Brett Elmore, owner of WJLX who believed in the power of local radio in Alabama, dies

WALKER COUNTY, Ala. ( WIAT ) — Brett Elmore, owner and announcer of the radio station WJLX 101.5 in Walker County, has died. He was 41.

Elmore, who owned the station since 2008, had been a fixture in the community, hosting his own radio show at the station, as well as calling football games for the Jasper Vikings football team, a role that had previously been held for over 40 years by his father, Johnny Elmore.

“It is with the heaviest heart that we formally announce the passing of owner and station manager, Brett Elmore,” the station posted on its Facebook page Tuesday . “Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Elmore family.”

In the last year, Elmore and WJLX had gone through a lot of changes. It started with Elmore recruiting Jim Battan, a longtime Birmingham radio host better known as “Coyote J. Calhoun,” to the station, the host’s first foray into radio since his last show on Rock 99 in 2011. Every Sunday night, Calhoun hosts “Coyote J’s Sunday Night Cemetery of Rock.”

“I knew if I was going to do something interesting, it would have to be in a smaller market,” Battan said at the time. “Everyone is going to satellite, where there is no room for a disc jockey like me, who likes to have autonomy over music and do things his way.”

Then, back in February, WJLX’s radio tower mysteriously vanished . To this day, police have not been able to determine if had been stolen or what happened to it.

For Elmore, having a robust local radio station was important to the community.

“Radio is not dead,” Elmore told CBS 42 in 2023 . “The way corporate radio is doing radio is what’s killing radio stations. I believe in being live and local.”

No funeral arrangements have been announced.

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