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New upstate station
- Thread starter CraigD
- Start date
Matching the logo and brand of their AC in Omaha... Amazed it took this long to do...
Keep in mind though, 99.5 had the least coverage of the other Urban stations. 98.1 is 100kw (although being so far west it struggles in Spartanburg, and the 94.1 translator on that end isn't great), and The Block has signals in Anderson (107.7) and Spartanburg (101.5) in addition to the mediocre 96.3 signal in Greenville. So it's really an apples to orange comparison.
Summit has made some bad moves with 99.5 over the years. This is probably the smartest one, but I'm surprised it took this long. Chuck/Jack FM did well enough, but Earth FM and The Lake sort of pulled the rug out from under them. Awesome was a duplication of too many formats that were already in the market (Earth, Lake mainly). Streetz was in a crowded Urban/Hip Hop lane. This should do better, and should beat the sports talk stations combined, although that's not saying much...
(I grabbed a legal ID:
It will be nice to get an AC station back in the market. Hopefully, they will keep it going and PROMOTE IT. 🙄 If no one knows it's there, it will never get any ratings.... especially from a station that seems to flip often. (I never even think about this signal anymore when I'm in my car.)
Not that it's likely to happen, but the minute someone decides to flip a format on a full signal station to AC, Star will be toast.
And I never understood the reason for Streetz. Didn't it eat into Hot a bit? Seemed silly. Although, a great combo sell with Jamz and Hot for sales purposes.
Not that it's likely to happen, but the minute someone decides to flip a format on a full signal station to AC, Star will be toast.
And I never understood the reason for Streetz. Didn't it eat into Hot a bit? Seemed silly. Although, a great combo sell with Jamz and Hot for sales purposes.
You know what I thought it was odd yesterday when I was flipping through stations and discovered this Star 99.5 playing Christmas music with a decent playlist. But I was stuck in bad Black Friday traffic on Woodruff to give it a second thought.
I definitely agree with the sentiments that Streetz was overkill in an already crowded market; before that, Awesome 99.5 seemed just as pointless. Hopefully with the right promotion and respect Star could easily bring something decent.
I definitely agree with the sentiments that Streetz was overkill in an already crowded market; before that, Awesome 99.5 seemed just as pointless. Hopefully with the right promotion and respect Star could easily bring something decent.
Listened while out and about today. Playlist is better than Magic’s Christmas playlist that has grown very stale IMO. Scheduling is better and they have a good balance between classics, newer songs, and novelty type songs. Agree that it needs promotion. I’m surprised they waited this long to go all-Christmas and flip.
Of course the signal is going to likely be their biggest obstacle, but I got it solidly on 385 from Gray Court all the way throughout Greenville and Simpsonville. Whoever has the audio processing set up is doing a fantastic job. It sounds miles better than *any* of Audacy’s music stations in this market and the RDS actually works.
Magic went out with a low 3 share on 106.3 a year after being dumped there. I doubt this will get that high but I can see it pulling 102.5 back down some.
Of course the signal is going to likely be their biggest obstacle, but I got it solidly on 385 from Gray Court all the way throughout Greenville and Simpsonville. Whoever has the audio processing set up is doing a fantastic job. It sounds miles better than *any* of Audacy’s music stations in this market and the RDS actually works.
Magic went out with a low 3 share on 106.3 a year after being dumped there. I doubt this will get that high but I can see it pulling 102.5 back down some.
And WPEG is at 97.9. And despite being licensed to Concord its tower is actually WEST of Charlotte even with a station on the next frequency so close.
No. Will go to main format 80’s to now.
Surprised how far 99.5's signal was getting out yesterday, very listenable on I-85 North, into & Past Spartanburg, into Cowpens, and up to the Cherokee County Line. I don't remember it going that far, especially into Spartanburg itself...
99.5 is one of those signals that carries past almost any variation of coverage map, at least in a car due to its tremendous height for a translator. It makes it all the way down to Princeton on 25 until WKXC starts cutting in and it gets unlistenable fast. 98.5 used to be that way until the adjacent translator in Spartanburg signed on 98.3 and the Greenwood translator at 98.5 signed on. 98.5 has a decent signal in west Spartanburg, little static but the stronger 98.3 there can start to bleed and cut in.
I’m enjoying Star’s Christmas music - probably because it’s new and it’s something different from 2 months of Magic doing it. Imaging is good. It’s funny that even the lowly rated Streetz was beating out consistent bottom dwellers (with more coverage) - 104.9, 106.3, 97.1/97.7. I don’t see it having any issue getting between a 1-2 share. BTW, I found the non-Christmas logo on iHeartRadio today.
