WLGD

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'WLGD'

City of license	Birmingham, Alabama
Broadcast area	Birmingham and Jefferson County
Branding	Legends 1260
Slogan	“The soundtrack of your life!”
First air date	1950’s, as WCRT
Frequency	1260 KHz
Format	Adult Standards
ERP	5,000 watts daytime, 41 watts nightime
Class	D
Callsign meaning	W LeGenDs
Owner	Crawford Broadcasting Company
Website	www.legends1260.com

WLGD-AM is an adult standards/oldies station that serves Birmingham, Alabama and nearly all of Jefferson County. The station is known on the air as “Legends 1260”. The station broadcasts at 1260 AM. The station is owned by Crawford Broadcasting Company. Other stations in the Birmingham market that Crawford owns include WPHC-FM (92.5), WDJC-FM (93.7), WYDE-FM (101.1) and WXJC-AM (850). The transmitter for WLGD is located near the eastern edge of downtown Birmingham. WLGD is one of three stations in the Birmingham market to change formats in 2006, dropping its simulcast of talk station WYDE-FM in favor of its current format.

[edit] History

The station broadcasting at 1260 AM in Birmingham signed on in the 1950’s as WCRT-AM, a ‘’middle of the road” easy listening station. Due to FCC restrictions, WCRT broadcast only during the daytime and signed off at sunset. The owners of WCRT were also instrumental in the launch of WCFT-TV 33 in Tuscaloosa; hence the similarity in the call signs. Later in the 1960’s WCRT-AM launched a companion FM station. Initially, WCRT-FM was a simulcast of its AM partner. In the 1970’s the FM station relaunched as easy listening WQEZ; today that station is heritage adult contemporary station WMJJ.

During the 1970’s, WCRT-AM was an adult standards station that used the syndicated Music of Your Life format. In 1982, sister station WQEZ-FM was sold, and by 1983, the owners of WCRT were looking to get out of the radio business. Later that year, the station was sold to a group of Christian businessmen who planned to drop adult standards in favor of contemporary Christian music. Before the sales transaction could be completed, a fire destroyed the station’s studios and offices, and WCRT was forced off the air for several months.

In 1984, WCRT returned to the air with the new on-air name “Love 1260’’ and the new contemporary Christian music format. A weak signal that did not reach the suburbs at night, the waning popularity of AM radio, and competition from WDJC-FM were among several reasons why Love 1260 was not particularly successful. In less than a year, Love 1260 dropped contemporary Christian music in favor of an adult contemporary format.

In 1986, WCRT dropped adult contemporary music in favor of an all-oldies format. It continued with this format until 1991, when it dropped music programming in favor of an all business news format and new call letters WCEO. The business news format continued until 1994, when Crawford Broadcasting Company, the owners of WDJC-FM, bought the station and launched a “Christian country’ music format on the station, which was relaunched as WDJC-AM. Later in the 1990’s, the station changed formats again, this time to black gospel music, placing it in direct competition with format leader WAGG and several other stations.

In 1999, 1260 AM in Birmingham returned to its roots. Christian programming was dropped, and the station once again became an adult standards station with the call letters WLGS. Known on the air as “Legends 1260”, the station achieved moderate ratings success. By 2001, the station added some oldies music to its playlist, and by 2002, it had segued into a full-fledged oldies station. In 2003, the station dropped the oldies format and became a full-time simulcast partner of WYDE-FM. The simulcast continued for the next three years.

In October 2006, WYDE-AM changed its call letters to its current identification, WLGD, and returned to the music format it had employed in the early 2000’s. Once again, the station is known on the air as “Legends 1260” and it is an adult standards station, focusing primarily on vocal music from the 1950’s, ‘60’s and ‘70’s. Longtime Birmingham radio veterans Burt and Kurt, formerly of WSGN, WMJJ-Magic 96.5 and WODL-Oldies 106.9 headline the new station’s morning show.

[edit] External links

• Official Website of WLGD-AM Legends 1260
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WLGD