Well the Christmas music has ended but there is info on the Earth FM facebook that brings us old tapes of Earth FM now on 94.5 HD2 and the stream. Says the Sale is not completely final so in a couple of days it will be so they gonna program 94.5 HD2 until then. Said the LMA started at midnight this morning.
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WGTK, Earth FM sold to EMF
- Thread starter passtheword
- Start date
Stuart Epperson (founder of Salem) attended and remained involved with Bob Jones University who originally held the 94.5 license until 2012. He sort of did the University a financial favor in a deal that was definitely slanted to be more beneficial for BJU in buying WMUU 11 years ago. Stuart’s widow Nancy and son Stu run Truth/Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting in some complicated structure. Since it was originally mentioned that Salem was going to continue leasing WGTK-HD3 and WGTK-HD4, and they outright own the 96.9 translator, I wonder if they are indeed still leasing the HD/translator and decided to can Rejoice and worked out a subleasing deal with the Eppersons. Win win for both sides.
And some part of the epperson family also owns WPAQ 740, WBRF 98.1 near Galax/Mt Airy, NC and a few other stations
103.3 sounds like it may have a spot or a quick filler music bed coming from the EMF feed where the ID should be. Both times I’ve checked it at the top of the hour, it hits right before the legal ID plays for 95.5 (95.5 has always been about 8 seconds behind 103.3). Sounds like either a legal ID didn’t get cut or cut properly or it wasn’t inserted.
Truth Network sounds like CSN, BBN or VCY America.
Truth Network sounds like CSN, BBN or VCY America.
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The whole dial here is packed with religious broadcasting now. I haven't counted, but I bet there are a dozen or more stations I can easily receive that are preaching, praying, praising or “positive and uplifting.” I have nothing against religious programming, but it's an awful lot of the same. When I first moved here, I feel sure I would have replaced “religious” with “country.” I think one could debate all day whether this is the problem, or a symptom of a problem. Or both. I also think all these frequencies going to “nonprofit” status is unacceptable. Used to be most of that stuff was at or below 91.9.
I see so many of the same mistakes being made by radio companies/big business that so many newspaper companies made. We used to joke that newspaper companies were paving their own roads to extinction. In the end, the average Joe loses, whether he realizes it or not, which I suppose is also a problem.
I see so many of the same mistakes being made by radio companies/big business that so many newspaper companies made. We used to joke that newspaper companies were paving their own roads to extinction. In the end, the average Joe loses, whether he realizes it or not, which I suppose is also a problem.
The shrinking radio advertising revenue pie makes it better for some commercial signals to go non com so the remaining commercial stations can stay in business. Though I grew up on most of the music earth fm played it didn’t appeal to me now but I do think it soukd have found another way to exist but with its owners exiting the market basically it didn’t happen . The answer was Salem cookie cutter news talk aside from Joey Hudson so that can be replaced online . But Salem spent a lot of money to bring the fish to me in my hometown and current so I’m thankful but also happy that klove was able to cover my second home in the upstate. I took 85 from Greenville back to Atlanta and the fcc data maps were spit in for hiw 1067 atl and 94.5 Greenville would meet up in Lavonia. Just as the 106.7 hd locked in the 945 started drop out. Just as I expected. Those two signals pair up well on 85. I did notice that 945 is running a few seconds behind 106.7
I tend to agree. It comes down to a bad combination of broadcast companies getting in over their heads on a corporate level overpaying for assets, increased competition from streaming, and a depressed advertising market. Many markets also have too many signals thus diluting the potential advertising $ pool. Salem’s Greenville cluster was sold to keep the company out of bankruptcy. These religious broadcasters have no debt and consistent $ coming in from listeners which puts them in a much more favorable position to buy and expand.
