WYDE-FM
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| City | Cullman, Alabama |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Birmingham / Huntsville / Tuscaloosa / Gadsden, Jacksonville, Alabama |
| Branding | Superstation 101 WYDE |
| Frequency | 101.1 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1950 (as WFMH-FM) |
| Format |
Talk HD2: Talk (WYDE (AM) simulcast) |
| ERP | 100,000 watts |
| HAAT | 410 meters (1346 feet) |
| Class | C0 |
| Facility ID | 70452 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°04′56″N 86°54′15″W / 34.08222°N 86.90417°W |
| Callsign meaning | Bartell Broadcasting, who owned the original WYDE (850) in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s, dubbed WYDE and co-owned WAKE-AM in Atlanta as "Your WYDE-a-WAKE Stations" |
| Former callsigns | WFMH-FM (1950-1998) WRRS (1998-2002) |
| Owner | Crawford Broadcasting |
| Sister stations | WDJC-FM, WXJC, WXJC-FM, WYDE |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 101wyde.com |
WYDE-FM (101.1 FM, "Superstation 101 WYDE") is a radio station that serves Birmingham and nearly all of north-central Alabama. The station is licensed to Cullman, Alabama. Because of the location of the station's broadcast tower and its strong signal, WYDE-FM serves the Huntsville, Tuscaloosa, Gadsden and Florence markets as well. The station is owned by Crawford Broadcasting Company. The transmitter for WYDE-FM is located in Good Hope, AL near the border between Cullman County and Blount County, approximately 40 miles north of downtown Birmingham, while its studios are located in Homewood.
Except for a brief period in the late 1990s, the WYDE call letters have been a part of the radio landscape in Birmingham for nearly 50 years. The history of WYDE (850 AM) is closely intertwined with the current WYDE-FM.
The station signed on in Cullman in 1950 as WFMH-FM. Before it began targeting the Birmingham market, WFMH-FM had several different formats, including classic country music and adult standards. In 1998 Eddins Broadcasting Co. sold 101.1 FM to a group of businessmen in Birmingham (Eddins moved WFMH to the 95.5 frequency in Holly Pond), which purchased the station with the intent of launching a second contemporary Christian music station in Birmingham. Competing against WDJC-FM, the station was rebranded as Reality 101.1 with the new call letters WRRS (for "Reality Radio Station").
Initially, Reality 101.1 proved to be moderately successful, but the location of the station's broadcast tower hindered the signal from adequately reaching the southern suburbs of Birmingham. Also, in reaction to the presence of WRRS in the market, WDJC dropped all of its Christian teaching programming as well as its nighttime Southern gospel music program and became a full-time contemporary Christian music station. Faced with bankruptcy, the station was sold for $9 million to STG Media LLC, an ownership group that held several stations in the Huntsville market, and the station changed music formats, becoming a modern rock/adult contemporary hybrid station known on the air as "101.1 the Spot". "The Spot" was no more successful in the Birmingham market than its predecessor, and the ownership of the station began looking for an opportunity to sell the station.
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