WERC 960 AM

Licensed to Birmingham, Alabama, and operating at 960 kHz, this commercial station is owned by iHeartMedia and simulcasts a talk radio format alongside its FM sister station WERC-FM. Studios and offices are located on First Avenue South near Interstate 65, with the transmitter sited off Arkadelphia Road near the Interstate 20/59 interchange. The station's lineage extends to 1925, making it the first radio station in Birmingham and the second in Alabama. Its predecessor, WBRC, was founded on May 25, 1925, by physician J. C. Bell broadcasting at 50 watts on 1210 kilocycles. Early ownership transferred to businessman M. D. Smith in 1928. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the station increased power multiple times and shifted frequencies before settling at 960 AM following the 1941 North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. Studios relocated to the Bankhead Hotel in downtown Birmingham by 1932. A 1935 NBC Red Network affiliation brought national programming through the Golden Age of Radio. Following Smith's death in 1937, his wife Eloise inherited the station and became its full owner by 1940, a notable distinction in an era when women rarely served as broadcast executives. The station introduced Birmingham's first FM outlet in 1946, though early FM receiver adoption was limited and the FM operation was eventually discontinued before the medium's later resurgence.