WPYA (97.3 FM) 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 Gardendale, and serving Greater Birmingham. It is owned by

SummitMedia SummitMedia, LLC is an American radio broadcasting company based in Birmingham, Alabama. The company formed to purchase mid-market radio stations being divested by Cox Radio in 2013. On November 1, 2018, SummitMedia acquired 19 stations in ...

and it airs a top 40 (CHR) format. It shares studios with six

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 ...

s in the Cahaba neighborhood in far southeast Birmingham. WPYA is a Class C2 station. It has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 6,200

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. 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 atop Red Mountain, amid the towers for other Birmingham-area FM and TV station. WPYA broadcasts using

HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...

technology. Its HD2 subchannel carries an adult album alternative known as "Birmingham Mountain Music." It feeds an

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 tr ...

at 107.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

History

Top 40

WPYA is one of the youngest full-power FM stations in the Birmingham radio market. It signed on the air on . Its

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 WEDA and its

city of license In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator. In North American broadcast ...

was Homewood. It began with a Top 40 (CHR) format. The original moniker was "Hot 97.3". Birmingham had not had a CHR station since WAPI-FM (now WJOX-FM) changed formats in 1994, and the owners were hoping to fill that niche. However, 103.7 WQEN, a CHR station licensed to Gadsden, had just made the move into the Birmingham market. It began broadcasting from a taller tower closer to Birmingham earlier in the year and was more successful in the Arbitron ratings than WEDA.

Active Rock and Oldies

In 1999,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

-based

Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...

purchased WEDA from the local investors who owned the station, changed the call letters to WRLR, and flipped the format to active rock. The new on-air name of the station was "Real Rock 97.3". Initially, the station was moderately successful. However, the station was only powered at 640 watts ERP. The limited signal and competition from

modern rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...

/ alternative station 107.7 WRAX caused WRLR to become one of the lowest rated FM stations in Birmingham. In October 2001, WRLR's

, WODL "

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 ...

106.9," changed its format to all 1980s music and became known as

WBPT WBPT (106.9 FM broadcasting, FM, "Classic Rock 106.9") is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Homewood, Alabama, and serving Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Greater Birmingham and Central Alabama. I ...

, "106-9 the Point". Cox moved the

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 ...

format and call letters to 97.3, and the station became known as "Oldies 97.3 WODL". Once again, the weak signal of 97.3 proved to be a hindrance to the station's success. Also, the popularity of oldies stations focusing on music from the 1960s began to decline. In June 2004, WODL got a power boost, increasing from 640 watts to 6,400 watts. In addition, the station's city of license changed from Homewood to Gardendale. In July of that year, the station updated its format from oldies to music strictly from the 1970s. The station was known as "70s Hit Radio, 97-3 WODL." Core artists included

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 ...

, the

Doobie Brothers The Doobie Brothers are an American rock music, rock band formed in San Jose, California in 1970. Known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their Vocal harmony, vocal harmonies, the band has been active for over five d ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

The Eagles The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles, six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s in ...

, Hall and Oates,

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...

, Earth, Wind and Fire,

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Taylor achieved his breakthrough in 1970 with the single "Fi ...

and other 1970s Top 40 artists.

Country and Sports

After less than three months as a 1970s oldies station, the station once again changed formats to a youthful, hot

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

sound in September 2004, placing it in competition with co-owned country station

WZZK-FM WZZK-FM (104.7 FM) is a commercial radio station in Birmingham that serves Northern and Central Alabama. It is the flagship station of the '' Rick and Bubba Morning Show''. The station is owned by SummitMedia alongside six other stations ...

and cross-town rival WDXB, which both had more mainstream country formats. The call letters were changed to WNCB by the

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

on October 19, 2004. From the time of the format switch until March 11, 2010, the station was known on the air as "New Country 97.3". On that date, it was rebranded as "97.3 The Buck". On August 30, 2011, at 2 p.m., after playing " Dirt Road Anthem" by Jason Aldean and the first few seconds of " You Lie" by The Band Perry, WNCB changed its format to

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

, branded as "97.3 The Zone". Two days later, on September 1, 2011, the station changed its call letters to WZNN, reflecting the new on-air name. On October 17, 2011, WZNN began simulcasting all of its local programming (6-9 a.m. and 12-2 p.m.) on WTXK in Montgomery. The station dropped its affiliation with Yahoo! Sports Radio on August 20, 2012. It became the new

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 ...

in the Birmingham market for

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically 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 banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

. At that time, the station modified its branding to "ESPN Radio 97.3 the Zone". On that same day, the station signed on its HD2 subchannel, carrying the former

old-school hip-hop Old-school hip hop (also spelled old skool) (also known as disco-rap) is the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music and the original style of the genre. It typically refers to the music created around 1979 to 1983, as well as any hip hop t ...

and R&B format of WENN 1320 AM, which remained on FM translator W270BW (102.1 FM). The station began to publicly court Paul Finebaum to join its line up. Finebaum is a noted radio host and expert on college sports in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

. Finebaum was working for sports rival WJOX 690 AM up until January 21, 2013. The Zone then hired WJOX's former program director, Ryan Haney, before Citadel (WJOX's parent company) brought a lawsuit that kept him away from WZNN. Haney returned to WJOX in March 2013.

