WSBM (1340 AM) is a

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an Radio in the United States, American Sports radio, sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports ...

– affiliated

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

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 ...

format. Licensed to

Florence, Alabama Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner, and had a population of 40,184 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Florence is l ...

, United States, the station serves the

Florence–Muscle Shoals metropolitan area Florence is a city in, and the county seat of, Lauderdale County, Alabama, United States, in the state's northwestern corner, and had a population of 40,184 in the 2020 census. Florence is located along the Tennessee River and is home to the U ...

. The station is currently owned by Big River Broadcasting Corporation as part of a quadropoly with Florence–licensed

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 ...

station WXFL (96.1 FM);

Clifton, Tennessee Clifton is a city in Wayne County, Tennessee, Wayne County, Tennessee, on the state's south central border with Alabama. It developed as a river port along the Tennessee River in the 19th century. Its historic districts listed on the National Reg ...

–licensed

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 ...

station WLVS-FM (106.5 FM), and Florence–licensed adult hits station WQLT-FM (107.3 FM).

History

WSBM went on-the-air on March 26, 1946 as WJOI. The station was initially owned by Clyde Anderson and Joe Van Sandlt under the banner Florence Broadcasting Company. At the time, it was an

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

affiliate. In 1965, an FM

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 ...

was purchased: the former WOWL-FM (107.3 FM; now WQLT-FM). The following year, the pair were sold to WXOR, Inc., a predecessor of its current owner. In 1973, the station changed its callsign to WXOR, having sold the WJOI calls to

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

for use on its ''Joy!''–branded FM station WMAQ-FM (101.1 FM; now

WKQX WKQX (101.1 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, featuring an alternative rock radio format, format known as "Q101". Owned by Cumulus Media, the station serves the Chicago metropolitan area. WKQX's ...

). Beginning that decade, the station began airing a

format. WXOR's callsign was changed to the current WSBM in 1984, followed by another format change to beautiful music. In the early 90s, the station again changed formats, this time to

urban adult contemporary Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...

under the branding ''Magic 1340.'' The station began its

sports radio 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 ...

format in 2010, initially affiliated with

. In 2013, affiliations were changed to

CBS Sports Radio Infinity Sports Network is an American sports radio network. It debuted as CBS Sports Radio with hourly sports news updates on September 4, 2012, and with 24/7 programming on January 2, 2013. Infinity Sports Network is programmed by Audacy, Inc ...

, before returning to Fox, with which it remains associated with today.

Translators

WSBM AM 1340 is currently rebroadcast on translator W250BY 97.9 FM. This translator had previously broadcast on 98.3 FM until its frequency was changed to 98.5 in 2001. Incidentally, this was the same frequency as WJOI-FM which was on the air in the early- and mid-1950s. This was a 140-watt FM station (the first FM station in the Florence-Muscle Shoals market) which rebroadcast WJOI AM 1340. W253AH uses the old WJOI-FM antenna which was mounted on 1340's tower in the 1950s. WJOI-FM went off the air sometime in the late 1950s, and should not be confused with the 1960s' WJOI-FM on 107.3 which later became WQLT.

References

External links

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SBM A Magellanic spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with only one Spiral galaxy#Spiral arms, spiral arm. Magellanic spiral galaxies are classified as the type Sm (with sub-categories SAm, SBm, SABm); the prototype galaxy and namesake for Magellanic spi ...

Sports radio stations in the United States Fox Sports Radio stations Florence, Alabama 1946 establishments in Alabama Radio stations established in 1946 {{Alabama-radio-station-stub