WXMA
| City | Louisville, Kentucky |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Louisville |
| Branding | "102.3 The Max" |
| Slogan | "Today's Best Mix |
| Frequency | 102.3 FM |
| First air date | 1964 |
| Format | Hot Adult Contemporary |
| ERP | 6,000 watts |
| HAAT | 87 meters (286 feet) |
| Class | A |
| Facility ID | 37236 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 38° 14' 37" N, 85° 45' 34" W |
| Callsign meaning | "MAX" (The station's moniker.) |
| Former callsigns | WLRS (1964-2000) WULV (2000-2002) |
| Owner |
Alpha Media (Alpha Media Licensee LLC) |
| Website | http://www.themaxfm.com |
WXMA, also known as "102.3 The Max", is a Hot Adult Contemporary station located in Louisville, Kentucky. The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast on 102.3 FM with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 6 kW. The station's studios are located in downtown Louisville and the transmitter site is blocks away atop The 800 Apartments building.
102.3 FM signed on as WLRS in 1964 as a stand-alone FM station for Louisville Radio School (hence the call-letters for the station). The station was used as a training ground for the school's broadcast students in its early years. In the late 1960s, station owner Clarence Henson entered into an agreement to sell WLRS to crosstown AM Top 40 WAKY, but the deal fell apart when WAKY did not meet the six-month deadline to complete the transaction. By 1970, WLRS was noted as being one of only nine stand-alone FMs in the state of Kentucky.
WLRS went to first place in the Arbitron ratings in 1978. By that time, the station was Album Rock, a format that the station had adopted for many years.
However, by 1981, WLRS was beaten by rival Album Rock station WQMF in the ratings, and in 1984, the station switched to a Top 40/AOR format or CHR for short as "The Flamethrowing LRS 102". The station was adding pop and urban artists like Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston to its playlist (while still leaning toward Rock), to fill the void left when WKJJ abandoned Top 40 for Adult Contemporary in 1982 and WJYL dropped Top 40 for urban contemporary in 1984. Eventually, WKJJ switched back to CHR as WDJX, and both WLRS and WDJX (which leaned more toward R&B and dance) battled each other for the next few years before WLRS evolved back to their Album Rock format in the late 1980s, because, at that time, LRS' ratings were poor.
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