WRSA-FM (96.9 FM, "Mix 96.9") is an

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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

-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 radio ...

serving the

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 t ...

, area. The broadcast transmitter and tower for WRSA-FM is located on

Brindlee Mountain Brindlee Mountain (or "Brindley Mountain") is an isolated portion of the Appalachian Plateau in northern Alabama. It occupies significant portions of Cullman, Morgan, and Marshall Counties and extends into Winston and Lawrence counties. The ...

, and the station's studios are located at 8402 Memorial Parkway SW ( US 231) in Huntsville, a former

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

History

Before a gradual format change in the late 1990s away from its longtime "Beautiful 97" image, WRSA-FM was one of the last remaining

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

-formatted radio stations in the United States. Founded and constructed in 1964 and early 1965 by

Redstone Arsenal Redstone Arsenal (RSA) is a United States Army post and a census-designated place (CDP) adjacent to Huntsville in Madison County, Alabama, United States and is part of the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. The Arsenal is a garrison f ...

engineer Paul R. Nielsen, WRSA went on the air in late November 1965, and continues to be one of the top-rated radio stations in the

radio market.

Beautiful 97 (1965–2001)

WRSA started off as "Beautiful 97" in November 1965. It was an

formatted-station for some 36 years, broadcasting the genre long after it had disappeared from most U.S. radio markets by the 1980s. During the 1970s, the station was the local home of the weekly Saturday-afternoon broadcasts of the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

, sponsored then by

Texaco Texaco, Inc. ("The Texas Company") is an American Petroleum, oil brand owned and operated by Chevron Corporation. Its flagship product is its Gasoline, fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owned the Havoline motor oil brand. Texaco was an Indepe ...

. By the 1980s, that program moved to WNDA, now WRTT-FM. While public station WLRH began operations in 1976 and would normally be expected to carry the Met broadcasts, it has never done so, up to this day.

Lite 96.9 (2001–2015)

After briefly calling itself "Alabama's Big Easy", in 2001 the

-formatted station changed its format to

soft rock Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...

. As such, it was rebranded as "Lite 96.9." As "Lite 96.9," it continued until it was rebranded again as "Mix 96.9" on January 11, 2015. The last song played on "Lite 96.9" was "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan. The first song played on "Mix 96.9" was "

Hit Me With Your Best Shot "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" is a song recorded by American rock singer Pat Benatar and written by Eddie Schwartz. In 1980, it was released as the second single from her second album ''Crimes of Passion'', which became her biggest-selling album. ...

" By

Pat Benatar Patricia Mae Giraldo (''née'' Andrzejewski, formerly Benatar; born January 10, 1953), known professionally as Pat Benatar, is an American rock singer and songwriter. In the United States, she has had two multi-platinum albums, five platinum alb ...

Mix 96.9 (2015–present)

On January 11, 2015, the station flipped its format for the second time, from

, under the branding "Mix 96.9". WRSA plays songs from the 1980s through the present. Every year from November to December, "Mix 96.9" plays

Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...

until December 26.

Personalities

Notable local on-air personalities on WRSA-FM include Abby Kay on mornings. Other personalities include mid-day host Blair Davis, afternoon host Jerome "Fish" Fisher, traffic reporter Bill Taylor, and weekend host J.J. McCall. Previous on-air personalities include former morning co-host John Malone, former morning and mid-day host Bonny O'Brien and traffic reporter Allen Moore.

Previous logo

Lite 96.9's logo, used from 2001 to 2015.

References

External links

WRSA-FM official website
* RSA Mainstream adult contemporary radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1965 Cullman County, Alabama 1965 establishments in Alabama {{Alabama-radio-station-stub