| WRXL | |
| City: | Richmond, Virginia |
| Country: | US |
| Area: | Central Virginia |
| Branding: | Alt 102-1 |
| Airdate: | [1] |
| Language: | English |
| Format: | Alternative rock |
| Subchannels: | HD2: Big 98.5 (country music) |
| Haat: | 241m (791feet) |
| Class: | B |
| Licensing Authority: | FCC |
| Facility Id: | 11961 |
| Callsign Meaning: | "Richmond's Radio Excellence" |
| Former Callsigns: | WRNL-FM (1949–73) |
| Owner: | Audacy, Inc. |
| Licensee: | Audacy License, LLC, as Debtor-in-Possession |
WRXL (102.1 FM "Alt 102-1") is a commercial radio station licensed to Richmond, Virginia, and serving Central Virginia. WRXL is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc.[2] WRXL airs an alternative rock radio format.
Studios, offices and the transmitter tower are on Basie Road in Richmond.[3] [4] The station carries the syndicated Elliot in the Morning show, produced by Premiere Networks and originating at former sister station WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C.
On March 4, 1949, the station signed on the air as WRNL-FM.[5] It was the FM sister station to WRNL, owned by the Richmond Radio Corporation, a subsidiary of The Richmond News Leader newspaper (hence the WRNL-FM call sign). At first, WRNL-FM simulcast its AM counterpart, carrying the ABC Radio schedule of dramas, comedies, sports and news. In the late 1950s, WRNL-AM-FM moved to a full service format of middle of the road music, news, sports and talk.
In the 1960s, several Richmond FM stations received permission from the Federal Communications Commission for unusually high power.[6] Today, Richmond is in Zone 1, limited to a maximum of 50,000 watts effective radiated power (ERP). Before these rules were put into place, WRNL-FM was permitted to go to 120,000 watts, WFMV (now WURV) went to 74,000 watts and, to this day, WRVQ (then WRVA-FM) runs at 200,000 watts.
In 1971, WRNL-AM-FM were bought by Rust Communications, which owned a number of radio stations around the country. Rust decided to give WRNL-FM its own format. It hired a staff of young DJs, stopped simulcasting the AM station and switched to progressive rock.[7] To give the station a fresh identity, in 1973, the call sign was changed to WRXL. By 1980, the station's music had moved to an album rock direction, based on playing the biggest selling rock artists.[8]
In 1993, WRVH (the new name of WRNL) and WRXL were sold to Clear Channel Communications, a forerunner of iHeartMedia, Inc., for $9.75 million.[9]
In 2002, the station slowly started to move their format from album rock/ Mainstream rock to an alternative metal style of Active rock as "102-1 The X" as their music programing was changed intentionally to compete against Cox Media's Alternative rock rival, WDYL, well known as Y101 during that time of format transition and was proven a successful competitive approach during the mid and late 2000's until 2012 when the format started to decline in popularity, the transition to alternative rock overthrown their Active Rock sound completely during 2013 slowly phasing out the Active Rock direction all the way through to fill the void of where WDYL, Y101 once was when they changed their format to Top 40/CHR as "HOT 100.9" similar to how WVHT did as "HOT 100.5" In Hampton Roads during spring of 2009 when they changed their format from Mainstream Rock as "100.5 MAX FM" WXMM. "HOT 100.9's music format was in direct competition against WRVQ Known as Q94. On October 1, 2012, WRXL rebranded from "102-1 The X" back to "XL 102", WRXL's branding from 1976 to 2002. In 2006 the station changed to a new broadcast tower at 791abbr=offNaNabbr=off in height above average terrain, while also dropping to 20,000 watts from its previous 120,000 watts. WRXL would still have a larger coverage area than conventional Class B FM stations, but with lower power due to the increased antenna height.[10]
On November 1, 2017, iHeartMedia announced that WRXL, along with all of its co-owned stations in Richmond and Chattanooga, would be swapped to Entercom, coupled with that company's merger with CBS Radio.[11] The sale was completed on December 19, 2017.[12] The deal had iHeartMedia taking over several former CBS and Entercom stations in Boston and Seattle in exchange for the Richmond and Chattanooga stations.
On September 13, 2020, WRXL quietly re-branded as "Alt 102-1" as part of a systemic "revamping" of Entercom's alternative rock stations. At this time, most of the local DJs and programming staff were laid off and replaced with out-of-market hosts.[13] [14]
WRXL also broadcasts an HD subchannel: