City Hartford, Alabama Frequency 96.9 MHz | Branding 96.9 The Legend | |
Broadcast area SE Alabama & SW Georgia & Florida Panhandle Slogan Your Home for Great Country Legends First air date August 2, 1979 (as WLHQ) | ||
WDJR (96.9 FM, "The Legend") is an American Classic Country formatted radio station based in Dothan, Alabama. The station is owned and operated by Gulf South Communications. The station's signal, which originates from a transmitter in Holmes County Florida, reaches large portions of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
Contents
Programming
WDJR plays adult contemporary music with an emphasis on new music while still playing the older favorites from the 1980s and 1990s. Local hosts include "K.W. & Wendy" on morning drive. Syndicated music programming includes shows hosted by Donnie Osmond (mid-days), Rick Dees (afternoons), and Deliah (evenings). WDJR flipped from country music to adult contemporary on December 26, 2011 and then to classic country in October 2014.
History
In the 1980s, WDJR was known as "The Monster" because of its large coverage area and rock music format. After a brief change to a lite rock format, WDJR flipped to Country music in 1993 by playing the entire Garth Brooks catalog at the time, 3 albums. When interviewed by the Dothan Eagle about the release of the fourth Garth Brooks album, General Manager Hal Edwards was quoted as saying, "Hot Dog! We can increase our song library by 33%!" WDJR was sold to the Holladays in 1992.
As a country station branded as "The Big Dog" until December 2011, WDJR programming included "Joey Dee & Melody" in the morning, Skip Nelson on mid-days, David Sommers in the afternoon, and "Nik at Nyt" on evenings. Syndicated programming included Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40 and America's Grand Ole Opry Weekend from Westwood One. Some of this staff and programming shifted over to sister station WTVY-FM.
After three weeks of Christmas music, WDJR changed their format from country to adult contemporary, branded as "Mix 96.9", on December 26, 2011.
In October 2014 WDJR changed their format to classic country, branded as "96.9 The Legend".
Staff
Notable former staff include Alan Jeffries, Tom Nebel, Mitch English, Jess Bailey, "Super Dave" Strickland, "Big Stew" Sawyers, Ken Carlisle, Jerry Broadway, and Brett Mason.
Technical information
For years WDJR had broadcast from the 2,000-foot (610 m) WTVY-TV tower in Holmes County Florida at the 1,550-foot (470 m) mark. In the spring of 2006, WDJR was forced to move off the WTVY-TV tower in preparation for the high-power DTV transition as the new DTV equipment and WDJR's antenna would exceed the wind-load requirements of the tower. WDJR constructed their own 1,050-foot (320 m) tower just a few hundred yards from WTVY-TV. With the move, WDJR went down in class per Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements. WDJR is now a class C0, full-service FM radio station.