Abandoned Conway Radio Station WLAT/WYAV

[more kilowatts]

I drove through on Friday, on my way to the beach...and it was a sad sight. The building is gone. Two towers remain, but that's it. Amazing how much this area is changing. I've been visiting here regularly since I was a kid. The big empty lot where the Pavilion was is at least as sad as the big empty lot where the radio stations used to be.

I drove through on Saturday of that same weekend on the way to the beach. Sad sight indeed. The towers are rustbuckets now. They will probably be gone the next time I come through. I noticed a new convenience store on the lot to the left of where the radio station was. There will probably be a fast food joint on the old radio station lot the next time we see it.

I know I am going off topic here but yes, it is amazing how much the area is changing. I go down once, sometimes twice a year. I have been visiting here since I was a kid too. The first thing I do when I arrive is ride up and down Ocean Blvd. to see what old mom & pop motels have been demolished and what new high-rise is being built in its place. In a few more years, the place won't even be recognizable. The demolition of the Pavilion really changed the landscape of the place. I just can't get used to that big empty lot.

 

[vchimpanzee]

The sign is still there, looking terrible, and so are the towers.

Is WPJS actually using those towers?

Responding to another post with some off-topic information, I didn't see any new buildings going up, though that's the economic downturn. Regency Towers, the third-oldest high-rise, went up across from where I used to stay, and the tallest in Myrtle Beach proper for many years, looks like a building under construction, and I guess in a way it is. Plenty of proposed condo high-rises still have their signs, though I don't recall seeing one for the Apogee. It's just as well because the Sandcastle was too pretty to tear down. I did see one building half-finished with no workers. I don't know for sure any mom-and-pop places had been torn down, but I think there were some more empty lots than last year. I did not see the Arizona, though when I went there to tell someone I thought of them when my parents didn't go to the beach for four years, it was closed and for sale. I guess whoever was selling it or whoever bought it figured a building that old wasn't worth saving.

I know of one building I saw for the last time. The Chesterfield was on the front page. The family doesn't want it and I guess a sophisticated place like that can't survive in an environment of night clubs and t-shirt stores. No matter what got torn down, The Chesterfield was always going to be there. I guess that's not true. But putting yet another miniature golf place there? That's not right. I wish someone would buy it and keep running it. I understand tearing it down if you can't get anyone to buy it and don't want it just sitting there.

 

[more kilowatts]

The sign is still there, looking terrible, and so are the towers.

Is WPJS actually using those towers?

No, those towers are abandoned. In 2005, WPJS moved to another site near John Doctor Road, off of 905, a few miles from 501. Unusual situation in that they took an existing 2-way communications tower and modified it for AM use. Check out this FCC technical exhibit for info:https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getattachment_exh.cgi?exhibit_id=297513&formid=301&q_num=5110

According to the ASR, the tower is owned by Cumulus, who has a translator for WJXY on it. Is WPJS still a Bishop Willis station?

 

[meh!]

Temple! So nice to hear from you and I hear you're doing well. It is dan the van man and you were right about Chris Ling. I've been out of the business for a while. Once Clear Channel came into a market as small as pensacola, fl I knew it was dunzo. I design websites for the navy now and seem to procreate like a bunnt I did stumble across something cool- the OLD SCHOOL jocks at WKZQ are back on the air at qrockradio.com. It was awsome to call them and get Freakin Deacon to play me a request (why the heck he wouldn't do that for me when I was growing up). Bob Scarborough is there, Bill Hennecy, PAT MILAN (he won frikkin emmy's for gosh sake) and more. There was a 25th anniversary a few weeks back but I didn't hear about it till 2 late (koff, koff *notinvited, koff, koff) ...jk it was awsome to talk to those guys. I even got a chance to talk to bill hennecy. He's still the man. I'll definitely hit you up on myspace.

 

[boilermediaguy]

Just an update:

Drove past the property on Saturday. For Sale sign is still up; looking weathered and about to fall over. The lot is grassy, but the towers still remain. The trees surrounding them are getting fuller and taller, so I had to do a double-take. Sure enough though....

They still stand. 6 years after speculations of them being gone!

(I would have taken a picture, but when did Conway traffic get that bad ??? )

 

[eacalhoun1]

Could someone provide a landmark, nearby intersecting street, or an address on US 501 for this old site? I've been trying to look at it on Google Earth, street view, etc.

Thanks...

Eric

 

[more kilowatts]

Could someone provide a landmark, nearby intersecting street, or an address on US 501 for this old site? I've been trying to look at it on Google Earth, street view, etc.

Thanks...

Eric

The location is 1720 Hwy 501 West, Conway SC. Look on the corner of 501 (Church St) and Calhoun Rd. Some maps list Calhoun Rd. as Camelot St. so I don't know which is correct. There is now a convenience store on the corner. Look at the vacant lot to the right of the convenience store. You can still see the old driveway for the station and even the sign out front. You can clearly see both of the towers in the wooded area behind the vacant lot. One tower sits slightly behind the convenience store property. You can still see the tuning houses from above.

 

[eacalhoun1]

Could someone provide a landmark, nearby intersecting street, or an address on US 501 for this old site? I've been trying to look at it on Google Earth, street view, etc.

Thanks...

Eric

The location is 1720 Hwy 501 West, Conway SC. Look on the corner of 501 (Church St) and Calhoun Rd. Some maps list Calhoun Rd. as Camelot St. so I don't know which is correct. There is now a convenience store on the corner. Look at the vacant lot to the right of the convenience store. You can still see the old driveway for the station and even the sign out front. You can clearly see both of the towers in the wooded area behind the vacant lot. One tower sits slightly behind the convenience store property. You can still see the tuning houses from above.