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Yea, and 98.1 WBRF is also too close to WPEG Going Just North of Charlotte, with that station's 60 dbu contour pretty much reaching WPEG's 60 dbu contour, Just Above Statesville.
I think WHZT could've moved a bit closer to Greenville, directional towards WPEG of course, there was a CP to do so many years ago, but they never made the move. (Although I think WHZT's City-of-License was changed from Seneca to Williamston for this reason.)
A bit off Topic, but I see K'Love's new Upstate Signal (WKVG) - Going East - is not 100% complementary to their Charlotte Signal (WRCM) going west. I see they would have a dead zone around Gastonia, west of Charlotte. Their previous station WLXK on 88.3 was a bit better in that area, but that station went to the Truth Network (former Salem / 94.5, now 96.9 in Greenville.) Although they have another Truth Network station in Charlotte/Gastonia as well (WCRU 960 AM & 98.5 Davidson NC & 105.7 Pineville/CLT). So Perhaps K-Love (if they wanna fill that gap in Gaston County) could swap with TruthNetwork & apply for a Gastonia translator (perhaps 89.5 or 88.5 is an open channel in that city?) 91.9 K-Love CLT can't reach Gastonia because of adjacent 91.7 WSGE a few Miles Away in Dallas NC. Or maybe they just couldn't beat His Radio to it, since they already have (decent) translators on 98.3 & 96.5 around there.
Like Magic getting stale in its final days, their playlist also aired wayyyy outdated songs to stretch out the two months. When they weren’t playing Mariah Carey for the umpteenth time, the last couple years had weird stuff like Anne Murray and Barbara Mandrell Christmas songs and renditions by gospel singers like Cristy Lane. Major yikes.
99.5 is a relatively "clean" channel. The two nearest signals are on short towers. Ashville is 39 feet@ 250 watts and Belton SC is at 63 feet with 100 watts so that extra listening distance beyond the line of site could come into play.
Oh I remember Cristy Lane! That was in the final years where it went on so long they seemed to start getting desperate to find anything they could play. Lots of John Denver Christmas songs too. I listened to the stream a bit and it’s cheap imaging done in house and mostly songs back to back with some cold segues to commercials. Back when WMYI also went all Christmas as AC, they played from the tight iHeart playlist so Magic was on the completely opposite end, even 10-15 years ago.
Star seems to strike a nice balance between Magic’s “out there” playlist and the tight playlist WMYI would have back in the day.
Augusta & Greensboro have big signals on 99.5, which are often heard around here when theres tropo...But here in Gaffney, 99.3 WBT has a decently strong signal (with HD) that usually bleeds into 99.5, making it difficult & usually static here most of the time...Actually X98.5 does better up here. Well, both of those are available on HD Sub-channels of 107.3 WJMZ, but that option is also very spotty here. WJMZ drops HD as soon as you go east of Spartanburg (and spotty at times in some parts of Spartanburg as well). Tho, WJMZ HD is audible outdoors in some places here in Gaffney on my Sangean HDR-16, Reception while driving isn't good until a few miles into Spartanburg County and heading SW from there.
I think WJMZ also had a CP at some point to move closer to Greenville (from the WMYA-TV tower, already home of WROQ) .. That would give them a more Centralized Signal for the market, & not weaker in the eastern parts, and HD would be much better...I can hear WROQ in HD most of the time around here, although a new translator in Gastonia NC (W266DC) does have local interference in the Blacksburg SC area. 📶 However, The FCC & R-L Coverage "Map" indicates a signal null of almost 100% / Southwest Towards WROQ, 😅 Well, Maybe not because their "Mountain-Top" Signal interferes easily with WROQ even a few miles east of Gaffney, where WROQ's 60dbu contour line touches the City Limits Western Boundary, WROQ should be legally protected in that area / decent signal territory, especially within the 50-55 dbu zone in areas SW of Grover NC. On Interstate 85. 🚗
I think WJMZ also had a CP at some point to move closer to Greenville (from the WMYA-TV tower, already home of WROQ) .. That would give them a more Centralized Signal for the market, & not weaker in the eastern parts, and HD would be much better...I can hear WROQ in HD most of the time around here, although a new translator in Gastonia NC (W266DC) does have local interference in the Blacksburg SC area. 📶 However, The FCC & R-L Coverage "Map" indicates a signal null of almost 100% / Southwest Towards WROQ, 😅 Well, Maybe not because their "Mountain-Top" Signal interferes easily with WROQ even a few miles east of Gaffney, where WROQ's 60dbu contour line touches the City Limits Western Boundary, WROQ should be legally protected in that area / decent signal territory, especially within the 50-55 dbu zone in areas SW of Grover NC. On Interstate 85. 🚗
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