WERC (AM) - History

History

The forerunner of WERC was the first radio station in Birmingham, and the second station in Alabama. In May 1925, WBRC (for the Bell Radio Corporation) signed on, broadcasting with 50 watts power at 1210 AM. Throughout the 1920s the station increased its broadcast power several times as well as its broadcast frequency. By 1935, the station was affiliated with the NBC network.

In 1946, WBRC introduced the first FM station in Birmingham. Due to the lack of FM radios in Birmingham, WBRC-FM was not very successful, and was taken off the air two years later. In 1949, the owners of WBRC launched the second television station in Birmingham, as WBRC-TV made its debut on channel 4. The local owners of WBRC and WBRC-TV sold the stations to Storer Broadcasting in 1953, and four years later, the stations were sold to Taft Broadcasting.

The advent of television in the 1950s caused network radio programming to decline. By the early 1960s, WBRC was one of two "middle of the road" music stations in Birmingham. It continued in that format until 1972, when Taft Broadcasting sold WBRC and a revived WBRC-FM (106.9 FM) to Mooney Broadcasting. Taft retained ownership of WBRC-TV until 1987; as Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at that time prohibited non-commonly owned stations from sharing call letters, Mooney changed the call letters of the radio stations to WERC and WERC-FM. WERC was christened “96-ERC”, and launched an all-out assault on the market’s leading top 40 station, WSGN (now WAGG).

For much of the 1970s, WERC and WSGN were two of the most listened-to stations in Birmingham. The beginning of WERC's demise as a top 40 powerhouse came in 1977, when its own FM sister station was relaunched as top 40 station WKXX, “Kicks 106” (now WBPT). By 1980, WERC modified its format to adult contemporary music and was known as ”News Plus 960, WERC”. An afternoon drive sports call-in show hosted by future University of Alabama football announcer Eli Gold was launched in 1981. Competing unsuccessfully against WSGN and WAPI as an adult contemporary station, WERC dropped music in May, 1982 and changed to a news-talk format, which it continued with until January 2011. The station was an early affiliate for Rush Limbaugh's radio network.

For much of the 1990s the WERC line-up featured TC and John Ed as morning hosts, Paul Finebaum in the afternoons, and Russ and Dee Fine hosting evenings.

During a 1993 snowstorm that paralyzed the Birmingham area, WERC became the primary source of information and assistance for hundreds of thousands of residents that were stranded by the weather without power (in some cases, for weeks).

WERC began to transition its format to the FM dial on July 6, 2009, when a new incarnation of WERC-FM replaced modern rock station WVVB (”The Vulcan”) at 105.5 FM. 960 AM simulcast with 105.5 FM until January 7, 2011, when it began originating the programming being broadcast on a new FM translator, W276BQ, that began broadcasting on the 103.1 frequency. After stunting with several formats, ranging from oldies to classic country to adult album alternative to urban, the station settled on a permanent format on January 13, 2011, reviving the ”Vulcan” branding with an active rock format. In addition to broadcasting on 960 AM and 103.1 FM, "The Vulcan" also broadcast on WQEN-HD2 103.7-2. The transition was completed on February 15, 2011, when the WERC call letters were replaced with 105.5's former WVVB call letters.

On June 23, 2011, WVVB changed their format back to news/talk, simulcasting WERC-FM (105.5 FM). On July 14, 2011 WVVB changed their call letters back to WERC. 103.1 continues to broadcast the active rock format from WQEN-HD2.