SummitMedia ownership

On July 20, 2012, Cox Radio, Inc. announced the sale of WZNN and 22 other stations to SummitMedia LLC for $66.25 million. The sale was consummated on May 3, 2013. On February 11, 2013, the station pulled the plug on some of its specialty programming, including "Eyes on Auburn", "Tider Insider", and "The Midnight Meltdown". It began airing national ESPN Radio programming in most of those time slots. On April 2, 2013, Fourth Quarter hosts Max Howell and Tim Melton of "The 4th Quarter" resigned from the station. They said it was because they were asked by the program director to be "more controversial". Max Howell posted on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

that "I'm not willing to do that kind of show . . . it's not my style and never has been." On May 6, 2013, the station cancelled the popular late morning ''Straight Talk'' show featuring Matt Coulter and former Alabama head basketball coach Wimp Sanderson. Other shows at the time included the "Smashmouth Radio Network" with Kevin Scarbinsky and Scott Griffin in morning drive time, "The Sports Czars" with Speedy, Greg and Helmsey at midday, ''The Sports Zone'' with Matt Coulter and Kip Keefer in afternoon drive, and the ''Eli and Stan Show'' with Eli Gold and Stan White.

Soft AC

On June 25, 2013, the '' Birmingham News'' reported that the station would drop sports talk for an unannounced format on June 28. On that day, at 2 p.m., the station began stunting with Hawaiian music, branded as "97.3 Hula FM". At midnight on July 4, the stunting switched to patriotic music, branded as "The Pledge". At 12:45 a.m. on July 5, the station shifted to adult hits, branded as "Y'all 97.3". However, "Y'all" was considered to be another form of stunting, as the station aired little to no on-air imaging, as well as a very short playlist that was repeated every couple of hours. The "stunt" lasted nearly months, although the playlist expanded significantly. On November 15, 2013, WZNN began simulcasting on WENN as "102.1 Y'all FM" (with translator W271BN 102.1 FM), which resulted in the discontinuation of the "Power" old school hip-hop/ R&B format after nearly two years. The "Y'all" adult hits format moved to WENN and W271BN on November 21, when WZNN switched to a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

format, branded as "Easy 97.3". It adopted the call sign WEZZ-FM on November 26, 2013. On October 24, 2014, WEZZ and rival WMJJ flipped to

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...

within minutes of each other. WEZZ became the third station in the United States to flip to Christmas music during the 2014 holiday season, following WMJJ and WEZW in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. It resumed its regular format on December 26 of the same year.

Hot AC

On March 14, 2016, at 3 p.m., WEZZ-FM flipped to hot adult contemporary, branded as "97.3 Play". The station changed its callsign to the current WPYA on March 21, 2016. On April 1, 2021, WPYA picked up the rights to air The Ace & TJ Show in Birmingham after 19 years on longtime affiliate WQEN. When the station began airing the show on April 5, WPYA rebranded as "Mix 97.3", becoming the third and final former "Play" station to rebrand after sister stations WVEZ in

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

and WURV in Richmond. WPYA also changed its slogan to "The Best Mix of 2K and Today While You Work".

Return to Top 40

In September 2023, WPYA flipped back to Top 40/CHR as "Today's Hits 97.3". The move came after a three-month

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

shift, by increasing spins of currents. In addition, WPYA dropped "Ace & TJ" from mornings. The station replaced them with the nationally syndicated ''Tino Cochino Radio'' show.Mix 97.3 Birmingham Moves to CHR as Today's Hits 97.3
Radioinsight - September 11, 2023

Previous logos

File:Oldies97.3.png, WODL - Oldies 97.3 File:WNCB-FM.gif, alt=WNCB - New Country 97.3, WNCB - New Country 97.3 File:WZNN - 97.3 The Zone.png, alt=WZNN - 97.3 The Zone, WZNN - 97.3 The Zone File:WEZZ - Easy 97.3.jpg, alt=WEZZ - Easy 97.3, WEZZ - Easy 97.3 File:WPYA 97.3PLAY logo.png, alt=WPYA - 97.3 Play, WPYA - 97.3 Play File:Mix 97.3.png, WPYA - Mix 97.3

References

External links

* * * {{Coord, 33.4844, -86.8069, display=title PYA Radio stations established in 1998 Contemporary hit radio stations in the United States 1998 establishments in Alabama