Thanks, MoreKWs. Of course, this WOULD be a place where the Google guy (I assume) forgot to drive down this section of street to take "street view" shots. Street View shots are only as close as the Mill Pond Rd and Fox Point Rd intersections - I could see the towers (street view) from Mill Pond Rd. Here's a link: http://goo.gl/maps/suKm

 

[Brian from Cleveland]

Thank goodness for the internet to answer questions like this! I drove to Myrtle Beach for the first time in 22 years last month, knowing the radio station in Conway would be there as a benchmark.

Obviously, it wasn't, but I had to take a picture of the abandoned towers as a radio geek. Both look frighteningly close to collapsing given the foliage. The one on the right has leaves/weeds/whatever growing half-way up it.

If someone can tell me how to post pix, I've got two that I snapped from the back of the gas station lot next door.

And thanks for solving my mystery of what station and studio was once there.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I know of one building I saw for the last time. The Chesterfield was on the front page. The family doesn't want it and I guess a sophisticated place like that can't survive in an environment of night clubs and t-shirt stores. No matter what got torn down, The Chesterfield was always going to be there. I guess that's not true. But putting yet another miniature golf place there? That's not right. I wish someone would buy it and keep running it. I understand tearing it down if you can't get anyone to buy it and don't want it just sitting there.

I can't believe it took three years. It was so sad to see just the sign, an empty lot, and workers getting rid of most of the newer building.

Just towers this year, and a for sale sign. I missed them going into town.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

Whats the height on the towers, about 165'?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Towers are still there.

On the positive side, you can get some of the cheapest 87 gas anywhere without ethanol.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

I wish the AM stations licensee was.

 

[Kenny_Ray]

Thanks, MoreKWs. Of course, this WOULD be a place where the Google guy (I assume) forgot to drive down this section of street to take "street view" shots. Street View shots are only as close as the Mill Pond Rd and Fox Point Rd intersections - I could see the towers (street view) from Mill Pond Rd. Here's a link: http://goo.gl/maps/suKm

I worked there for years with the guys mentioned in this thread and left in about 1984-85 for Spartanburg and WSPA. I always thought the place was in good shape while I was there. Jack Hawley kept it up pretty good. We had a nice little break room too with the best coffee around..... and you know a jock has to have his coffee.

The 1720 address is close but not quite accurate. The location is now pictured on GoogleEarth and I prepared a KLM file that will take you there.... Just click the link below. I also uploaded a photo of the view of the empty lots as they look on GoogleEarth.

http://ussmtmckinley.com/WLAT.kmz

Photo: http://ussmtmckinley.com/WLAT_AM-FM-Conway_SC.png

 

[Kenny_Ray]

WLAT Ownership

Beasley Broadcasting owned WLAT/WYAV before Pinnacle Broadcasting.

Jack Hawley was the sole owner of WLAT/WLAT-FM and inherited it from his late father who built it from the ground up. If I am not mistaken, he even built the first transmitter from scratch during hard times. Jack had FCC permission for years and years to go 100k on the FM but held off because of the cost. I worked there, liked him a lot, but was very frustrated because of this. Around 1982 I tried to talk him into going ahead and bumping the power up on the FM and dropping the call letters, except slipping them in on the hour break and other times the FCC required, and promoting the station as BANDIT 104. Even mentioning the location only when required like the call letters. I figured making it sound like a pirate station for the beach crowd while playing rock would create a mystic that would catch on quickly.

I started in radio in 1965 and back then FM was experimental and purely non-profit. Most stations in smaller markets that applied and got the FM's on the air simply played record changers to have something on the air or simulcast. FM was going nowhere just like UHF floundered in the beginning. But just like the govt. mandated that all new TV sets must have UHF tuners in the sixties, the govt. came along and mandated FM tuners for all auto radios. To satisfy this the cheapest way in the beginning, the FM tuner sides were basic mono tuners and crappy but this was the beginning of the FM market that was needed to start the profitability and swing toward FM dominance. The rest is history.

One more thing that has probably been lost to history. WLAT FM on those short towers in Conway only had horizontal elements I think. At least, I remember they only had either that or vertical only. So, the signal was weak. Also, the FM actually had 26,000 watts. The AM was 5kw day and 500 nighttime.

In my opinion, the govt ruined AM radio by lifting the local programming/public service requirements. Once upon a time X amount was required, even though most stations stuffed it all into Sunday mornings to bury it. AM radios only chance to recover might be almost total local community involvement. They will have to do what the other mediums cannot do...... local.

One 'not so funny to them' anecdote related to the station is this. Sometime in the early 80s I think is when they built a water tower almost directly behind the station property. Apparently, it happened to be almost the exact same height as the AM tower and consequently was the correct length to absorb a helluva lot of RF. By the time they got to the top of the tower they were getting burnt pretty bad from the RF and came to the station many times begging us to turn it off. Of course, we couldn't do that. He said they were getting zapped all they way thru their thickest gloves. Really strong RF will burn you right thru to the bone. I hope it was not that strong.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I know I wasn't able to find WLAT-FM in Myrtle Beach in the car. I heard something called "Rock 90" and I don't know where that was. At the time, we didn't have a car with a digital display.

And the towers are STILL there, behind some of the cheapest gas in town.

 

[Kenny_Ray]

Wow, no new posts since 2012? Where is everyone?

 

[vchimpanzee]

2017, actually. I forgot to notice in 2018 whether the towers were still there.