History of WOLT and WOLI

[carolinaradio]

I was just wondering what the history of these two stations exactly are. It's my understanding that both have had many changes and formats over the past 15 years or so. I know both were Oldies in the late 90s, and were The Walk until last year, and 103.3 is now Oldies again, but what about before then? I never paid these two any attention until last year when it was announced that The Walk would move to 106.3. Thanks for any help you can give.

 

[Geek Brian]

welp....let's test my memory

103.9 used to be "Lite 104" during the early 80's I believe, before flipping to "Music Power Z104"/urban (and the death knell for 1070 WHYZ)

when the 103.3 frequency was approved, it became a simulcast with 103.9 (Billed "Double Z")....which continued till the recent split

the format flips were....if i remember correctly,...

urban to alterternative...(103X)

then flipped to Oldies in Feb of '96

then to 80's as "Star 103" in 2000,

then to "The Walk"...in 2003, i believe (the flip that personally sent me to XM...Star was my fav station at the time)

then,.....they split a couple months ago, to this silliness that we know now

b (ill try to research the FCC database for exact dates of the call letter changes on the 2 frequencies and post it)

 

[Geek Brian]

call sign history...103.9

(from http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmq.html )


Current Call Sign: WOLI-FM
Facility ID Number: 73239
Call Sign Begin Date
WOLI-FM 10/06/2005
WOLI 06/14/1996
WLWZ-FM 12/20/1992
WLWZ 12/26/1987

and for 103.3

Current Call Sign: WOLT
Facility ID Number: 73241
Call Sign Begin Date
WOLT 07/01/1996
WXWZ 01/20/1995
WLYZ 11/30/1992
WRDQ 12/13/1991

 

[carolinaradio]

Oh OK, thanks Geek Brian!

 

[jovialjay]

Brian...

Not sure if you had your tongue firmly planted in your cheek or not (with the opening to your post), but the original call-letters on 103.9 were...W-E-L-P (Easley-Liberty-Pickens).

My 57th cousin (12 times removed) Cletus Brazzell was the long-time owner of the FM and the 1360 AM in Easley. WAIT! If that's true, that means I'm kin to Capers (ask somebody on the Georgia board to explain why that's not something one necessarily wants to brag about).

 

[Geek Brian]

actually, no it wasnt. WELP were calls on 103.9?....thats pretty darned funny

b

 

[more kilowatts]

Wow! WELP brings back a lot of memories. A good friend of mine was the engineer there during the late 70's. 103.9 was originally located on the WELP 1360 AM stick on the hill above the Arial Mill community near Easley. The AM & FM were simulcast for many years. At the time, the AM was a 1 kw daytimer, and the FM was 2.3 kw ERP. Power on the FM was later increased to 2.5 kw. Believe it or not, in the early days the FM actually signed off at 10:00 PM every night. Later on, the FM carried local high school football games on Friday nights and after the game would wrap up with all the local football scores on a show called Buck's Scoreboard.

Around 1980, then owner Cleatus Brazzell moved the 103.9 out to its current site on Kay Drive not far from the Greenville-Pickens Speedway. This was done to get a better signal into the Greenville area. I believe the ERP was increased to 3 kw at the time.

A few years later, Mr. Brazzell sold the stations. I don't know much about them from that point on.

By the way, although the station has changed owners over the years, WELP AM is still on the air to this day at its original location, still playing gospel music and carrying recorded local church sermons.