WZDX first signed on April 19, 1985 as Northern Alabama's first independent station and the area's first new outlet to launch in nearly twenty years. The station originally broadcast in analog on channel 54. The inaugural program shown was an airing of the 1968 film "Charly". The station's transmitter was on Green Mountain in southeastern Huntsville while its studios were in the northwestern section of the city. During the first months after its beginning, WZDX used the slogan "We're Taking You to the Top!" and ran full-page ads in "The Huntsville Times" with this tagline and with still pictures of old movies and syndicated TV shows that the station planned to air.