Birmingham signed on in 1947 as
WVOK. It was the first radio station in Birmingham to broadcast at 50,000 watts. Due to
Federal Communications Commission restrictions, the station broadcast only during daytime hours. It was not until the early 1980s that WVOK was able to broadcast 24 hours a day.
Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, WVOK was a
Top 40 station calling itself
"The Mighty 690" with a signal that covered almost all of north and central
Alabama, as well as parts of Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee. Rather than attempting to compete with crosstown station (and market leader) WSGN, WVOK targeted listeners in the rural areas of the states its signal reached. One of the most popular promotions of WVOK was their "Shower of Stars" concert series. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, these concerts brought such performers as the
Rolling Stones,
Jerry Lee Lewis,
Neil Diamond and the
Beach Boys to Birmingham.
In 1977, WVOK dropped Top 40 music and became a country station using the nickname
OK 69. At about the same time, sister station WVOK-FM (now WZRR) signed on with an album rock format. Country music on WVOK-AM continued until 1985, when it became an
oldies station. In 1989, oldies were dropped, and the station began playing classic country music.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, several AM stations in Birmingham debuted afternoon sports talk call-in shows.
Eli Gold had a successful show on WERC (960 AM), and local sportswriter
Paul Finebaum had debuted a popular show on WAPI (1070 AM). In 1990, Herb Winches, a former TV sports anchor on
WBRC and
WVTM, joined WVOK with his own sports talk show. Because Winches' show was fairly successful, and because, by the 1990s, there were few AM radio stations that were successful playing music, station management made the decision to launch an all-sports station in 1992. The legendary WVOK call letters were dropped, and the station became known as
WJOX.
* 6:00-10:00 a.m.:
The Opening Drive, with Tony Kurre, former
University of Alabama quarterback Jay Barker, and former
Auburn University placekicker
Al Del Greco* 10:00 a.m.-noon:
Middays with Matt, featuring former
WVTM sports anchor and former
UAB broadcaster Matt Coulter
* 12:00-1:00 p.m.:
The JOX Roundtable w/ Lance Taylor
roundtableradio.com* 1:00-3:00 p.m.:
Dunaway & Brown, with Ryan Brown and WVTM's (NBC) Jim Dunaway,
NBC 13 Website* 3:00-6:00 p.m.:
The Big Time, with Herb Winches,
Birmingham News sports columnist Ray Melick, and former
WBMA sportscaster Kelly Hunter
*
Official Website of WJOX |
*
Official Website of The Roundtable
