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WGTK, Earth FM sold to EMF

High-quality airchecks taken from the 103.3 FM signal of the station can be found here: https://bit.ly/earth-airchecks — this is the same as the link on the Save WRTH FM website.

The airchecks start at 8:19 a.m. Aug. 25, 2023 and currently run through 11:59 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, 2023. More will be added regularly. They are organized by day and split into manageable 60-minute segments.
It'll take some time for me to listen but there is the ability to skip over the music if I can calculate the song's length just right, which in my case seems to be a good idea.
 
Greenville Journal article about the end of Earth FM: End of the Earth: Upstate radio sale rankles fans, but it’s a common tune

Ironic that a couple of class A’s gathered such a following compared to their class C sister station. All I’ve heard about 94.5 going away has just been said in passing. 103.3 felt like a cursed frequency for 20 years (along with 103.9 who also went non-commercial). Funny that both of the 103s will have the same format again but different owners, and this isn’t the first foray in to Christian music (103.3/103.9 were “The Walk” for a couple years before they were sold in 2005 and that format briefly lived on 106.3 after)
 
Greenville Journal article about the end of Earth FM: End of the Earth: Upstate radio sale rankles fans, but it’s a common tune

Ironic that a couple of class A’s gathered such a following compared to their class C sister station. All I’ve heard about 94.5 going away has just been said in passing. 103.3 felt like a cursed frequency for 20 years (along with 103.9 who also went non-commercial). Funny that both of the 103s will have the same format again but different owners, and this isn’t the first foray in to Christian music (103.3/103.9 were “The Walk” for a couple years before they were sold in 2005 and that format briefly lived on 106.3 after)
I'm curious about all those various colored squares in the first photo and the list on the left.

WORD is an AM station and should have been identified as such. While WYRD-AM is simulcasting, the station called WORD in that list at the end does not use those letters.
 
I'm curious about all those various colored squares in the first photo and the list on the left.

WORD is an AM station and should have been identified as such. While WYRD-AM is simulcasting, the station called WORD in that list at the end does not use those letters.
They do use those letters all the time, excpet at the top of the hour ID. Newspaper reporters don't generally check FCC databases, and let's face it, only radio geeks know that it is WYRD. Ironically, the real WORD-FM is a Salem station in Pittsburgh.
 
They do use those letters all the time, excpet at the top of the hour ID. Newspaper reporters don't generally check FCC databases, and let's face it, only radio geeks know that it is WYRD. Ironically, the real WORD-FM is a Salem station in Pittsburgh.
Still, they made a point of saying "call letters", in which case the actual official calls should be used.
 
I'm curious about all those various colored squares in the first photo and the list on the left.

WORD is an AM station and should have been identified as such. While WYRD-AM is simulcasting, the station called WORD in that list at the end does not use those letters.
It looks like sweepers/commercials from the automation software.

If we want to really get technical, 1330 is just WYRD, and 950 is WORD. 98.9 is WYRD-FM since AM’s do not get suffixes like -TV and -FM since they’re always considered the “main” home of the calls. But of course none of this matters to anyone outside of some of us on these boards.
 
It looks like sweepers/commercials from the automation software.

If we want to really get technical, 1330 is just WYRD, and 950 is WORD. 98.9 is WYRD-FM since AM’s do not get suffixes like -TV and -FM since they’re always considered the “main” home of the calls. But of course none of this matters to anyone outside of some of us on these boards.

hot button keys..... the automnation will play the sweepers and commercials.

The hot button keys are for sounders, liners and other quick hit things you need at the press of a button at a moments notice without having to look through the automation library and load it into the playlist
 
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hot button keys..... the automnation will play the sweepers and commercials.

The hot button keys are for sounders, liners and other quick hit things you need at the press of a button at a moments notice without having to look through the automation library and load it into the playlist
Ahh, makes sense!

I wonder if EMF will change the calls of any of these 3 stations. More often than not they do with K-LOVE (to some sort of transposed call that somewhat resembles it) but sometimes they don’t. WGTK would be pretty decent to keep for K-LOVE. Air1 stations they seem to change less often. Will also be interesting to see if they keep K-LOVE on WLXK or switch it to Air1 since it overlaps a lot of coverage with 94.5.
 
Ahh, makes sense!

