urban contemporary gospel
Urban/contemporary gospel is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the genre was well established by the end of the 1980s. The radio format is pitched prima ...
and
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 ...
formatted
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 radi ...
that serves
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in ...
, and the majority of the
Tennessee Valley
The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to north Alabama and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Car ...
in
North Alabama
North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. WEUP is dubbed "Huntsville's Heritage Station" because it was the first in the region to broadcast an urban format. It has an
urban contemporary
Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban conte ...
sister station called
WEUP-FM
WEUP-FM (103.1 FM, "103.1 WEUP") is an urban contemporary formatted radio station that serves Huntsville, Alabama, and most of the Tennessee Valley in north Alabama, United States. WEUP-FM is known as "103.1 WEUP", often pronounced "103.1 'We Up'" ...
. The station's studios and transmitter are both co-located along Jordan Lane ( SR 53) in Northwest Huntsville. WEUP is simulcast on
WEUV
WEUV (1190 AM) is an urban contemporary gospel and urban adult contemporary formatted radio station licensed to Moulton, Alabama, that serves Huntsville, Alabama, and northwest Alabama, United States. The station's studios are located along Jord ...
(1190 AM) in
Moulton, Alabama
Moulton is a city in Lawrence County, Alabama, and is included in the Decatur Metropolitan Area, as well as the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. Although it incorporated in 1819,WEUP, which began broadcasting on March 20, 1958 as a 1000-
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 ...
station at 1600 kilohertz (kHz) on the standard AM band.
On March 17, 1997 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that eighty-eight stations had been given permission to move to newly available " Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with the original WEUP authorized to move from 1600 to 1700 kHz."FCC Public Notice: Mass Media Bureau Announces Revised AM Expanded Band Allotment Plan and Filing Window for Eligible Stations" (FCC DA 97-537), March 17, 1997.
A construction permit for the expanded band station was assigned the call letters WEUV on August 7, 2000. The FCC's initial policy was that both the original station and its expanded band counterpart could operate simultaneously for up to five years, after which owners would have to turn in one of the two licenses, depending on whether they preferred the new assignment or elected to remain on the original frequency. However, this deadline has been extended multiple times, and both stations have remained authorized. One restriction is that the FCC has generally required paired original and expanded band stations to remain under common ownership."FCC Rejects Clear Channel-Withers Deal For WDDD-A" September 1, 2010 (allaccess.com)
In early 2006 there was a call letter swap between co-owned 1600 AM and 1700 AM, with 1600 AM becoming WEUV, and 1700 AM inheriting the historic WEUP call letters. (A few weeks later the call letters for AM 1600 were changed to
WHIY
WHIY (1600 AM) is an Urban oldies and Blues music formatted radio station that serves Huntsville, Alabama, and the majority of the Tennessee Valley in north Alabama, United States. The station's studios and transmitter are both co-located along ...
).
Translators
WEUP programming is also carried on a
broadcast 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 tran ...
station to extend or improve the coverage area of the station.