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660 WESC

101tm

101tm

I’m surprised that iHeart maintains the simulcast of 92.5 WESC on AM 660. I know it was leased for almost a decent amount of time, but since then (other than a silent period) it just simulcasts its longtime FM partner. iHeart is obviously just running the simulcast on there to keep the license active, but I wonder if they’re trying to market it or if they have other plans (maybe clear some Premiere talk shows or bring Fox Sports Radio back?). Being a daytime signal on top of it being on AM really makes the signal worthless other than for an FM translator. I’m guessing that’s why the Black Information Network was put on 1440 instead of 660 as it is a 24 hour signal.

They’re also operating under the CP to be 5kw daytime only which has significantly reduced the signal.
 
WESC actually started out as a 5,000 watts daytimer. The original format was the three R’s..Rural, Religion and Race. The station was programmed in blocks to appeal to rural audiences surrounding Greenville…it aired blocks of preachers and it had daily shows for the African American audience. While WFBC 1330 and WSPA 950 went for the classes, WESC went for the masses. It jumped to 10,000 watts in the 1950s. It didn’t reach 50,000 watts until the early 1980s. The 10 kw required a three-tower directional during critical hours (two hours after sunrise and two hours prior to sunset) to protect then WNBC in New York. When WESC was owned by a NYC ad agency guy, he negotiated a special pre-sunrise agreement with WNBC the only station which could operate at night on the 660 frequency in the U.S. WESC could sign on at 6 a.m with 500 watts using the critical hours directional pattern. Having a consistent 6 a.m. sign on unlike other day time only AM stations which has staggered sign on times based on local sunrise went a long long ways toward WESC‘s success. Once the FM caught on, WESC was the first million dollars a year biller in South Carolina and for many, many years, was the top revenue producing station in the state.
 
Wally Mullinax's book about WESC (Tall tales, high towers, simple ideas 'n stuff: A history of Greenville's first all country music radio station) is a good read for those interested in local radio. I would imagine the Greenville library has copies and they may still have some at Mr. K's Used Books in Verdae Village (there were a bunch when I bought a used copy 2 years ago). I'm not original from here, so it's fun to learn about what it was like before it turned into an IHM voicetracked jukebox.

It's sad to see what's happened to so many of these higher powered AM daytimers. Without a translator, it's hard to justify keeping them on. With a translator, there's not much reason to run the higher power or directional array.
 
At this point, most AM’s are looked at as tickets to a 250 watt FM. But with these clusters having HD-2/3/4 (WJMZ?) feeding translators, it really renders the AM useless considering most would put up with a staticy FM signal before even venturing to AM.

GSP really doesn’t have any good AM signals - 1330 and 1440 both struggle outside of Greenville proper and the area grew opposite of their signals. 660 had a great signal but was daytime only. Most other AM’s go very directional at night. 1070 has been hanging on the air by a string for decades, but did have a 50kw extremely directional daytime signal. Now I guess the only point of 1070 is for the 94.9 translator which is the only Spanish station on FM in the market. 1070 was daytime only decades ago as well.

I know 1580 WDAB in Travelers Rest went silent several years ago. Is 1540 from Pickens still on the air? I was in west GVL the other week and got nothing but static on that freq.
 
I have read that the AM towers and the FM Aux were taken down if true where is the transmission tower now because I still hear it the AM up in Oconee
 
I think they should put BIN on 660 - more coverage. Then again, I'm going to answer my own post here:

They obviously don't give a crap about BIN in this market. They have HD signals on FM. Why wouldn't they put it on, for example, The Lake's HD-3? No, instead they have lullabies on an HD signal. WTF? :rolleyes:
 
AMRocks said:
I think they should put BIN on 660 - more coverage. Then again, I'm going to answer my own post here:

They obviously don't give a crap about BIN in this market. They have HD signals on FM. Why wouldn't they put it on, for example, The Lake's HD-3? No, instead they have lullabies on an HD signal. WTF? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
That lullabies channel has been on 102.5 HD-2 for years. Even before MY102.5 flipped to Hot AC. I honestly think iHeart has forgotten about their upstate HD channels. IHeart doesn’t use any of their HD signals in this market to relay to a translator unlike Audacy, Salem, or Summit. All I’m familiar with on Audacy and Summit’s HD channels are the relayed/translator stations and I think a couple are leased out on 93.3.

