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Something BIG is coming to Greensboro

amos1001

amos1001

The call letters of Aurora, IL station WBIG are moving back to the 1470 frequency in Greensboro, where they resided from October 14, 1930 until Jefferson Pilot shut down the station and turned in the license. The last airdate was November 20, 1986. The FM station that is now WJMH took the WBIG-FM call letters after Beasley bought the station, and branded as "Big 102."
The 1280 frequency in Aurora will become WTFN. FCC Form 380 (Exchange Request)
WBIG returns to it's original home in Greensboro on July 1.
 
Gosh, that seems like a lot of work just so 1470 WWBG Greensboro can become WBIG.

And it's not a stand-alone station. It's a Classic Hits simulcast with 980 WTOB Winston-Salem and its translator at 96.3 FM. With all that, every time these stations do their legal I.D.s, will anyone notice the call sign for one of the stations?
 
Gregg. said:
Gosh, that seems like a lot of work just so 1470 WWBG Greensboro can become WBIG.

And it's not a stand-alone station. It's a Classic Hits simulcast with 980 WTOB Winston-Salem and its translator at 96.3 FM. With all that, every time these stations do their legal I.D.s, will anyone notice the call sign for one of the stations?
Click to expand...
A lot of work? All they did was buy the call letters from the guy in Illinois for $5000 and file a form with the FCC...
 
amos1001 said:
The call letters of Aurora, IL station WBIG are moving back to the 1470 frequency in Greensboro, where they resided from October 14, 1930 until Jefferson Pilot shut down the station and turned in the license. The last airdate was November 20, 1986. The FM station that is now WJMH took the WBIG-FM call letters after Beasley bought the station, and branded as "Big 102."
The 1280 frequency in Aurora will become WTFN. FCC Form 380 (Exchange Request)
WBIG returns to it's original home in Greensboro on July 1.
Click to expand...


Oh, my, word, this is big, or to paraphrase Barny Fife, biggest thing ever happened in Greensboro, real big, big, big big! I believe I got that right, from A Black Day For Mayberry. :D)
 
Josh Owens said:
Yes, I believe they will.
Click to expand...
Gregg. said:
Gosh, that seems like a lot of work just so 1470 WWBG Greensboro can become WBIG.

And it's not a stand-alone station. It's a Classic Hits simulcast with 980 WTOB Winston-Salem and its translator at 96.3 FM. With all that, every time these stations do their legal I.D.s, will anyone notice the call sign for one of the stations?
Click to expand...

For the most part, no... especially on music stations that have more then one set of call letters or image using a slogan/name.

You'd be surprised how may people take more then a second to realize what KLMI stands for.
And youd be mildly shocked to know how few people knw what WDDH Stands for.. and I found out when I had a trivia contest on air...despite the fact people should have at least a few clues.

Neither KLMI or WDDH imaged using their call letters at all... just name/slogan
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
For the most part, no... especially on music stations that have more then one set of call letters or image using a slogan/name.

You'd be surprised how may people take more then a second to realize what KLMI stands for.
And youd be mildly shocked to know how few people knw what WDDH Stands for.. and I found out when I had a trivia contest on air...despite the fact people should have at least a few clues.

Neither KLMI or WDDH imaged using their call letters at all... just name/slogan
Click to expand...


My Daddy, who, let's just say, has spent most of his life in the Greensboro area and is not and has never been a DJ, mentioned to me a while back, probably like three-plus years ago, when I was visiting for a little while, that someone (he didn't say who) had revived the old WCOG call letters/format and had put it on 1320 and FM, which I believe he has somewhat listened to, the FM, that is. Of course, he went to high school with a guy that left school right before graduation, to go to broadcasting school and/or work there back in the hayday, can't quite remember how all that went, Scott Daringer (sp), I believe it was, his air name, that is. I said all that to say this. Call letters still mean something to folk, not just us radio folk, past, present, or what have you.
 
Josh Owens said:
My Daddy, who, let's just say, has spent most of his life in the Greensboro area and is not and has never been a DJ, mentioned to me a while back, probably like three-plus years ago, when I was visiting for a little while, that someone (he didn't say who) had revived the old WCOG call letters/format and had put it on 1320 and FM, which I believe he has somewhat listened to, the FM, that is. Of course, he went to high school with a guy that left school right before graduation, to go to broadcasting school and/or work there back in the hayday, can't quite remember how all that went, Scott Daringer (sp), I believe it was, his air name, that is. I said all that to say this. Call letters still mean something to folk, not just us radio folk, past, present, or what have you.
Click to expand...

They can, but its likely at some point, whatever station had the WCOG call letters used them as part of the imaging and brand... theres a difference between using them as an image/brand and just using them at TOH. if the latter is all thats happened in 20 plus years, no one will know the call letters

HECK.. I cant even remember the last time I've said the call letters KLMI in any form, on air or off the air.. to anyone. The only time the call letters matter even on iota is occasionally mentions on our country stations and occasionally mentions on our classic rock stations BUT.... our listeners would be mostly hard pressed to know what they are unless theyre a diehard 20 plus year listener, and even then.........
 
I'm no Greensboro radio historian, but I did spend the first thirty years of my life in the area, grew up around radio, worked for a few years in it and listened to it afterwords. Trust me on this one, WBIG and 1470 went hand-in-hand and although for not as long, WCOG and 1320 did, as well. I believe Amos can attest to at least some of that... :D)
 
Josh Owens said:
I'm no Greensboro radio historian, but I did spend the first thirty years of my life in the area, grew up around radio, worked for a few years in it and listened to it afterwords. Trust me on this one, WBIG and 1470 went hand-in-hand and although for not as long, WCOG and 1320 did, as well. I believe Amos can attest to at least some of that... :D)
Click to expand...

