WIXE (1190 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

in Monroe, North Carolina. It is owned by Monroe Broadcasting and airs a local

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featu ...

format along with

classic country Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country and western music hits from past decades. Repertoire The radio format specializes in hits from the 1950s through the early 1980s, and focus primarily on innov ...

music and southern gospel on Sundays. WIXE uses local

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

s during the day and is

automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

at night, carrying the syndicated

John Tesh John Frank Tesh (born July 9, 1952) is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. He hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligen ...

radio show, "Intelligence for Your Life," playing Classic Country Music with Tesh's dialogue. By day, WIXE broadcasts at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s, using a

non-directional antenna In radio communication, an omnidirectional antenna is a class of antenna (electronics), antenna which radiates equal radio power in all directions perpendicular to an axis (mathematics), axis (azimuthal directions), with power varying with angle ...

. Because 1190 AM is a clear channel frequency, WIXE greatly reduces power at night to 70 watts to avoid interference. Programming is also heard on a 180 watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tra ...

station, W226CD at 93.1

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

Staff

WIXE Staff *Morgan - President & Owner *Shane Greene - Program Director *Kathie Easton - Sales Manager *Emily Taylor - Office Manager *Emory Altman - Producer/On-Air *Chris Rogers - Producer/On-Air *Alex Helms - Sales/On-Air *Megan Brink - Special Event Director *“Sideline” Mike Whitmire - Football *Hayden McAteer - Football *Orlando Diaz - Saturday On-Air

History

On May 3, 1968, the station first

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...

the air. Originally WIXE was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is an AM radio station in North America that has the highest protection from interference from other stations, particularly concerning night-time skywave propagation. The system exists to ensure the viability of cross-co ...

, powered at 500 watts by day but required to go off the air at night. At first, it tried a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or "cont ...

format. Ray Atkins became co-owner of WIXE in 1971 after Top 40 did not work, switching to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

, the second Charlotte-area station to Top 40 after

WSOC-FM WSOC-FM (103.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group and airs a country music radio format, calling itself "Country 103.7." Its primary country competitor is iHeartMedia's WKKT ...

. Atkins had previously played country music as a DJ on

WMAP The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

in Monroe, As a musician, he played steel guitar with Arthur Smith and Bill Hefner. In summer 1988, for the first time in its 20 years on the air, WIXE ranked second only to WBT among AM radio stations in the Charlotte market. On July 10, 2008, a truck accidentally backed into one of the guy wires of the station's nearly-190-foot-tall tower, bringing the tower down and knocking the station off the air. While the AM broadcast signal was off, WIXE continued streaming online. Monroe Broadcasting owner Archie Morgan and his team began the construction of a new tower for the station. By 11 o'clock that night, the broadcast signal was back on the air thru the use of a horizontal dipole antenna. The plan was for this antenna to be used until the new tower could be built. As of September 21, 2008, WIXE was back up to full power with the new tower, as well as a new ground system. The station already reached nine counties, and the replacement of the 40-year-old ground system made an improvement in coverage into Mecklenburg and surrounding counties.

References

External links

{{coord, 34, 57, 41, N, 80, 32, 40, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title IXE Country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1968