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Charlie FM at 106.3 flips

C

charlestondxman

Sometime today, WGVC-FM (106.3) Simpsonville/Greenville, which was Adult Hits "Charlie FM", flipped to a simulcast of AM 950 and 1330 WORD. Now, WORD is a three-station trimulcast, 950 in Spartanburg, 1330 in Greenville, and 106.3 throughout the Upstate.

This is one of several formats for this frequency, as Charlie FM had a very short, eight-month stint as a Adult Hits station. Now, WORD may be able to run separate programs for the AM and FM, and University of South Carolina sports will also be on this trimulcast.

It has been Jammin Oldies, regular Oldies "Oldies 106.3", "The Walk", then flipped to its female talk format, then "Charlie", and now this.

This is a good move for Entercom, as it will help them get better ratings for this frequency, and now, most people around the Upstae will be able to hear a clear signal of Rush, Mike Gallagher, Russ and Lisa, Bob McLain, and Sean Hannity, among others.
 
Would it hurt if the upstate got a "real" Urban station? 107.3 JAMZ is basically an Urban AC and HOT 98.1 is Rhthymic both owned by Cox. There are so many Hip-Hop/R&B songs not played by neither station. I think it would fill a void???
 
Seriously, Entercom needs to get a grip. Exactly what do they want? Oldies, Christian, Talk, Variety, more Talk? This 'format of the year' thing has gotten old. But, however I do think this was a good move and will be around for a while. They finally made the RIGHT decision with this frequency. Just a shame they didn't keep playing oldies in the meantime.

I would expect they'll sell the AMs eventually. More Spanish or Regional Mexican, probably...


I will miss Charlie in a way though....too bad it didn't move to 93.3 or something. Guess Clear Channel is happy!
 
Not so sure Clear Channel should be happy. Charlie was a 2 share station, going nowhere. This will probably help WORD compete for one of the top 5 slots CC has dominated for years.
 
Rush Limbaugh is the only program that has shown top 5 strength on WORD. There are signal coverage problems with 106.3, but still better than the AMs combined. Not sure it is a top 5 station.
 
I don't think any format at 106.3 could be top 5....the signal isn't that great in parts of the market. I think it did get a 3.8 or something like that as Oldies, the highest I remember it ever being.
 
ShawtyBlack_ATL said:
Would it hurt if the upstate got a "real" Urban station? 107.3 JAMZ is basically an Urban AC and HOT 98.1 is Rhthymic both owned by Cox. There are so many Hip-Hop/R&B songs not played by neither station. I think it would fill a void???
Click to expand...

I think urban is well covered in white bread Upstate.

Now if only Entercom had done this prior to the Charlie flip months ago, as I had suggested...

G
 
I think urban is well covered in white bread Upstate.

Now if only Entercom had done this prior to the Charlie flip months ago, as I had suggested...

G. You are too white for the room. There are many format holes holes in the upstate including Urban Gospel. Many suggested Entercom put the talk format on one of their FMs for years. You're not a genius this week.
 
Shawty made no specific reference to a lack of urban gospel here (wasn't that on 103.3 not too long ago?)

I've advocated WORD moving to 106.3 for quite some time now. Definately over a year. I know, why don't you make more than 43 posts, hang around here for a few years, THEN tell me when I'm not a "genius"?

Gotta love the noobs.

G
 
There is. There's also a difference between spouting off & understand where someone is coming from.

G
 
Urban gospel was tried a couple of times. It was on 103.3 and got around a 1-2 share I think, which is OK for that signal I guess. They couldn't pay the brokerage fees or something so that was that..

then it was one of the final formats on 1070 WCSZ (RIP). I believe it was ABC'S Rejoice! Musical Soul Food format.
 
Also, news-talk is a much better format to try in the Upstate, especially conservative, because the Upstate of SC is mostly conservative, church-going people, that enjoy people like Sean Hannity, Rush, and O'Reilly.

That other talk format they tried had no chance, as it had almost no name recognition.

They should have stayed oldies when they had the chance, because they had good ratings with no competition.

FM News-talk has worked in Myrtle Beach and Charleston, so it has a good chance to work in the Upstate.
 
carolinaradio said:
Urban gospel was tried a couple of times. It was on 103.3 and got around a 1-2 share I think, which is OK for that signal I guess. They couldn't pay the brokerage fees or something so that was that..

then it was one of the final formats on 1070 WCSZ (RIP). I believe it was ABC'S Rejoice! Musical Soul Food format.
Click to expand...

If you ask me, the perfect combination to sell the FM and AMs would be sports on 1330 and 950. Clemson doesn't even get into Greenville that well and forget Spartanburg....With Entercom's other facilities, they would have clout on getting good product to air. Plus, it's that time of the year when college agreements are being decided, etc.

Sports may not be a great ratings puller but it is a good revenue generator especially when its being sold on in market stations vs out of market signals..even on AM.

Years and years ago, the owners of 1330, and then 910, considered buying the 1280 in Anderson. That way they would cover all three markets with a solid AM signal and even have some pretty decent nighttime coverage although decent and nighttime coverage on an AM in the upstate don't go hand in hand. They could probably still put together such an arrangement.

Otherwise, letting 1330 and 950 just repeat 106.3 is a perfect waste of two very good AM signals..both day and night.
 
upstate29651 said:
I've advocated WORD moving to 106.3 for quite some time now. Definately over a year. I know, why don't you make more than 43 posts, hang around here for a few years, THEN tell me when I'm not a "genius"?
Click to expand...

Okay, 'splain this to me. How does this generate more revenue than Oldies on 106.3? Entercom blew off Oldies to put the already failed "Walk" on 106.3. That failed. Then, they very ingeniously decided to create a lefty-leaning all chick talk station for 106.3. If I'd taken out a map of the U.S. and picked the place least likely for that format to succeed, GSP would have been it. But wait, there was more genius to come. Charlie! That's it, we'll "Play Everything" and surely that will turn the tide. Nope.

Now they're trimulcasting a single format. I see how adding 106.3 FM to the two AM's might boost the ratings on WORD, but will it really be enough to offset the revenue they might have gained simply by leaving the Oldies station on in the first place? Could they not have gone back to that format? It's almost as if they'd rather lose money than admit a mistake.

And by the way, while I think there's a good chance this move will significantly lift ratings, that's far from guaranteed. And if it doesn't, what next? Tropical? When Entercom Greenville says "We play Everything", they mean it. They've played just about everything already.
 
charlestondxman said:
Also, news-talk is a much better format to try in the Upstate, especially conservative, because the Upstate of SC is mostly conservative, church-going people, that enjoy people like Sean Hannity, Rush, and O'Reilly.
Click to expand...

Since I'm definitely not one of their P1's on this, let me say how much I completely LOATHE the trimulcast and the new format.

I admit, I listened to Charlie quite a bit. I enjoyed the variety -- wasn't crazy about the lack of DJ's but I understood. But what killed me was the total lack of notice. It was like at 1:59 they finished the song, and went right to Rush at 2:00.

But even going back to Oldies would have been preferable. Guess we'll see when the books come out......
 
I hate to see conservative hate-talk put on any station, especially on a FM. BTW, conservative DOES NOT equate to church-going.
 
Some really good points. I would be concerned now that it's a Tri-mulcast how Entercom is handling rates. What happened to the Charliefm advertisers......and the cost of the roses they had their salespeople walking the streets of Greenville handing out months ago to promote Charlie?

Will Entercom ask for higher rates for conservative talk on FM along with the AMs? A challenge with local.

Looks to me like two legendary upstate AM frequencies (1330 and 910) are about to go down the tubes.
 
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