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WERC (AM)
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WERC (AM)
WERC (960 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama. It is owned by iHeartMedia and it simulcasts a talk radio format with sister station WERC-FM. The studios and offices are in Beacon Ridge Tower on First Avenue South in Birmingham, off Interstate 65.
WERC transmits with 5,000 watts. By day, the signal is non-directional, but to protect other stations on 960 AM from interference, at night it uses a directional antenna with a two-tower array. The transmitter is off Arkadelphia Road near Interstate 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 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, 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. It signed on the air on May 25, 1925. The call sign was WBRC, owned by Birmingham doctor J. C. Bell. The call letters stood for Bell Radio Corporation. It broadcast with 50 watts power on 1210 kilocycles 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 an affiliate of the NBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio". 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".
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 the North 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.
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.)
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WERC (AM)
WERC (960 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Birmingham, Alabama. It is owned by iHeartMedia and it simulcasts a talk radio format with sister station WERC-FM. The studios and offices are in Beacon Ridge Tower on First Avenue South in Birmingham, off Interstate 65.
WERC transmits with 5,000 watts. By day, the signal is non-directional, but to protect other stations on 960 AM from interference, at night it uses a directional antenna with a two-tower array. The transmitter is off Arkadelphia Road near Interstate 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 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, 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. It signed on the air on May 25, 1925. The call sign was WBRC, owned by Birmingham doctor J. C. Bell. The call letters stood for Bell Radio Corporation. It broadcast with 50 watts power on 1210 kilocycles 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 an affiliate of the NBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio". 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".
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 the North 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.
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.)