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WBTB-AM 14 and WAVQ-AM 14

R

RadioFixerCLE

Is WAVQ a totally different station or do they still broadcast from the same transmitter site as WBTB did?

I know they were/are licenced to different cities. I'm new to New Bern (moving there in a month or two) - and was also surprised by the small amount of AM stations down there and the chock-full FM dial.

Were there a lot more AM stations back in the 50s-70s/80s that went dark and/or moved to FM or was it pretty much status quo?
 
The answer to your question is yes, at one time many AM stations dominated the dial, i remember many of them
like WLAS in Jacksonville, WBTB in Beaufort, and my favorite, WMBL in Morehead City.
I'm sure others who are native to Eastern North Carolina can further expand on this.
 
There was WKVO in Havelock at 1330 which I was one of the owners..It was WUSM before


we bought it in 1969........Also there was a 1360 in New Bern I think it was WGSE....I enjoyed

Ray Cummings on the old WBMA In Beaufort especially when a state trooper gave him a ticket

on his way to work one morning.......He let the trooper know about it on the air !!!!!!!!!!
 
Many of the Eastern North Carolina AMs have gone dark over the past few years. I've heard many general reasons for the AMs struggling there such as relatively poor inland ground conductivity, the vastness of the market, increased competition from FM, etc.

As for WBTB in Beaufort, it went off-air around the early 2000s. There was a plan to relicense it to Pine Knoll Shores, but that was withdrawn, and another licensee built the current 1400- WAVQ in Jacksonville--which is unrelated to WBTB.

Morehead City's WMBL, 740, was bought by, I think, a Clear Channel subsidiary and taken silent in 2000 to allow the former WPAL, 730 in Charleston, South Carolina, to boost their power

I believe 1380 in New Bern was last known as WSFL before its demise. I'm not sure of the story there, but you might search the board for old posts about it.

Other dead AMs in the east include WLSE 1400 in Wallace, WTRQ 1580 in Warsaw, WCEC 810 in Rocky Mount, WPXY 1550 in Greenville, and WTSB, in Lumberton.

Additionally, there are several others that, while still licensed, may be off air. I'm not sure of AM 910 in Jacksonville's status.
 
910 in Jacksonville was on the air when I was down that way just before New Years Day. Programming sounded like Focus on the Family.
 
gary sapiane said:
There was WKVO in Havelock at 1330 which I was one of the owners..It was WUSM before


we bought it in 1969.......
Click to expand...

Now it's WANG -- carrying the America's Best Music network.

Comes in fairly well into New Bern, but at night, it just disappears.
 
StephanieNYC said:
gary sapiane said:
There was WKVO in Havelock at 1330 which I was one of the owners..It was WUSM before


we bought it in 1969.......
Click to expand...

Now it's WANG -- carrying the America's Best Music network.

Comes in fairly well into New Bern, but at night, it just disappears.
Click to expand...
This is still the case? Someone needs to tell the site where I get my Arbitron ratings. They claim it airs the same programming as WSSM.
 
I actually picked up WANG 1330 a few afternoons ago while driving through northwestern Raleigh (of all places). It faded in over WBTM/Danville long enough to hear an ID.
 
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