Jay Sekulow is distributed by SRN, but is not an SRN program.
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WGTK, Earth FM sold to EMF
- Thread starter passtheword
- Start date
89.7 does reach there, but that is a hole. Only 3 non-con FMs in the area and each are with a syndicator.
Talking about news-talk, I’m surprised iHeart hasn’t put a talker on 660 or 1440 in Greenville. I know they have BIN on 1440 there, but Clay Travis, Glenn Beck, and now Hannity will be uncleared there. Even if it is fed off a HD3 or something since 660 is a daytimer now. A sizable market like that having one news/talk station is odd. You have all 3 sports stations having an FM presence instead.
With Earth FM that is shocking how they’ve stayed on with so few advertisers. And that’s with venerable personalities. We have a similar station in Charleston with The City and they’ve been on 7 years now. They started with on-air folks morning, midday and afternoon drive playing 60s and 70s mostly with a little 80s, and now it’s basically an 80s/90s station automated excpet for an hour at midday for Motown stuff.
Basically the same 3-4 advertisers the entire day with other times community events airing during breaks. They were on 2 translators to start along with a graveyard AM, then they moved the translator that covers Summerville/Goose Creek to old school rap a couple of years ago.
It drew a 0.2 last book. When it played older songs it did better, but not much.
Didn't mind? RTN which owns/operates His Radio was the group leasing 660, so of course they wouldnt mind.
What I meant was figuratively, they saw no issue attaching political views to their “His Radio” brand. I think it’s a bad idea personally - as there are many Christians that wouldn’t agree with the political talk they aired. EMF never, ever goes there and that’s been one key to their success. I doubt the His Radio music stations are political, but to me it seems like the association could have been a bad idea if it got out.
660 has always been daytime only, I think what you’re thinking about is their downgrade from 50kw to 5kw. iHeart has had very little interest in AM or attaching translators in this market for decades. I think the FM’s do well enough that they don’t need to bother but I agree since nobody is listening to a WESC simulcast on 660. I’m sure they’d sell it in a heartbeat if anybody was interested. They could try talk on 104.9, but they’re clearing their FOX Sports Radio there already and the demos are probably more attractive. I agree it’s odd that so much of their programming isn’t cleared, but I guess it’s similar to Charlotte where WBT is the only game in town carrying limited national programming.
I can remember the format being on 105.5, but that's rap now.
Not sure about Hewitt, but I've had the understanding that Sekulow pays Salem to distribute and carry his show. I'm thinking Bott Radio clears him in most, if not all, of its markets, too. Bott operates on a similar model and likely isn't airing the show free either.
Seems like I also heard, during the Davidson Media days, Earth FM's staff either paid the station and sold its own airtime or worked on commission. I can't remember for certain as it's been so long since I'd heard that, but, if either of those was, and is still, the case, that might be why Salem kept Earth FM around.
Jay Sekulow Live (now just called Sekulow) is mostly on Christian Teaching and Talk stations (such as Salem and Bott) and a few of Salem's News/Talkers as well. Like any non-network programming that is getting distribution services from a network (in this case live distribution), I am sure they are paying for that availability.
Sekulow's sons do have podcast through the Salem Podcast Network. That arrangement I have no idea about. Maybe Salem pays or maybe they split ad revenue or something else. But that is distinct from the daily Sekulow broadcast.
Ahh, interesting. Sekulow does seem to be on most Salem talkers though. I want to say Hugh Hewitt is through Salem, but I’m not 100% sure.
My memory is fuzzy but Earth FM was a concept from some guy whose name escapes me now. The big buzz was the reunification of Love and Hudson, Lee Alexander (who I believe left WSPA-FM for it), K.C. Carson (RIP) and maybe someone else? launching a Spartanburg oriented station playing 50s-70s oldies. I want to say Sheri Taylor replaced Howard Hudson after he departed. It seems like there was some sort of “buy in” to the station initially by the staff now that I think about it.
