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WCLW 1130 in Eden?

R

RadioFixerCLE

Does anyone remember the history of what is now WCLW (a religious station owned by the Carolina Baptist College).

How long has CBC owned AM 1130 and what was it before? I've heard of a station called WEDE at 1130 in Eden, but I'm not sure if it ever existed -- can't find any information on it.
 
I worked at 1130 in 1973 when it was owned by Ray Childers (whom I'd love to know what happened to!)
At the time, it was a Top-40, WCBX, daytime only. WLOE on 1490 was also Top-40 and on 24/7.
At WCBX, I worked with Art Bell, who took off from there to go out west... and the rest is late night history.
We were a 1kw daytimer with a pre-sunrise of 28 watts (!) for all of 15 minutes before power-up.
 
I was there in 1974 and 1975. It was a hot station. Rich Randall was there when I started and Dennis Elliott when I left. Great jingles and a good signal, except for that pre-sunrise walkie-talkie. Of course there was Ray Childers and Bertha. Wonder where his daughter is nowadays. The studios moved to across the street from Morehead High School just before I got there.
 
Growing up in Martinsville, VA I loved WCBX! great sound, wonderful air talent. I do remember WLOE as well and it seems at this time they had an FM -WEAF, think it is now a CC station.
 
Myself and Bob Ashcraft moved the studios to the house across from Morehead HS. First time I ever got to build a facility!! Used a Delco car radio as an air monitor. It sounded great!
It's a reasonable assumption that the call letters were thought to have local value. That's why they are parked on 900, the old WODI.
It would be nice to find out what happened to the Childers bunch. Love 'em or hold your nose (inside joke), their kind is essentially gone from broadcasting... And we are all poorer for that.
 
WCLW's calls are described as acronymic for Where Christ Lives Within. A good slogan, since they are currently owned by a church and play a Southern Gospel/Preaching format.

Prior call letters WEDE (city of license, Eden, NC) and WWMO (William Mason Oliver, originally founder of the first radio station in Rockingham County) had local heritage. I'm not aware of any real meaning for the station's original calls of WCBX.

Later . . . .
 
I think Ray just liked the way they sounded.

BTW, Ray is still alive and living down near Wilmington. Bertha is still in Eden.
I actually have a WCBX Pam's jingle package I don't think they ever used.
 
As I recall from working weekends there during the summer of 1976, WCBX had a reverb on the microphone that consisted of an open, metal box with a spring between two wires. The PD was Barry Michaels, also the morning man. Dennis Elliott was middays and Tom Hall (?) was afternoons.

The Childers owned other stations in North Carolina and Virginia: WQBX/Christiansburg, VA and WCBQ/Oxford, NC.
 
That was a fun place to work. I was there in 74 until right around 77. I was doing part-time at WCBX took a weekend job at WRQK the day Elvis died. Pretty easy to remember that one.

Phil's Delco radio was an awesome monitor receiver.
 
StephanieNYC said:
Does anyone remember the history of what is now WCLW (a religious station owned by the Carolina Baptist College).

How long has CBC owned AM 1130 and what was it before? I've heard of a station called WEDE at 1130 in Eden, but I'm not sure if it ever existed -- can't find any information on it.
Click to expand...

I worked for WCLW from June of 1998 'til July 15, 2004. I was the second guy they hired, after of course Jerry Carter and Dean Lundy that is. Jerry Carter was/is the pastor of Reidsville Baptist Church and the founder/president of Carolina Baptist College, that is, if the latter is still in existence. Dean Lundy was his assistant/right hand man, at that time; hence, he was the GM RBC/CBC acquired the station in late March, 1998, or at least, that's when they started broadcasting under the current ownership/format. As everybody knows, it was the ol' WCBX, but it was that a couple of times. The first was in the '70s into the early '80s. Then it was CBX under a Southern Gospel format from around '84 'til maybe '88? It was WWMO from then, after the 102.1 went silent, 'til they acquired 830AM, I believe in maybe either late '90 or '91. As a strange side-note, CBX went back to it's rock'nrole format even while 'MO was making final adjustments to 830, but it (CBX) still had contractual obligations to meet from 'MO. It was rather odd to say the least, to go from rock'nrole to Pastor Cletus Grubbs from the Rock of Ages Baptist Church at 3:45! LOL! They kept up the rockin' for some time, still as CBX, then went Southern Gospel and changed to WEDE, then WCLW, the latter keeping the SGM format for a while, then flipflopping around with a variety of formats/programming. They would have Adult Standards for a little while, preachers on in the morning, CCM on Saturday mornings and even the Cable Radio Network for a while! IMHO, WCLW, last time I heard them anyway, is hanging by a thread. I miss it sometimes, but that's long ago. Hope this info helps, sorry for being so lengthy.

A man for whom Christ died,
Josh
http://www.thegladtidingsbroadcast.sermon.tv
 
Matt Smith said:
WCLW's calls are described as acronymic for Where Christ Lives Within. A good slogan, since they are currently owned by a church and play a Southern Gospel/Preaching format.

Prior call letters WEDE (city of license, Eden, NC) and WWMO (William Mason Oliver, originally founder of the first radio station in Rockingham County) had local heritage. I'm not aware of any real meaning for the station's original calls of WCBX.

Later . . . .
Click to expand...
Actually, I was the one who came up with the last half of the acronym. When I came to the station, I was told the call had been changed to WWLP, but apparently, that wasn't the case and we found it out later. So, Dean Lundy and I were sitting in the Control Room just talking, about what we'd do to let everybody know the callsign was different than what we'd been saying it was, when he said "Where Christ", (a few seconds of silence), then I said "Lives Within!" As they say, the rest is history, or at least in our case, local radio history, LOL! BTW, they still use that, as far as I know.

A man for whom Christ died,
Josh
http://www.thegladtidingsbroadcast.sermon.tv
 
Matt Smith said:
WCLW's calls are described as acronymic for Where Christ Lives Within. A good slogan, since they are currently owned by a church and play a Southern Gospel/Preaching format.

Prior call letters WEDE (city of license, Eden, NC) and WWMO (William Mason Oliver, originally founder of the first radio station in Rockingham County) had local heritage. I'm not aware of any real meaning for the station's original calls of WCBX.

Later . . . .
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, Matt, I thought it was William Manton Oliver?
 
I didn't live here at the time, so I can't say for sure, but Mark Childrey, who is a REAL relic of the good radio days in Rockingham County, told me it was MASON.

Later . . . .
 
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