I wonder if EMF will change the calls of any of these 3 stations. More often than not they do with K-LOVE (to some sort of transposed call that somewhat resembles it) but sometimes they don’t. WGTK would be pretty decent to keep for K-LOVE. Air1 stations they seem to change less often. Will also be interesting to see if they keep K-LOVE on WLXK or switch it to Air1 since it overlaps a lot of coverage with 94.5.

like say a jock is doing a bit and needs various sound effects.. and needs them in an instant without thinking or having to look almost... he pressed a button and it fires off the losing bell in a contest or whatever. .and it stops.. it doesnt advance the playlist to something else
 
Craig Debolt was on with Dan Scott (formerly of WCCP) show on 94.5 this weekend (staring at 43:00)


He also mentions that Rejoice 96.9 and Poder 102.9 will end on 10/28 at midnight along with 94.5 and 103.3. Does anyone know who the translators were sold to?
 
Craig Debolt was on with Dan Scott (formerly of WCCP) show on 94.5 this weekend (staring at 43:00)


He also mentions that Rejoice 96.9 and Poder 102.9 will end on 10/28 at midnight along with 94.5 and 103.3. Does anyone know who the translators were sold to?

they werent sold, salem is keeping them
 
they werent sold, salem is keeping them
Did you hear that recently? The translators were for sale shortly after the sale announcement, it doesn’t sound like 96.9 or 102.9 continuing after 10/28 from what the PD said in that interview. Salem was initially hanging on to the translators and going to lease WGTK HD3/HD4 to feed them until they could unload the translators.
 
Did you hear that recently? The translators were for sale shortly after the sale announcement, it doesn’t sound like 96.9 or 102.9 continuing after 10/28 from what the PD said in that interview. Salem was initially hanging on to the translators and going to lease WGTK HD3/HD4 to feed them until they could unload the translators.
It's been said multiple times after this sale was announced and even in .. i think lance venta's post about the sale when it first happened
 
It's been said multiple times after this sale was announced and even in .. i think lance venta's post about the sale when it first happened
Yeah it was in all of the industry articles at the time. I believe that was the plan if the stations couldn’t be sold. A few pages back it was mentioned both translators were for sale around $500k each. I’ll gladly be corrected if I’m wrong, just confusing now. Seemed pretty clear from that interview (which was just recorded last week) to me that all 4 stations were going away at the same time.

I can’t find anything that they’ve been sold, but I can’t find a market where Salem operates only translators and not one of their core formats so either way I don’t think it’s long term
 
Rejoice 96.9 says their last day of broadcasting is on Sunday 10/29. I wonder what will be taking their place.
 

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Rejoice 96.9 says their last day of broadcasting is on Sunday 10/29. I wonder what will be taking their place.
I’ve been checking the FCC database to see if anything has been filed for 96.9 or 102.9 with no luck. Wouldn’t they need to be assigned a new parent station or at least file to temporarily go silent since Salem is out of the picture after this weekend? I doubt EMF bought or is leasing them. They have HD channels like K-LOVE Classics but I’m not aware of them ever putting those on translators or stand alone stations, and neither one of those translators would serve a purpose for K-LOVE or Air1.

BTW, if anyone is interested, tomorrow morning the former staff will be together one last time on Earth. Bill, Heidi, Stacie, Lee, Action, Sue, Craig, Tommy and potentially some others. As unfortunate as this is it’s great that Salem has given them so much time to say goodbye. Earth FM has been in “IDGAF” mode this week and quite entertaining 😂
 
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I’ve been checking the FCC database to see if anything has been filed for 96.9 or 102.9 with no luck. Wouldn’t they need to be assigned a new parent station or at least file to temporarily go silent since Salem is out of the picture after this weekend? I doubt EMF bought or is leasing them. They have HD channels like K-LOVE Classics but I’m not aware of them ever putting those on translators or stand alone stations, and neither one of those translators would serve a purpose for K-LOVE or Air1.

They would only need to go silent or move if Klove shuts off the HD. Nothing saying they cant continue on for awhile... Klvoe gets space from Iheart in Minneapolis and vice versa for translators and HD stuff.
 
They would only need to go silent or move if Klove shuts off the HD. Nothing saying they cant continue on for awhile... Klvoe gets space from Iheart in Minneapolis and vice versa for translators and HD stuff.
If they’ve been sold to someone else though, wouldn’t they need to lease the HD channels from EMF? Initially it sounded like Salem was leasing the HD3 and HD4 from EMF but it doesn’t sound like that’s happening anymore if Rejoice (programmed by Salem) and Poder (leased to/programmed by a Spanish broadcaster) are going away.
 
If they’ve been sold to someone else though, wouldn’t they need to lease the HD channels from EMF? Initially it sounded like Salem was leasing the HD3 and HD4 from EMF but it doesn’t sound like that’s happening anymore if Rejoice (programmed by Salem) and Poder (leased to/programmed by a Spanish broadcaster) are going awa

You may be right, if the stations are going away....but yes, theyd need to lease if the stations feeding the translators were sold but the translators werent, but like i said... stuff like this is done in other markets
 
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