They started with a full air staff via LMA of Davidson’s 910 WOLI and 105.7 translator in 2012. Somehow in 2013 they were able to LMA 103.3 as Earth Radio Broadcasting (the original entity dating back to 910) and moved to 103.3 with all of the other time brokered programming removed. In 2014 ERB bought it outright then Salem bought it via a shell company of theirs shortly after. The next year 95.9 came on the scene. Most advertisers are shared with 94.5, so it’s been treated as a regular Salem station for a while from what I can tell. They’re all great people, and I’m not complaining, but it is puzzling how Salem seems to have added even more air staff since taking over, and they’re not rookies.
I think they had more advertisers than you realize. Sure, there were the medical things and so forth, but also wealth management firms, Ingles, Bojangles, and a number of other local businesses — Image East Video, Allstate, restaurants and so forth. The irony is that the listeners to Earth (and probably The Answer) are likely much more apt to support these local businesses than listeners to, say, The Lake, which might as well just be an old iPod on shuffle.
If I want that, news flash: I have an old iPod somewhere (or, like many of us, Spotify, Apple Music, Qobuz or whatever). As someone who used to work in the newspaper industry, I saw firsthand how eschewing local absolutely was the wrong move. Now, I get that EMF doesn't give a rat’s tail about any of this. They have their annual beg-a-thons or whatever and get donations. I have no problem with that per se, except EMF is gobbling up all these noncommercial frequencies, and radio frequencies are not drawn from an unlimited pool. So, we are taking two (or three) frequencies and basically running nonlocal feeds that you or I can get right now on our phone or computer. What does this do for the local listener or community? Will EMF be at Spartanburg Spring Fling? Downtown Alive? Other festivals and events? Interact with GSP listeners during the day? Nope. Because of their business model and nonprofit status, they will do fine — and pay their leaders well. Meanwhile, the listeners in places like the Upstate get the short end of the stick.
Speaking of Townsquare, my little experience with their stations gives me the impression that they do value local, and seem to run decent operations. Lord knows NJ101.5 has got to be a license to print money for them. But other stations they own seem to at least have a local presence. A shame they aren’t the new owners, as I think they would be much better for the community.
^You’re right about the advertisers. The ones I mentioned weren’t the only ones, of course the ones you mentioned as well. I did notice a lot of “big” groups that advertised with Summit, iHeart and Audacy did not with Salem. But then again, a lot of the advertisers with Salem were more likely to have relationships with the listeners and personalities of the stations. The short stopsets on 103.3 were always nice compared to other stations.
EMF won’t even have a local presence in the market since that rule no longer applies that they must have a local studio. Does Salem own 920 Wade Hampton? That land could fetch them a bit of cash also. Not sure about the building, I doubt anyone is buying a broadcast facility.
I wonder how long the personalities on Earth FM will last. Some stations keep them up to the end to do a “send off” if you will, others turn stations in to jukeboxes prior to LMA/sale. Given how Salem/Earth FM has been I’d be shocked if they just pink slipped them out the door without letting them say their final words on air.
EMF won’t even have a local presence in the market since that rule no longer applies that they must have a local studio. Does Salem own 920 Wade Hampton? That land could fetch them a bit of cash also. Not sure about the building, I doubt anyone is buying a broadcast facility.
I wonder how long the personalities on Earth FM will last. Some stations keep them up to the end to do a “send off” if you will, others turn stations in to jukeboxes prior to LMA/sale. Given how Salem/Earth FM has been I’d be shocked if they just pink slipped them out the door without letting them say their final words on air.
Even when that rule was still in effect, EMF got studio waivers
I'm surprised they are selling 94.5/95.5/103.3 and not 96.9 and/or 102.9. Those stations could be the ones with little to lose conpared to the bigger signals, and plus one of those translators would complement K-Love 88.3 already in Boiling Springs, serving Spartanburg. WGTK is also their top asset, signal and brand wise for Salem.