That was then... this is now... you have to ask yourself. what does WCOG mean on a station thats syndicated outside of morning drive? It MIGHT have some value to some original WCOG listeners
 
i fully admit that 1470 isn't doing anything to promote the "BIG" call letters. WWBG was chosen as reference to the original WBIG calls, which have been on the Aurora, IL station since 1991, So they are happy to have the WBIG calls back where they "belong." I hope they do more than simply recite them at the TOH, but that's up to them, not me.
and yes, I know that to most listeners (and certainly most posters here) call letters don't matter. it's just something they wanted, and when the WBIG station went up for sale they contacted the owner to see if he'd part with the calls. I hope they can take advantage of the WBIG calls.
Josh - I'm no greensboro historian, either. but i did work at wrqk back in the day, and i did mornings for a year on wcog recently. and i worked for a short while at WTOB a few years back.
SomeRadioGuy said:
That was then... this is now... you have to ask yourself. what does WCOG mean on a station thats syndicated outside of morning drive? It MIGHT have some value to some original WCOG listeners
Click to expand...
and paul, i know what you are saying and yes you're probably right. fyi, WCOG is syndicated 24/7 and WWBG is simulcast WTOB 24/7. so yes, they aren't "using" any of that value. but still i hope they can do something to take advantage of these new "old" calls, even though some listeners might not remember WBIG in Greensboro.
 
amos1001 said:
i fully admit that 1470 isn't doing anything to promote the "BIG" call letters. WWBG was chosen as reference to the original WBIG calls, which have been on the Aurora, IL station since 1991, So they are happy to have the WBIG calls back where they "belong." I hope they do more than simply recite them at the TOH, but that's up to them, not me.
and yes, I know that to most listeners (and certainly most posters here) call letters don't matter. it's just something they wanted, and when the WBIG station went up for sale they contacted the owner to see if he'd part with the calls. I hope they can take advantage of the WBIG calls.
Josh - I'm no greensboro historian, either. but i did work at wrqk back in the day, and i did mornings for a year on wcog recently. and i worked for a short while at WTOB a few years back.

and paul, i know what you are saying and yes you're probably right. fyi, WCOG is syndicated 24/7 and WWBG is simulcast WTOB 24/7. so yes, they aren't "using" any of that value. but still i hope they can do something to take advantage of these new "old" calls, even though some listeners might not remember WBIG in Greensboro.
Click to expand...

WCOG looks liek it has a local host in AM drive?

1470/980 is imaged as WTOB, so unless theyre planning on changing something, which seems possible since they spent money on the calls..... WIG won't mean anything. But then why send $5000 just to relive nostalgia?
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
WCOG looks liek it has a local host in AM drive?
1470/980 is imaged as WTOB, so unless theyre planning on changing something, which seems possible since they spent money on the calls..... WBIG won't mean anything. But then why send $5000 just to relive nostalgia?
Click to expand...
i was the local host most of 2023. but even then it was only recording tracks to play between songs, they wouldn't even buy their automation's voice track module ($200 and i tried to pay for it myself). before me, Greg Rice did mornings live from his home studio. I tried to do that but they wouldn't agree to it. i stepped away because they weren't doing anything to make any money and couldn't even commit to letting me properly voice track it. the two owners did their own version of the recorded tracks for a few months (and totally blamed me for abandoning them in their time of "need." well with a friend like me, you'll never need an enema), and then went to westwood one 24/7. all the hosts are westwood one hosts. they are discussing switching to another provider in place of westwood one because of the cost.
as for the WBIG calls, i hope they do something. otherwise you're right, it'll be just to relive nostalgia. i hope they do something with WBIG, especially since i'm how they found out that the aurora, il station was for sale.
 
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amos1001 said:
i fully admit that 1470 isn't doing anything to promote the "BIG" call letters. WWBG was chosen as reference to the original WBIG calls, which have been on the Aurora, IL station since 1991, So they are happy to have the WBIG calls back where they "belong." I hope they do more than simply recite them at the TOH, but that's up to them, not me.
and yes, I know that to most listeners (and certainly most posters here) call letters don't matter. it's just something they wanted, and when the WBIG station went up for sale they contacted the owner to see if he'd part with the calls. I hope they can take advantage of the WBIG calls.
Josh - I'm no greensboro historian, either. but i did work at wrqk back in the day, and i did mornings for a year on wcog recently. and i worked for a short while at WTOB a few years back.

and paul, i know what you are saying and yes you're probably right. fyi, WCOG is syndicated 24/7 and WWBG is simulcast WTOB 24/7. so yes, they aren't "using" any of that value. but still i hope they can do something to take advantage of these new "old" calls, even though some listeners might not remember WBIG in Greensboro.
Click to expand...


Syndicated? I thought 'COG was just automated with voice tracking, etc. What do you mean by syndicated? I thought also, that 'BG was doing some locally (as in Greensboro)-originated sports programming, etc, not just simulcasting 'TOB, they were, last time I heard, believe it was. So they're back to simulcasting fulltime now? If anything, all of the aforementioned stations are keeping the old call signs alive from their haydays and I can't say the music is my cup of tea, but it's for for the most part, save for 'BIG, what they played back in the day.
 


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