WRTR (105.9 FM, "Talk Radio 105.9") 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 ...

broadcasting 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.

Licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Brookwood, Alabama Brookwood is a city in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States. It incorporated in September 1977. As of the 2020 census, the population of the town is 2,504. History 2001 mine disaster On September 23, 2001, two separate explosions occu ...

, the station serves the Tuscaloosa metropolitan area. It is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., with the

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which va ...

held by iHM Licenses, LLC. The studios and offices on 11th Street in Downtown Tuscaloosa. WRTR is a Class C3 FM 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 25,000

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. 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 ...

and

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

are located on Hammer Avenue in

Holt, Alabama Holt is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 3,413. It is part of the Tuscaloosa, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Ho ...

.Radio-Locator.com/WRTR
/REF>

Programming

Weekdays begin with ''Alabama's Morning News with JT'', based at

WERC-FM WERC-FM (105.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Hoover, Alabama, and serving Greater Birmingham. It is owned by iHeartMedia and simulcasts a talk radio format with sister station WERC 960 AM. The station's studios and offices ar ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. The rest of the weekday schedule is

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

shows from co-owned

Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...

: ''

The Glenn Beck Radio Program ''The Glenn Beck Radio Program'' is an American conservative talk radio show, hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on over 400 radio stations across America, his company's own TheBlaze Radio Network, with a live television simulcast weekdays on The ...

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'' is an American radio program hosted by former Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis and former '' America Now/The Buck Sexton Show'' host Buck Sexton. It is broadcast on over 400 talk radio stations ...

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

, The Michael Berry Show,

The Jesse Kelly Show ''The Jesse Kelly Show'' (formerly known as ''America Now'' and ''The Buck Sexton Show'') is a three-hour early evening conservative talk radio show hosted by Jesse Kelly, and carried by Premiere Networks, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, Inc. It ...

'' and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. Weekends feature repeats of weekday shows and syndicated specialty programs: '' Bill Handel on the Law, World Travel with Rudy Maxa, The Weekend with Michael Brown,

Armstrong & Getty ''Armstrong & Getty'' are the hosts of ''The Armstrong & Getty Show,'' a nationally syndicated morning drive radio show hosted by Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The talk show format is a mixture of libertarian and conservative political commentary, ...

, The Brian Kilmeade Show,

At Home with Gary Sullivan ''At Home with Gary Sullivan'' is a weekly home improvement talk radio program hosted by Gary Sullivan. The program is distributed by Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an Amer ...

'' and '' Sunday Nights with Bill Cunningham''.TalkRadio1059.com/schedule
/REF> Most hours begin with an update from

Fox News Radio Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. History In 2003, ...

History

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on . Its 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 WACT-FM, the

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 ...

to WACT

1420 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1420 kHz: 1420 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRI220 in Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires Mexico * XEEW-AM in Matamoros, Tamaulipas * XEF-AM in Ciudad Juárez, Chi ...

. 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 Tuscaloosa and it broadcast at 105.5

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 ...

. It was only powered at 1,500 watts, a fraction of its current output. At first, WACT-FM mostly

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

the AM station's

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 ...

format. It later started airing its own

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

country sound. While WACT 1420 AM was a full-service country station, with news, sports and DJs, WACT-FM concentrated on more music and less chatter. The station changed to the current WRTR on March 31, 1997. The call letters stand for "Roll Tide Roll", which refers to the Crimson Tide, the nickname for

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

sports teams. WRTR played

album rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM broadcasting, FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of Rock music, rock albums and is currently associated ...

and was known as "Tuscaloosa's Rock Station." In mornings, it carried ''

The Bob and Tom Show ''The Bob & Tom Show'' is a syndicated US radio program established by Bob Kevoian and Tom Griswold at radio station WFBQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 7, 1983, and syndicated nationally since January 6, 1995. Originally syndicated by Pre ...

'', based in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

. Popular DJ Joe Elvis hosted afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

beginning in 2002. ''The Wild Bill Show'' was heard every weeknight. In 2000, WRTR and WACT were acquired by

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

-based

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

, a forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia.''Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2010'' page D-42. Retrieved March 6, 2025.
/ref> On May 4, 2009, WRTR changed its format to all-talk,

ing WACT 1420. The two stations were branded as "Talk Radio 105.9". Then in October 2012, WACT 1420 flipped to

comedy radio Radio comedy, or comedic radio programming, is a radio broadcast that may involve variety show, sitcom elements, sketches, and various types of comedy found in other media. It may also include more surreal or fantastic elements, as these can be c ...

. That left WRTR 105.9 as an FM talk station, no longer simulcast with 1420 AM.

References

External links

* {{IHeartMedia RTR News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1966 IHeartMedia radio stations 1966 establishments in Alabama