The goal with BIN is to try to clear it in as many markets as possible for advertising purposes. Greenville/Spartanburg has a much lower African American population than most other southern markets. It’s going to have way more listeners in Columbia or Atlanta. But still, it’s a decent sized market and population for them to say they have it cleared in, and 1440 is a better signal than 660 being 24 hours - I’m sure there’s a benefit to having it on a 24 hour signal (however bad it may be at night) vs a daytime only. Or, they may be trying to sell or lease 660 and didn’t want to interrupt the BIN programming if that happens. A 5kw daytime only AM is going to be a tough sell in 2021. The Christian talkers didn’t even want it anymore.
 
101tm said:
That lullabies channel has been on 102.5 HD-2 for years. Even before MY102.5 flipped to Hot AC. I honestly think iHeart has forgotten about their upstate HD channels. IHeart doesn’t use any of their HD signals in this market to relay to a translator unlike Audacy, Salem, or Summit. All I’m familiar with on Audacy and Summit’s HD channels are the relayed/translator stations and I think a couple are leased out on 93.3.

The goal with BIN is to try to clear it in as many markets as possible for advertising purposes. Greenville/Spartanburg has a much lower African American population than most other southern markets. It’s going to have way more listeners in Columbia or Atlanta. But still, it’s a decent sized market and population for them to say they have it cleared in, and 1440 is a better signal than 660 being 24 hours - I’m sure there’s a benefit to having it on a 24 hour signal (however bad it may be at night) vs a daytime only. Or, they may be trying to sell or lease 660 and didn’t want to interrupt the BIN programming if that happens. A 5kw daytime only AM is going to be a tough sell in 2021. The Christian talkers didn’t even want it anymore.
Click to expand...
iHeart ABSOLUTELY forgets about their HD signals. I listen to WROO's HD-2 quite a bit - Classic Soul. And for months it sounded like garbage. I even called and left messages telling them. It never got fixed. It's better now, but it still kinda clips at times. I know that Lullabies has been there a long time, but why? :rolleyes: Who would even listen to that? (I know that iHeart uses some HD-2 channels to be the originating station for some of their featured stations on their app, but I don't believe WMYI is one of them.)

And yes, you are absolutely correct about just needing to clear markets -- all for national buys. There's no way any local spots are being sold on BIN. I'm very critical of BIN since I listened for a quite a bit when it first aired. I was "hopeful" it would be decent. But it's just canned crap. I'm not even sure they did anything live on January 6th when the Capitol was being stormed.
 
Application to license 5 kW at 1440 site was filed in late December 2020. Program test authority granted 1/21/21 and resumed operations granted 1/25/2021. They’re at 5 kW with pending license application. Al all the FCC staff is still working remotely but a 5 kW license grant is likely to be issued very soon.
 
GA-SC-NC-TN radioguy said:
Application to license 5 kW at 1440 site was filed in late December 2020. Program test authority granted 1/21/21 and resumed operations granted 1/25/2021. They’re at 5 kW with pending license application. Al all the FCC staff is still working remotely but a 5 kW license grant is likely to be issued very soon.
Click to expand...
Where is your proof?
 
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AMRocks said:
It WAS 50k. It's down to 5k now....and it's a daytimer. Who wants a station that shuts down before PM drive in the winter?

Radio-Locator.com

Radio Station Search Engine
radio-locator.com radio-locator.com
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It shuts down part way into PM drive in winter. PM drive begins at 3 PM.

Here is the schedule

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