WMLB

WMLB
	FCC
Facility ID	87118
Class	B
Power	10,000 watts day; 1,000 watts night
Transmitter coordinates	33°48′34″N 84°21′14″W / 33.809444°N 84.353889°W
Links
Public license information	Public file; LMS;
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wmlb1690.com

WMLB (1690

radio station licensed to Avondale Estates, Georgia, and serving the Metro Atlanta radio market. The station broadcasts with 10,000 watts

daytime and 1,000 watts at night.

History

WMLB originated as the expanded band "twin" of an existing station on the standard AM band. On March 17, 1997, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that 88 stations had been given permission to move to newly available "Expanded Band" transmitting frequencies, ranging from 1610 to 1700 kHz, with WBIT in Adel, Georgia authorized to move from 1470 to 1690 kHz.^[2]

A construction permit for the expanded band station was assigned the call WAXD on January 9, 1998.

WDDQ (92.1 FM) with the same format.^[4]

The station moved to the Atlanta radio market in 2004, when the community-of-license changed to

diplexed onto one of WATB's antennas.^[5] Later in 2004, the station's transmitter was moved to a new dedicated facility off of Cheshire Bridge Road in Atlanta with a new single-tower antenna.^[5]

The station debuted in the Atlanta market with a

progressive talk shows.^[7] The format change came with a change to the WWAA callsign.^[5]

The single broadcast tower in the foreground was used by WMLB from 2006 until 2013.

An FCC policy stated that both an original station and its expanded band counterpart could operate simultaneously for up to five years, after which owners would have to turn in one of the two licenses, depending on whether they preferred the new assignment or elected to remain on the original frequency.^[2] It was ultimately decided to transfer full operations to the expanded band station, and on February 18, 2005, the license for original station, WBIT on 1470 kHz in Adel, was cancelled.^[8]

In June 2006, JW Broadcasting, owners of station WMLB on 1160 AM, purchased WWAA,

Catholic radio organization in 2018.)^[9]

In early February 2013, WMLB moved its transmitter location a few hundred feet away across Cheshire Bridge in Atlanta. This transmitter is co-located with

WNIV and WAFS

, with all three stations sharing the same single vertical broadcast antenna tower. The single broadcasting antenna tower, which WMLB used exclusively from 2006 until 2013, was dismantled.

WMLB went silent in the early morning of May 14, 2018 (sometime between 12:10 a.m. and 1:10 a.m. EDT), after the studio lease ended. However, JW Broadcasting continued to own the broadcast tower, and the online streaming continued to play music, hourly updates from

CBS Radio News and station identifications until May 15.^[10]

By mid-2020, WMLB resumed broadcasting, playing oldies music and old interviews. On March 1, 2021, the station changed formats from oldies to conservative talk, branded as "Freedom 1690".[11]