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AM towers in Gastonia and Icard

C

ChrisW

Guest
I was going through Gastonia last fall and in the parking lot of the mall there was a tower which looked like an old AM tower. What is the history of that.

Also along 40 at the Icard exit there are two unpainted unlit (short) towers. I remember back in the early 90's on weekends on my way back home to Asheville from NC State I remember that being a station. I am assuming it went dark.

Thanks for any information.

Chris
 
> I was going through Gastonia last fall and in the parking
> lot of the mall there was a tower which looked like an old
> AM tower. What is the history of that.

The tower there is still active on 1370. The calls used to be WLTC and it played country, but I think that the station is now either a praise station or a gospel station. I don't know what the calls are now, or who owns the station. Its studios used to be located in the brown brick building near the tower (behind the old Italian Oven restaurant). I'm sure it was there long before the Eastridge Mall was built, but I am amazed that they left the tower where it's at with all the rules about RF exposure that are out there now.
>
> Also along 40 at the Icard exit there are two unpainted
> unlit (short) towers. I remember back in the early 90's on
> weekends on my way back home to Asheville from NC State I
> remember that being a station. I am assuming it went dark.

You're talking about WUIV, Jimmy Jacumin's old station that was on 1570 (I think). I know it was in the 1500 area. It was a daytimer - I don't think it ever had any night-time authority. Jimmy is a state representative from Burke County (thanks eacalhoun!).

I know Jacumin put WUIV on the air with a state of the art facility in the late 1970s, and I know that Dave Lingafelt ran it on a time-brokered basis (including a period of simulcasting Dave's WNNC in Newton) in the late 80s-early 90s.

I'm guessing that when Dave abandoned the broker agreement, Jacumin let it go dark.

Originally, there were 3 towers up for the station, but now there are only 2 of them left. I believe that the U.S. Postal Service is using the building.

I wonder if the transmitter is still in the building, or if everything but the towers are gone.

wncmacs<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by wncmacs on 02/03/06 08:14 PM.</FONT></P>
 
**ICARD: I used to work at this station...it was WUIV at 1580AM and was my first PAYING radio job. I was a high school senior, and that was 1985-86. It had a short life as it went on the air around 1978 was dark by Jan 1, 1994. I'm not 100% certain on those years, so if someone can pinpoint that...
Station was started by current NC District 44 Senator Jim Jacumin, who also owned a weekly newspaper housed in the same building, the now-defunct "Unifour Independent". It was 5kw DA-Daytimer, with nulls toward the south and NE to protect adjacent WCSL(1590), Cherryville and WTLK(1570), Taylorsville. The signal blanketed Burke and Caldwell and a decent signal in Avery--better in Avery than nearby Catawba due to the pattern!! First small-town(well, Icard's not even incorporated) station I'd seen where there was a large plate glass window in the control room--great to the see outdoors and I-40 right in front of you! Station started with a Gold-Based AC format and a pretty first-class news dept(with the help of the co-owned newspaper down the hall). In the early 80s, the format flipped to Southern Gospel to fill a void left when 102.9 WHKY went from Gospel to Top 40 Rock. For a while, the station tried Contemporary Christian and shifted back to Southern Gospel. I think a declining audience and revenue forced the removal of all staff and the station became LMAd by WNNC and Dave Lingafelt. For one or two years--1992 and/or 93--1580AM simulcasted 1230 WNNC, really expanding the reach of WNNC--daytime only, though. WUIV went dark after Dec 31, 1993(?) when Lingafelt bought or LMAd AM 630, WIRC. Most of WUIV's studio equipment and transmitter were bought by 1290 WHKY. So, the towers still remain. They were short self-supporters and were never painted or lit. Originally, there were three, but several years after the station was dark one fell or was removed for some reason.

**GASTONIA: Tower is what is now WGIV at 1370AM, but was WLTC for years. I'm certian it's still in service, but I have no idea of the broadcast origination.
I believe you can still see W-L-T-C letters still near the top of the tower. The adjacent building was their former studios, and was used as a WBTV Gastonia Newsroom--not sure if that's still the case, though. The building looked very abandoned-except surely the transmitter-when I was through there at Christmas.
 
Re: Hey, wncmacs...

Got your stuff Eric. I'm teaching 4 classes this spring, and it has zapped my free time for the site. I'm still wanting to work on it soon, and I'm going to try and get it going again here real soon.

wncmacs

> ..you get my pix and stuff for your website?
>
> Eric
>
 
> > I was going through Gastonia last fall and in the parking
> > lot of the mall there was a tower which looked like an old
>
> > AM tower. What is the history of that.
>
> The tower there is still active on 1370. The calls used to
> be WLTC and it played country, but I think that the station
> is now either a praise station or a gospel station. I don't
> know what the calls are now, or who owns the station. Its
> studios used to be located in the brown brick building near
> the tower (behind the old Italian Oven restaurant). I'm sure
> it was there long before the Eastridge Mall was built, but I
> am amazed that they left the tower where it's at with all
> the rules about RF exposure that are out there now.
> >
> > Also along 40 at the Icard exit there are two unpainted
> > unlit (short) towers. I remember back in the early 90's
> on
> > weekends on my way back home to Asheville from NC State I
> > remember that being a station. I am assuming it went
> dark.
>
> You're talking about WUIV, Jimmy Jacumin's old station that
> was on 1570 (I think). I know it was in the 1500 area. It
> was a daytimer - I don't think it ever had any night-time
> authority. Jimmy is a state representative from Burke County
> (thanks eacalhoun!).
>
> I know Jacumin put WUIV on the air with a state of the art
> facility in the late 1970s, and I know that Dave Lingafelt
> ran it on a time-brokered basis (including a period of
> simulcasting Dave's WNNC in Newton) in the late 80s-early
> 90s.
>
> I'm guessing that when Dave abandoned the broker agreement,
> Jacumin let it go dark.
>
> Originally, there were 3 towers up for the station, but now
> there are only 2 of them left. I believe that the U.S.
> Postal Service is using the building.
>
> I wonder if the transmitter is still in the building, or if
> everything but the towers are gone.
>
> wncmacs
>
There obviously is some long term lease in play for the 1370 station which by the way now transmits 20,000 watts from that site. Since the station was there long before the mall and other buildings nearby, RF is their problem, not the station's. WGIV has a CP to change city of license to Pineville and operate at 3000 watts from a site just south of downtown Charlotte.Once they are on the air from that site, I expect they will take measurements and recapture much of their lost power because of the move.

It appears the old tower in the mall shopping center is about to see it's last days.
 
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