WKXM (1300 AM) was an American

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 radio ...

licensed to serve the

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Winfield, Alabama Winfield is a city in Marion and Fayette counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population was 4,845 at the 2020 census, the second largest city in Marion County. History Winfield is a small city situated in northwest Alabama, east of the ...

. The station, established in 1965, was last owned by Ad-Media Management Corp. The station fell permanently silent on August 2, 2012.

Programming

Before it fell silent, the station broadcast a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

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 featur ...

format as a full-time affiliate of

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

History

This station signed on the air in 1965 as WEZQ broadcasting with 1,000

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 Wa ...

s of power on 1300

kHz 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 on ...

under the ownership of John D. Self. WEZQ aired a

country & western 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, old ...

music format from its 1965 sign-on into the 1980s. In June 1989, John Self made a deal to sell this station to James Boyd Pate. The deal was approved by the FCC on August 3, 1989, and the transaction was consummated on November 3, 1989. In January 1990, James Boyd Pate applied to transfer the license for this station to Ad-Media Management Corporation, a company he controlled. The transfer was approved by the FCC on February 12, 1990. The new owner had the FCC change the station's assigned call letters to WXDX on March 30, 1990, as a complement to its under-construction FM sister station, then known as WXZX, but these would prove short lived as the station switched again to the current WKXM call letters on July 1, 1990. (Three months later, the FM sister station would switch its callsign to match as

WKXM-FM WKXM-FM (97.7 FM, "Gold 97.7") is a radio station licensed to serve Winfield, Alabama, United States. The station is owned by Ad-Media Management Corp. WKXM-FM broadcasts an oldies music format which features programming from ABC Radio. Histo ...

.) In November 1991, James Boyd Pate reached an agreement to sell Ad-Media Management Corporation, the licensee for WKXM, to Harper-Mainord Broadcasting. The deal was approved by the FCC on December 30, 1991, and the transaction was consummated on December 31, 1991. In July 1995, Harper-Mainord Broadcasting made a deal to turn sole control of Ad-Media Management Corporation to Jack Mainord. The deal was approved by the FCC on September 29, 1995, and the transaction was consummated on November 1, 1995. Jack Mainord died on April 21, 1998, so after routine legal issues were resolved an application was made in September 1998 to transfer control of WKXM licensee Ad-Media Management Corporation to Melba F. Mainord, the executrix of his estate. The deal was approved by the FCC on October 15, 1998. In March 2000, Melba F. Mainord made a deal to sell Ad-Media Management Corporation to B. Maxine Harper. The deal was approved by the FCC on April 24, 2000, and the transaction was consummated on May 1, 2000.

Falling silent

WKXM's broadcast facilities were struck by lightning on July 4, 2012, and the station began operating with reduced power on backup equipment. On August 1, 2012, the station's longtime broadcast engineer died unexpectedly and, lacking the equipment and personnel to continue operating, the station fell silent on August 2, 2012. On November 22, 2012, the station applied for

special temporary authority Special Temporary Authority (STA) in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stat ...

to remain silent while working with the insurance company to repair the damaged broadcast equipment. The FCC granted this authority on January 17, 2013. Under the terms of the

Telecommunications Act of 1996 The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of t ...

, as a matter of law a radio station's broadcast license is subject to automatic forfeiture and cancellation if they fail to broadcast for one full year. WKXM resumed operations on June 24, 2013, but fell silent again on June 27, 2013. The station once again applied to the FCC for authority to remain silent. On September 9, 2014, the FCC notified Ad-Media Management Corp. that unless it could show that WKXM had broadcast between June 27, 2013, and June 28, 2014, that its license was cancelled. On October 17, 2014, Ad-Media Management Corp. replied that the "economic realities of operating the station ..without an FM translator" and the costs to repair the station to full operating capacity prevented them from completing the repairs and returning to service. The FCC deleted the station's call sign on October 21, 2014.

References

{{Reflist, 30em, refs= {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Application Search Details (BLSTA-20121121AFG) , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1527217 , date=January 17, 2013 , accessdate=November 6, 2014 {{cite encyclopedia , publisher=

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

, encyclopedia=The FCC Encyclopedia , title=Silent AM and FM Broadcast Station Lists , url=http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/silent-am-and-fm-broadcast-station-lists , accessdate=November 6, 2013 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108072241/http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/silent-am-and-fm-broadcast-station-lists , archive-date=January 8, 2012 , url-status=dead , df=mdy-all {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Application Search Details (BLSTA-20130829ACU) , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=1571204 , date=August 30, 2013 , accessdate=November 6, 2014 {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Application Search Details (BL-19790618AM) , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/pubacc/prod/app_det.pl?Application_id=11560 , date=October 21, 2014 , accessdate=November 6, 2014 {{cite web , publisher=FCC Media Bureau , title=Resumption of Operations , url=http://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/prefill_and_display.pl?Application_id=1571189&Form_id=910&Facility_id=434 , date=August 27, 2013 , accessdate=November 6, 2014

External links

FCC Station Search Details: DWKXM
(Facility ID: 434)
FCC History Cards for WKXM
(covering 1961-1979 as WEZQ)

KXM KXM is an American hard rock supergroup formed in 2013, consisting of Korn drummer Ray Luzier, King's X bassist/vocalist dUg Pinnick and Lynch Mob/ex-Dokken Dokken is an American glam metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. It split u ...

Marion County, Alabama Radio stations established in 1965 Radio stations disestablished in 2014 Defunct radio stations in the United States 1965 establishments in Alabama 2014 disestablishments in Alabama