WIXE in Monroe, North Carolina

Monroe, North Carolina

Monroe is a city in Union County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 36,397 as of the 2010 census. It is the seat of government of Union County and is also part of the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, NC-SC Metropolitan area.-Geography:...

 is a radio station at 1190 AM. It broadcasts a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 as well as a local talk

Talk radio

Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 format and is currently under ownership of Monroe Broadcasting. The station has been continuously on the air since 1968.

WIXE is not automated and still uses local announcers.

History

Ray Atkins became co-owner of WIXE in 1971 after rock and roll

Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...

 did not work, switching to country, the second Charlotte-area station to do so after WSOC-FM

WSOC-FM

WSOC-FM 103.7 is a country radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. The station is owned by New York City-based CBS Radio. Its primary competitor in the country format is 96.9 The Kat...

. Atkins had previously played country music as a DJ on WMAP

WXNC

WXNC in Charlotte, North Carolina is a Spanish language station known as "Pepe Charlotte", also heard on WGSP at 1310 AM.-History:For many years WMAP was a 1000-watt station in Monroe, North Carolina. The station added an FM frequency at 102.3, but later separated from that station and eventually...

 in Monroe, As a musician, he played steel guitar

Steel guitar

Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...

 with Arthur Smith and Bill Hefner

Bill Hefner

Willie Gathrel "Bill" Hefner , was a Democratic U.S. Congressman from North Carolina, serving between 1975 and 1999....

.

In Summer 1988, for the first time in its 20 years on the air, WIXE ranked second only to WBT

WBT (AM)

WBT is a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina, broadcasting on the AM dial at 1110 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it can be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night. It simulcasts on WBT-FM, at 99.3 MHz in Chester, South Carolina. It is owned by Greater...

among AM radio stations in the Charlotte market.

On July 10, 2008, a truck accidentally backed into one of the guy wires of the station's nearly-190-foot-tall tower, bringing the tower down and knocking the station off the air. While the AM broadcast signal was off, WIXE continued streaming online.

Monroe Broadcasting owner Archie Morgan and his team began the construction of a new tower for the station. By 11 pm that same night, the broadcast signal was back on the air thru the use of a horizontal dipole antenna. The plan was for this antenna to be used until the new tower could be built.

As of September 21, 2008, WIXE was back up to full power with the new tower, as well as a new ground system. The station already reached 9 counties, but the replacement of the 40-year-old ground system made a vast improvement in coverage into Mecklenberg and surrounding counties.