WTLM - History

History

Licensed to Faulkner Radio, Inc., WAOA signed on the air August 12, 1968, as a daytime-only station with 5,000 watts of power at 1520 kHz. Owner James H. Faulkner, Sr., also owned several other Alabama radio stations as well as the newspapers Baldwin Times and Foley Onlooker in Baldwin County, Alabama. WAOA signed on with a country & western music format which it maintained until the completion of the 1985 sale to Faulkner Radio.

In November 1984, Fuller Broadcasting Company, Inc., made a deal to purchase WAOA and FM sister station WFRI (now WKKR) from Faulkner Radio, Inc. The deal was approved by the FCC on January 7, 1985, and the transaction was consummated on March 17, 1985. In February 1985, the AM station's format was flipped from country music to "solid gold" oldies. To match the new direction for the station, the callsign was changed to WZMG on March 1, 1985. On March 21, 1997, the station swapped callsigns with 910 kHz sister station WTLM (now WZMG) and was assigned the current WTLM call letters by the FCC.

In August 1998, Fuller Broadcasting Company, Inc., reached an agreement to sell this station to Root Communications License Company, L.P., as part of a five-station deal. The deal was approved by the FCC on October 5, 1998, and the transaction was consummated in December 1998. Gary Fuller, president and CEO of Fuller Broadcasting Company from 1985 until he sold the company in December 1998, was elected mayor of Opelika, Alabama, in August 2004.

In March 2003, Root Communications Group LP (Daniel C. Savadove, CEO) subsidiary Root Communications License Company, L.P., reached an agreement to sell this station to Qantum Communications, Inc. (Frank Osborn, partner) subsidiary Qantum of Auburn License Company, LLC, as part of a 26 station deal valued at $82.2 million. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 30, 2003, and the transaction was consummated on July 2, 2003. At the time of the sale, WTLM aired a nostalgia music format branded as "Timeless 1520".

Later, the format was switched again, this time to a sports radio format serving the greater Auburn Metropolitan Area. In June 2009, the format reverted to the "Timeless 1520" nostalgia music format.