WBHJ

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WBHJ
City of license	Midfield, Alabama
Broadcast area	Birmingham, Alabama
Branding	95.7 Jamz
Slogan	"Birmingham's #1 for Hip-Hop and R&B", "Bangin' 95 Minutes of Music All the Time"
Frequency	95.7 MHz (Also on HD Radio)
First air date	1958
Format	Urban Contemporary Hit Radio
ERP	12,000 watts
HAAT	306 meters
Class	C2
Facility ID	730
Callsign meaning	W BirmingHam's Jamz
Owner	Cox Broadcasting
Sister stations	WAGG, WBHK, WBPT, WNCB, WPSB, WZZK
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	http://957jamz.com/

WBHJ (95.7 FM, "95.7 Jamz") is an Urban-formatted radio station that serves Birmingham, Alabama. In 2005, it also began broadcasting in IBOC digital radio, using the HD Radio system from iBiquity. It is owned by Cox Radio Holdings along with six other stations in the market. Its transmitter is located atop Red Mountain in Birmingham.

[edit] History

95.7 originally came on the air in 1958 as WTBC-FM, a Tuscaloosa station that was a companion to WTBC (AM) "News/Talk 1230" with transmitter on 15th Street. As WTBC-FM, the station was just a placeholder for the AM station, playing a stack of MOR format LP's on a turntable. A contributor who worked at WTBC-AM notes that when the stack of records was finished, it just started playing over! Station IDs weren't done regularly because they were done by the often-forgetful AM jocks. The program director would go live for a few hours each night and was probably the only live person on the air daily. It later became WUOA (University of Alabama), an adult contemporary-formatted college radio station. Another change occurred with the calls to WFFX, "95.7 the Fox", and the addition of modern rock.

It then moved into the Birmingham market in the 1990's, and was during that period the transmitter moved to a taller tower near Vance. In 1997, the calls were changed as well as the format of the station to WBHJ, "95.7 Jamz", an Urban-formatted radio station that disguises as a rhythmic.

In November 2004, after years of being plagued by an inadequate signal into its primary listening area of Birmingham, the station applied for a construction permit to FCC to move its transmitter from Vance to Red Mountain. In June 2005 the station completed a move to boost its signal in the Birmingham market by getting relicensed to the Birmingham suburb of Midfield and moving their transmitter site from rural Bibb County (near Vance) to the Red Mountain, where the other high-power Birmingham stations are located. Although they've had to reduce their power from 100 kilowatts to just 12.2 kilowatts, the move has provided a good signal to listeners in the immediate area market area. The move was made just in time; they now have competition from "Hot 107.7", formerly a rock station, with a much bigger signal in and out of the metro area.

[edit] Station management

• General Manager: David Dubose
• Program Director: Mickey Johnson
• Assistant Program Director: Mary K
• Music Director: Jerome "Lil' Homie" Crumpton

[edit] See also

• List of radio stations in Alabama

[edit] External links

• Official Website of 95.7 Jamz
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WBHJ
• Radio Locator information on WBHJ
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WBHJ