A different buyer surely would love to continue it as-is, like I said earlier...This is just like when Charlie FM came and went, but ironically same kinda thing but in reverse when Magic recently swapped with WYRD...WMYI doesn't cut it with some of the variety heard on WRTH. Hopefully the format will continue somehow somewhere...I surely would hope. Maybe HD or translators or online streaming / airchecks or the EarthFM app to continue it / keep it going in some way shape or form...🌎 ☠️⚰️😭
This would leave most of the Upstate without a Classic Hits outlet, except maybe small local signals like 101.7 WQUL in Woodruff / 104.3 WZZQ in Gaffney. Also perhaps 101.7 WKDK in Newberry / 94.1 The Lake in Seneca/Clemson, also not far 101.5 WOHS on Shelby NC and 96.5 WSVM in Valdese / Morganton NC.
A different buyer surely would love to continue it as-is, like I said earlier...This is just like when Charlie FM came and went, but ironically same kinda thing but in reverse when Magic recently swapped with WYRD...WMYI doesn't cut it with some of the variety heard on WRTH. Hopefully the format will continue somehow somewhere...I surely would hope. Maybe HD or translators or online streaming / airchecks or the EarthFM app to continue it / keep it going in some way shape or form...🌎 ☠️⚰️😭
This would leave most of the Upstate without a Classic Hits outlet, except maybe small local signals like 101.7 WQUL in Woodruff / 104.3 WZZQ in Gaffney. Also perhaps 101.7 WKDK in Newberry / 94.1 The Lake in Seneca/Clemson, also not far 101.5 WOHS on Shelby NC and 96.5 WSVM in Valdese / Morganton NC.
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That’s why it’s being sold though. Salem needs cash badly, and strategically the GSP stations made the most sense and got them the most. Remember most of Salem’s stations in markets the size of GSP or larger are AM’s, other markets are smaller/weaker signals or markets where EMF / VCY already are. EMF and maybe VCY America have been the only companies buying other than one offs and trades so obviously no one else was interested in (or could afford) the stations. It’s not like EMF is taking these signals away, Salem had to sell something so they picked GSP which was an awkward market for them anyway and EMF happened to be the buyer with the right amount of cash on hand.
So if there’s anyone to “blame” for these 3 signals changing formats, it’s the Salem c-suite. Not EMF.
Don't forget these stations have AM signals too, which might reach farther, although some are daytime only or might as well be.
WQUL is at 1510 although Wikipedia lists it and its 95.9 translator as classic country. Radio-Locator lists 95.9 FM as "other" but does say 101.7 is classic hits.
WZZQ is at 1500.
WKDK is at 1240 but Wikipedia calls its format "variety".
I don't see how WSNW in Seneca (1150) could be called "The Lake" because it's certainly in the signal range of 102.5 the Lake. Also, Wikipedia lists it as soft rock.
WOHS is at 1390 and WSVM is at 1490. When you get that far east, WXRC 95.7 leans rock but is a classic hits station. WKQC K-104.7 calls its format adult contemporary but it might as well be called classic hits because so much of its music is from the 80s and there are no currents and few songs from decades in this century.
I hope someone gives us a way to listen to the final words if there are any.
WQUL’s translator on 95.9 has been off at least 3-4 years and on the 101.7 translator. I wouldn’t go off Wikipedia, it’s on the FCC.
I have no idea if there’s anything to this, but according to a Facebook fan group today is supposedly the final day for at least Earth FM. I’m not sure if it’s going to run jockless, switching tomorrow via LMA, or if what’s going on but supposedly the staff is giving away strong hints today is their final day. I’ve been listening this morning and haven’t heard any commercial breaks which is odd.
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“We’re gonna be here, then sh*t hits the fan.” 😳 guess Salem doesn’t care at this point, but not like he’s wrong
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