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1230 WABN "brings the signal home" to Abingdon

S

Sammy Reed

Guest
This morning, I tuned to WABN, and they were having a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and went in a new studio location. Then Rusty Curry said he was going to flip a switch and "bring the signal home". I guess they have a new transmitter located in Abingdon now. I live in Bristol, and could still pick up the station after the transmitter switch, with just a slight whistle added to the reception in my house. The station is still playing the oldies it, and until recently 1090, were playing.
 
I think Abingdon is another SW Virginia town I have almost adopted as a "second" home...neat place and I love the history of the Virgina Creeper. The others are Wytheville and Bluefield(VA/WV).

I was in Abingdon about a month ago and had never listened to WABN much until this visit. I thought they sounded very good...I listened to them on the return trip home until I could no longer hear them in Ashe County, NC. They and 92.7 were co-owned until Bristol Broadcasting bought the FM several years back, right?

Eric
 
When BBC bought 1230 and 92.7, it had gone dark under the previous ownership in 2000.

BBC only really wanted the FM, whose transmitter they moved to a hill up behind the Walmart at exit 7 of I81. BBC spun off the AM (donated it) to the Abingdon Church of the Nazarene. BBC also sold the Abingdon tower site to Altell. The church put the station back on the air 1 DAY before the 365 day rule went into effect (use the license or lose it after 1 year of darkness), on May 14, 2001. At that time they installed a new Broadcast Electronics AM-1A solid state transmitter and a new Kintronics antenna tuning unit at the old WABN studio site in Abingdon. They also installed a new Orban Optimod 9200 processor, replacing the station's old circa 1977 Inovonics processor. They put the original oldies format ("Cruisin' 1230") on the station which they ran six days a week. Sundays were a mixture of gospel music and programs.

In 2003, WABN received word that Altell would be installing a new tower at the site, and would not be allowing WABN on the new tower. They were not interested in having an AM on their cell tower, even though WABN was willing to pay to install a folded unipole on the tower and pay for the space. Consequently, WABN 1230 was forced to go dark again until a new site could be found.

At that time a lot of changes began to transpire at the church. The senior pastor left for another church in Illinois, and the associate pastor (who managed the station) left shortly thereafter. These two men had been the driving force behind the church's operation of WABN-AM. After these two gentlemen left, it was decided by the church's radio board of directors and church board to sell the radio station rather than go through the expense of finding a new tower site and installing a new system there.

The station was sold to Appalachian Education Communications (owners of WHCB-WPWT-WHGG). AECC moved the studios out of the church to its complex in Bristol. They also installed a temporary dipole antenna at the church to get the station back on the air, and then build a new tower site off of White's Mill Road, just north of Abingdon. They also continued the oldies format. Ken Hill at AECC sold the station (along with WHGG and WPWT) to himself under a new name, Information Communications Corp. (I suspect this was to separate the commercial station from WHCB, which is a non-com.

In any event, it sounds like they've moved the studios back to Abingdon. A good move to increase visibility in the community. WABN has always been heavy into Abingdon High School Sports (often the source of greatest income), and I assume this will continue. Under the church's ownership AHS sports was the station's bread and butter.

By the sounds of things, it sounds like
 
Well, there's a first...for ME. I have never heard of a church programming secular music on their station. Of course, I am not the least bit familiar with the doctrines of the Church of Nazarene. At any rate, I must visit the station next time I'm in Abingdon.

Where is the old WABN studio site in Abingdon and are there any remnants of it?

Eric
 
The old transmitter site was on the east side of town near the corner of E. Main Street and Thompson Drive. You can see the new Alltel tower just north of the intersection. Actually it's located on "Radio Drive" off of Thompson. In the old days, before the church got the station, the studios and offices were co-located at the transmitter site. The last time I was in Abingdon - about a year ago - the old building was still there, although abandoned. Alltel uses a prefab communications building at the site.

The new WABN transmitter site is just north of Abingdon on White's Mill Road. As you're leaving town on White's Mill Road, you can see the new tower on top of a hill on the right. If memory serves me right, it is about a half-mile past the corner of Gillespie Drive. The new tower is about 100 feet shorter than the old tower (199 feet vs. 305 ft), giving them a slightly decreased coverage area than from the old site, but still quite respectable for a class C station/

Regarding the Church of the Nazarene, they are best described as "conservative Methodists", holding on to the old Wesleyan doctrines. The Abingdon church regarded the radio station as a community service, rather than a tool for evangelism, hence the secular format. As mentioned before they were big on local sports, and often broadcast from local events like the Highlands Festival, the Washington Co. Fair, etc. It was also believed by the church and radio leadership that, with so many religious stations in the region, there was no need for another one.
 
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