Urban oldies
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 ...
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 ...
. The station's studios and transmitter are both co-located along Jordan Lane ( U.S. Highway 231) in Northwest Huntsville.
History
WHIY began broadcasting, as WEUP, on March 20, 1958, on 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 ...
1600 kilohertz (kHz) AM transmitter. This transmitter was built by the Brennan/Benns group while building WVOK, WAPE, and WBAM. The station was owned by Leroy and Viola Garrett, who became the first
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
. WEUP first broadcast from a pink trailer in the grounds of Syler Tabernacle Church in Huntsville, before moving to studios on Jordan Lane. The station's format was a mixture of gospel music, sermons, news, and R&B, everyday from sunrise to 6 p.m.
Listeners of 1600 AM were able to hear a viable mix of gospel and soul music as well as news and public affairs catering to the interests of the Tennessee Valley's black population.
The Garretts made history when they testified before a congressional committee in 1963, the outcome of which resulted in the change of a
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC) law regulating 24-hour broadcasts in the 1960s. That same year WEUP began 24-hour broadcasts, yet another milestone for urban radio.
The station celebrated its 50th anniversary by hosting a Blues Festival on August 16, 2008, at Kalea Park in
Meridianville, Alabama
Meridianville is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Madison County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the CDP was 8, ...
. The festival featured national, regional, and local blues artists performing live.
Viola Garrett decided to sell the station in 1987 after the death of her husband, Leroy. Later that year, Hundley Batts Sr. and Dr. Virginia Caples, another married couple, assumed the ownership and operation of WEUP. They also acquired another station, WEUZ-FM (92.1 FM), licensed to
Minor Hill, Tennessee
Minor Hill is a city in Giles County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 537 at the 2010 census.
History
Minor Hill is named for Joseph Minor, an early settler in the area. A later owner of the Minor tract donated part of it for the est ...
, (just north of the Alabama border) and brought WEUP onto the FM broadcast airwaves.
They operated WEUP and WEUZ-FM under the parent company name of Broadcast One. They continued to expand the station's audience by acquiring WHIY (then at 1190 AM) and WXKI (103.1 FM, now WEUP-FM), both licensed to
Moulton
Moulton may refer to:
Places in the United Kingdom
;In England
*Moulton, Cheshire
* Moulton, Lincolnshire
**Moulton Windmill
* Moulton St Mary, Norfolk
* Moulton, Northamptonshire
** Moulton College, agricultural college
** Moulton Park, indus ...
in 1989.
In the 1980s, the station aired a
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
format. In August 1987, WEUP co-founder Viola Garrett's Garrett Broadcasting reached an agreement to sell WEUP to the married couple of Hundley Batts, Sr. and Dr. Virginia Caples. The deal was approved by the FCC on September 29, 1987, and the transaction was consummated on November 1, 1987. The couple also acquired WEUZ-FM (92.1 FM), licensed to
Minor Hill, Tennessee
Minor Hill is a city in Giles County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 537 at the 2010 census.
History
Minor Hill is named for Joseph Minor, an early settler in the area. A later owner of the Minor tract donated part of it for the est ...
, and brought WEUP onto the FM broadcast airwaves. They operated WEUP and WEUZ-FM under the parent company name of Broadcast One. They continued to expand the station's audience by acquiring WHIY (1190 AM) and WEUP-FM (103.1), both licensed to
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,Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with 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)
Later history
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, a call sign that had previously had been on co-owned 1190 AM.
For most of the 2000s, WHIY's programming was a simulcast of sister station WEUV on 1700 AM. WHIY returned to independent programming in December 2007.
Awards
In November 2007, WEUP owner Hundley Batts was recognized as one of five 2008 Northern Alabama Business Hall of Fame Laureates by
Junior Achievement
JA (Junior Achievement) Worldwide is a global non-profit youth organization founded in 1919 by Horace A. Moses, Theodore Vail, and Winthrop M. Crane. JA works with local businesses, schools, and organizations to deliver experiential learning ...
of Northern Alabama. Batts was honored as a civic leader and for his contributions to free enterprise and the community.