WABF (1480 kHz) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. After a successful vote to annex areas west of the city limits in July 2023, Mobil ...

. It is owned by Donald Pugh, through licensee Eternity Record Company LLC, broadcasting an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

and

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. WABF's

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for recording and mixing of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enough to record a single sin ...

s are on North Church Street in Fairhope. By day, WABF is powered at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), 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 quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s non-directional. But at night, to avoid interference to other stations on 1480 AM, WABF reduces power to 4,400 watts and uses a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Dumaine Road at Conception Street Road in Mobile. WABF shares its transmitter site with co-owned WERM 1220 AM. The current hosts are Lori DuBose and Mark Swalley.

History

WABB

The station first signed on the air on . It was owned by the '' Mobile Register'' daily newspaper. The original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was WABB, which stood for "Alabama's Best Broadcasters." The studios were on Government Street in downtown Mobile until 1969. WABB was a

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

of the

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, carrying its dramas, comedies, news and sports during the " Golden Age of Radio." Owner Bernie Dittman moved to Mobile from his native

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

to join his father J.W. at the station. Dittman switched WABB to a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently 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. "To ...

format, aimed at young listeners looking for their favorite contemporary hits.

FM Station

WABB had an FM simulcast from the very beginning, starting with 107.9 MHz and later 102.1 MHz until it was discontinued in the 1950s. As FM broadcasting became more popular, the station put a new station on the air. WABB-FM (97.5 FM) began on February 5, 1973, with the song " Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" by

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

. WABB-FM was originally a simulcast of its AM

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

before switching to album oriented rock a few years later. When WABB-FM made the move to the

contemporary hit radio Contemporary hit radio (CHR, also known as contemporary hits, hit list, current hits, hit music, top 40, or pop radio) is a radio format common in many countries that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top ...

format in 1984, the AM station segued to

Adult Top 40 The Adult Pop Airplay (formerly known as Adult Pop Songs and Adult Top 40) chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and ranks "the most popular adult top 40 as based on radio airplay detections measured by Nielsen Broadcast Data Syste ...

. But as FM became the preferred band for music listening, WABB 1480 flipped to a

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. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, Interview (jo ...

format.

Switch to Talk

WABB's longtime owner, president, and general manager Bernie Dittman died on October 25, 2006, after suffering from a stroke the previous week. Dittman's daughter Betsey succeeded him after relocating to Mobile from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. In its final years as WABB, the station's talk format featured a line-up of primarily nationally syndicated conservative talk programming along with some locally produced programs. Some of the personalities on the station included national hosts such as Laura Ingraham, Michael Smerconish, Lou Dobbs, and Jerry Doyle. WALA-TV's morning newscast was simulcast weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. WABB was the radio home of Mobile's

minor league baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), constituted of teams affiliated with MLB clubs. It was founded on September 5, 1901, in response to the growing dominance of the National Le ...

team the Mobile BayBears from the 2001 through the 2006 seasons.

Ownership Changes

On February 17, 2012, the Dittman family announced on its website that it has decided to sell WABB-FM to the Educational Media Foundation (EMF). That station flipped to the K-LOVE Christian Contemporary format on March 1, 2012."WABB-FM Agrees to be Purchased by Educational Media Foundation"
from WABB (February 17, 2012) It adopted the call sign WLVM. The EMF sale excluded WABB AM, which the Dittman family had chosen to retain for the time being, therefore retaining the rights to the WABB call sign. The Dittman family closed the sale of the AM station to Omni Broadcasting on October 24, 2012, and the new owners changed the call sign to WTKD, following the flip to

sports talk Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...

. Big Fish Broadcasting reserved the WABB call letters for their silent AM radio station in

Belton, South Carolina Belton is a city in eastern Anderson County, South Carolina. The population was 4,134 at the 2010 census. History In 1845 a group was created to connect the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of South Carolina by rail to the existing rai ...

. WABF was sold to Donald Pugh's Eternity Record Company LLC at a purchase price of $175,000. The transaction was consummated on July 15, 2014. On August 19, 2014, the station changed its call sign to WERM, airing an urban gospel format.

Transmitter Relocation

The station's gospel format gave way to the standards and swap shop programming from sister station WABF in early February 2017. WABF lost its transmitter site and ran into issues finding a new site, leading to that format migrating to 1480. WERM's urban gospel music migrated to the 1220 facility, which is diplexed on the 1480 tower site. On December 6, 2017, the stations swapped call signs, with WERM assuming its current WABF calls. During its long history, WABB-AM-FM were home to many

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 personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s and news anchors who moved up to major markets and radio networks, including Scott Shannon (later with WHTZ, WPLJ and WCBS-FM in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

), Leslie Fram, Norman Robinson, Ron Anthony, Dennis "Hound Dog" Stacy, Michael Stuart (Marathon Mike) and Raymond Bannister.

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WABF
{{Mobile Radio ABF (AM) Radio stations established in 1948 1948 establishments in Alabama