Speculation,speculation,....speculation. Yes folks you have witnessed yet another Cumulus "better idea". Unfortunately, this outfit has the uncanny knack of bringing successful radio stations they aquire down to their level. I need not remind many radio enthusiast on how they destroyed the legendary 100kw WBBQ/Augusta,GA in a matter of months after the take over. Then traded the mess to Clear Channel. The WSYN/WYAK saga had me wondering what took them so long to make a decision to flip flop and have the guts to go after WGTR. Yes, I do believe it took four hours to make the change over.....it surely sounds like it! I must say WSYN is no total loss. Sunny 106.5 that is. The station was dismantled the day they took it over in 1999 starting with the first program director, a moron from San Diego. He single handed flushed the entire format. So, actually Sunny 106.5 really died 10 years ago. Typical Cumulus hiring idiots. There were a few PD's who tried to pick up the pieces. However "Oldies Radio Sunny 106.5" died when Kemosabi Joe was no longer at the helm....Make no mistake. Now, here we have the brilliant idea of "The Wolf" and Sunny 103.1. In therory, I can see what Cumulus is trying to accomplish. The switcheroo is not very impressing. The result, the rebirth of the failed "K-Country 103. Here's the reason..................
WYAK was a dog of a station. Reincarnated numerous times....WYAK,Big YAK, Y103,etc. From owners like Beasley Broadcasting and down the line...it never took off. The reason? The crappiest signal in Myrtle Beach. Everything was tried. Higher antenna, lower power and vice versa. 103.1 is directional signal. There was no helping it. A cheap aquisition for Cumulus.
So here were are years later and here we are. The only way they could ever compete with WGTR was to do it with more power. Hello WSYN. Now, Sunny 103.1 is the red headed step child, and reduced to an elf I suppose. Like I said earlier, no big loss.
So The Wolf is set to take on WGTR Gator 107.9. I bet they're banking on close frequency to snag some listeners, that may be true, but it's gonna take more than a "power increase" to topple. WGTR has the market in Country music, they have NASCAR, and are CONSISTENT! That cannot be said down HWY 17 Bypass at Club Cumulus. I had a chance to briefly listen to the station. I would have hope Cumulus would have not recycled the K-Country airstaff, but I hear that was the case. Typical 50 minute music sweep, liner'd to death after nearly every tune complete with what sounded like homemade wolf howls in the background. The presentation sounds more like a jukebox than a radio station. Pass the cheeze-whiz please. Then a promo about a $1k give away when a random caller heard their first commercial. Finally, a live remote broadcast and ticket giveaway from a fricken bowling alley in North Myrtle Beach! Yes folks we have an overnight sensation here!