Rejoice 1410 AM WRJD, in its current, LMA'ed black gospel format, is going dark either Christmas Day or the day after. Word on the street is that Davidson Media will go to a Spanish format with the station, ending nearly 57 years of service to Durham's (and the region's) black community, first as WSRC (1954-2006). They're already doing a Spanish format on their other RDU-market station, WTIK "La Mega 1310 AM".
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Changes at historic Durham station
- Thread starter RadioDaze
- Start date
On the original version of the painting "Sugar Shack," from which subsequent versions were used for the TV show "Good Times" and Marvin Gaye's album cover "I Want You," there is a banner for WSRC radio hanging from the rafters. That station was a community mainstay for a long time.
B
B Lewis
Guest
I remember them from the early 80's. I won the 12-inch "Friends" by Whodini from them at The State Fair somewhere around 1983. I agree, that station has been a mainstay in the African-American community for a long, long time. Isn't there a fair amount of overlap between 1310 and 1410's signals?
Both operate at the same daytime power (5,000 watts), but WTIK's pattern is much stronger north of Durham than WRJD, which sends the lion's share of its power to the southeast. At night, WTIK is licensed for 1,000 watts but their engineer once said they run at only 500 watts, while WRJD runs only 290 watts at night and literally drops off the face of the earth about Northern High School when traveling north on US 501 due to the tight null to the northwest in their pattern.
Update on WRJD...what little bit I listened between Christmas festivities, the station seemed to continue in normal automation mode after the Sunday ministry programs concluded at noon (one was live and mentioned the station's imminent demise). Around 10:15 this evening, I checked in again to faintly hear a farewell message from GM Linda Greenwood, whose company, Unwind Productions, has operated the station for the last five years (unfortunately I could barely pick out any details from the static since I was in northern Durham). As of just before midnight, the transmitter was broadcasting dead air, as it still is as I post this.
I can't say I'm surprised that Rejoice 1410 failed, but it is bittersweet to see the end of an era for a station whose legacy was so integral in the history of radio in this region.
Update on WRJD...what little bit I listened between Christmas festivities, the station seemed to continue in normal automation mode after the Sunday ministry programs concluded at noon (one was live and mentioned the station's imminent demise). Around 10:15 this evening, I checked in again to faintly hear a farewell message from GM Linda Greenwood, whose company, Unwind Productions, has operated the station for the last five years (unfortunately I could barely pick out any details from the static since I was in northern Durham). As of just before midnight, the transmitter was broadcasting dead air, as it still is as I post this.
I can't say I'm surprised that Rejoice 1410 failed, but it is bittersweet to see the end of an era for a station whose legacy was so integral in the history of radio in this region.
I passed through Durham today on I-85 around 3:10 P.M. There was carrier on AM 1410 but no programming. For that matter, the situation was the same on AM 1490.
Late yesterday morning, WRJD aired a few hours of Sunday's log (complete with thirty minutes of silence between the opens and closes of live broadcasts), including General Manager Linda Greenwood's farewell message, but that ended around 2:30 yesterday afternoon. They've been doing dead air ever since. If the Davidson folks are minding the ship at 1410 now, the nearest ones in the phone chain are in Charlotte or Richmond, so there may be dead air for a while.
AM 1410 is back on-air with a Spanish Christian music. I heard a legal ID this morning voiced by the WTIK GM, so perhaps they're running WRJD now as well (WTIK and WRJD were previously under separate LMAs, though both owned by Davidson). I think there was some imaging, but my Spanish isn't quite proficient enough to decipher it. Even though its pretty much straight music, the technical quality of the air sound as well as transitions between songs actually seems much cleaner than under the "Rejoice 1410" format.
More details on the new WRJD format...the new imaging is "Poder 1410" (Believe that translates to "power" in English). Call letters are still WRJD, but now under same LMA as WTIK. The announcers went live Monday. They have a live Ustream at the link below. From what little I can see from the webcam, they did quite a nice remodel on the WRJD air studio, too.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/poder-1410-am
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/poder-1410-am
_________________________________________________RadioDaze said:
Davidson is already LMA'ing some stations in Charlotte and the Triad to a group of people out of Charlotte. If I'm not wrong they are leasing 105.3 FM and 1030 AM in Charlotte, in Winston Salem 1380 AM, in Greensboro 1470 AM and I guess now this one.
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