iHeart Q2 Cuts

[freqdev]

andy woods exits from wcos

 

[genius]

The iHeart studios in Columbia has become such a skeletal crew even from their Clear Channel heyday 20-15 years ago. You can also tell this as of late due to the number of technical issues both WVOC and WCOS have had lately.

WCOS AM has nothing but non-stop Fox Sports except for the Clemson Sports Talk Show from 4-6, but the station hasn't actually have any rights to Clemson Tigers games (or any other SC teams LOL) for quite a few years now. Those are split between WZMJ for football while Keven's WQXL airs the rest.

15 years ago back in 2009 WVOC had Gary David (Barboza) and Christopher Thompson in the mornings, still had a full time local news department, Keven Cohen in the afternoons 3-6 and of course had Phil Kornblut and sports from 6-8.

Today in 2024 it's just Gary and Christopher left by themselves it's been like that since 2014 aside from a short lived attempt at reviving a local sports talk show in the evenings back in 2019. All the news is piped in from an iHeart location in Georgia and is often horribly inaccurate.....a few months back one iHeart reporter Rebecca Hughes yammered on about an incident in "Rowan County South Carolina", yet there is no Rowan County in SC, but there is one in NC.

WCOS's Jonathan Rush and Kelly Nash are the only ones left and my personal opinion of the two is pretty low...rather shady trash talking know it all individuals, especially Kelly Nash.

Both Steve-FM and the Beat are automated...I think the Beat still has Miss Monique although I think she's actually based out of Augusta tbh.

 

[charlestondxman]

Yup. It was Will Palasczuk who now has been the voice of Charlotte FC for years but was a 2nd-tier sports talk host in Columbia. Then they had moved the 1400 sports station to 560 while WVOC was on 100.1 to try to compete with 107.5.

Even with USC Columbia was way too small of a market to have 2 full-time local sports talk stations. Then in 2019 Learfield shut down the SC network and that’s when Kornblut went to WQXL.

 

[genius]

Yup. It was Will Palasczuk who now has been the voice of Charlotte FC for years but was a 2nd-tier sports talk host in Columbia. Then they had moved the 1400 sports station to 560 while WVOC was on 100.1 to try to compete with 107.5.

Even with USC Columbia was way too small of a market to have 2 full-time local sports talk stations. Then in 2019 Learfield shut down the SC network and that’s when Kornblut went to WQXL.

Yes I remember all of that lol, what a mess. I actually remember posting about WVOC’s move back to 560, Gary David sounded so displeased making that announcement.

I seem to recall the shock to the system was WNKT snagging the Gamecocks especially near the height of the Spurrier era away from its heritage flagship WVOC there in what 2011?

Oddly every fall Christopher Thompson still does a pregame tailgate show for USC football.

iHeart also had cut Teddy Heffner, he did his show over at WGCV of all places for several years now. He’s actually been back at WCOS in a mid-morning slot since 2020 that I had overlooked as I thought he had retired from it but from his Twitter/X account it’s still going.

I guess WNKT still does decent enough, last couple of ratings have been in the low 2’s. I knew the station took a hit last year when Cumulus couldn’t come up with a new contract with longtimer Health Cline and Cline bolted to Atlanta. Outside of women’s basketball USC Gamecock fandom has been in a lull now for the last 5 years or so more or less so that hasn’t helped.

WISW has been ESPN sports for 10 years now since dumping news/talk and is at the very bottom of the ratings.

Kudos to Keven Cohen and his running of WQXL. I wasn’t sure it would last this long but it’s been running now as the Point for 10 years now and still gets a lot of local advertising. I did miss out on learning his longtime sidekick Brian left awhile back I wonder what happened there.

 

[charlestondxman]

WVOC had the Gamecocks only through 2001. They basically had to get an FM station so that is how B 106.7 got the rights in ‘02. WCOS likely would have been the FM for USC.

Citadel paid a lot of money for the rights. Todd Ellis became the announcer in 2003. But the games were a terrible fit there. They basically lost every Saturday in the fall as even in the mid 2000s they had the 3 hour tailgate show and postgame. They only carried football while men’s basketball and baseball were on WOMG 103.1.

They also got rights in Charleston on WTMA and they wouldn’t even carry baseball games during the conference tourney because they preempted Sean Hannity. During the national title years. Then they went to 98.9 locally.

November 2007 was when games moved from B to 107.5 and they created the Game.

 

[genius]

WVOC had the Gamecocks only through 2001. They basically had to get an FM station so that is how B 106.7 got the rights in ‘02. WCOS likely would have been the FM for USC.

Citadel paid a lot of money for the rights. Todd Ellis became the announcer in 2003. But the games were a terrible fit there. They basically lost every Saturday in the fall as even in the mid 2000s they had the 3 hour tailgate show and postgame. They only carried football while men’s basketball and baseball were on WOMG 103.1.

They also got rights in Charleston on WTMA and they wouldn’t even carry baseball games during the conference tourney because they preempted Sean Hannity. During the national title years. Then they went to 98.9 locally.

November 2007 was when games moved from B to 107.5 and they created the Game.

Thanks for the corrected history lesson! Appreciate the clarification as I’m getting old. Well I remember this stuff but don’t remember my own work phone number sometimes 🤣

 

[101tm]

Well, Columbia is much more of a sports town than Greenville, which technically has FOUR sports talk stations - FOX Sports on 104.9 in GSP and then 1400/98.3 in Spartanburg, 97.1/97.7 The Fan, and 105.5/97.5 The Roar. 104.9 is local for a few hours in the afternoon, The Fan is from 6-10 and 3-7. The Roar I believe is all local during the day. The Tigers air on 92.5 and 105.5, the Gamecocks air on 104.9, and the Panthers air on 101.1. Audacy used to have rights to the Gamecocks back when WORD was on AM, and 93.3 had the Tigers. I think the most significant team on The Fan is Furman.

The iHeart studios in GSP have to be just as empty or emptier than Columbia but I have not seen any cuts here. Ellis and Bradley on Whistle, Kix Layton on WESC, and the two guys on 104.9 in the afternoon is all I’m aware of that’s still local.

 

[freqdev]

Well, Columbia is much more of a sports town than Greenville, which technically has FOUR sports talk stations - FOX Sports on 104.9 in GSP and then 1400/98.3 in Spartanburg, 97.1/97.7 The Fan, and 105.5/97.5 The Roar. 104.9 is local for a few hours in the afternoon, The Fan is from 6-10 and 3-7. The Roar I believe is all local during the day. The Tigers air on 92.5 and 105.5, the Gamecocks air on 104.9, and the Panthers air on 101.1. Audacy used to have rights to the Gamecocks back when WORD was on AM, and 93.3 had the Tigers. I think the most significant team on The Fan is Furman.

The iHeart studios in GSP have to be just as empty or emptier than Columbia but I have not seen any cuts here. Ellis and Bradley on Whistle, Kix Layton on WESC, and the two guys on 104.9 in the afternoon is all I’m aware of that’s still local.

aaron michael on wssl is also local