In the 1960s, several Richmond FM stations received permission from the Federal Communications Commission for unusually high power.[7] 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.
Switch to rock as WRXL
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.[8] 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-oriented rock direction, based on playing the biggest selling rock artists.[9]
During the entire 1990's, WRXL evolved into a full-blown Mainstream rock station up until 2002 when the station decided to transition into active rock to compete against, Cox Media's then-alternative rock station, Y-101. Their music program adjustment was more of an alternative metal lean around the mid-2000's, very similar to Y-101 but still active rock.
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.[10]
From Active Rock to Alternative Rock
Former logo as "XL102"
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 "Y-101" 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 791 feet (241 meters) 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.[11]
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.[12] The sale was completed on December 19, 2017.[13] 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.[14][15]
HD Radio
WRXL also broadcasts an HD subchannel:
WRXL-HD2 carries a country music format branded as "Big 98.5", which feeds the co-owned translator stationW253BI at 98.5 FM. The station premiered July 27, 2015.