89.3, 89.7, 90.5, 91.1, 91.5, 94.5, 95.5, 103.1, 103.3, 103.9, 105.9, and 106.9 are all religious stations or low powered translators. Many of those are controlled by either The Power Foundation (TheLifeFM simulcast on 90.5, 103.1, 105.9) or RTN (His Radio). RTN raised a ton to buy and upgrade 103.9. This isn’t the first go around for 94.5 or 103.3 to be religious - WMUU had religious undertones and carried preaching at night for 50 years, and 103.3 (along with 103.9) was religious in the 2000s as The Walk. So the market has (shocker!) always been a lucrative place for religious programming. iHeart even tried religious commercially on 96.7 (basically unheard of) in the late 00s before it upgraded and moved to 104.9.
89.3, 89.7, 90.5, 91.1, 91.5, 94.5, 95.5, 103.1, 103.3, 103.9, 105.9, and 106.9 are all religious stations or low powered translators. Many of those are controlled by either The Power Foundation (TheLifeFM simulcast on 90.5, 103.1, 105.9) or RTN (His Radio). RTN raised a ton to buy and upgrade 103.9. This isn’t the first go around for 94.5 or 103.3 to be religious - WMUU had religious undertones and carried preaching at night for 50 years, and 103.3 (along with 103.9) was religious in the 2000s as The Walk. So the market has (shocker!) always been a lucrative place for religious programming. iHeart even tried religious commercially on 96.7 (basically unheard of) in the late 00s before it upgraded and moved to 104.9.
The missing ID on 103.3 will be fixed later today if someone hasn't already gotten to it, im told.
One of the companies probably are going to create a station that is similar on one of the frequencies.
The biggest problem with the radio industry is not the fact it's over the air radio but DEBT. Sure it's not as unique as it once was with all the social media and electronic options, but it's still hugely significant in audience count and you can buy ads on it dirt cheap compared to most media. PLUS IT'S FREE to the consumer! That's the really huge attribute of the business.
Radio can exist and operate profitably using modern technology but it can't afford to service a lot of debt. You can find operators in economically stable small and medium markets which still coin money. Many of the owners are aging out but as long as they are around, radio will survive in those places and even it's not the same as in the past when all shifts had local announcers and each station had a local news department, etc.
There is only one of the larger publicly held radio companies which operates with hardly any debt; Saga Communications, nearest to Greenville are stations in Asheville and Charleston, SC. All the others but especially iHeart, Audacy, Salem, Beasley...the list goes on and on...are saddled with so much debt and now the only buyers are the non profit operators. The debt is owned by private investment firms which saddles the companies they buy with as much debt as possible then loots them. At some point one of radio companies will simply not have the cash flow to continue operating. When that happens, it will be a milestone for radio. There will be a fire sale of stations on the market and the market to buy and sell radio stations is barely alive now. It will pretty much be impossible to sell a radio station at any price.
Probably the best radio station operations left are in vibrant small to medium size markets where today's technology and continued community prominence and less competition generates a good profit. This pie was baked many years ago. I'd say the newspaper industry is some twenty years ahead of radio in its decline. TV station companies are bathing in the red now and may well accelerate passing radio to the bottom. Like with newspapers, you can't run a TV station as cheaply as a radio station. Radio survives because to put it bluntly, we are the whores of media. Doesn't cost as much to operate and ads are cheap!
Roll back to 1996 when all this crazy spending started to take place. Deregulation hey what could possibly go wrong!!! What's really sad to me is the fact Craig, and his staff "got it". They super served the audience by being local. Salem could've easily went the satellite route for classic hits, but they didn't. Even though I don't live in the GSP market I still streamed Earth FM because not only did I love the music, but the staff made you feel like family. That is something the VT world of radio just can't produce. Sure you can upload a file, but it's still not the same.
Earth FM - I say this gently, and with the utmost respect for everyone that was involved with it - what about the ratings? They had fallen off for the past couple of years - down in the 2’s but they used to crack upper 3’s 12+ with the 103.3/95.9 simulcast and in 12+, beat stations like WTPT and even WSPA-FM. I won’t doubt a lot of loyal listeners and we radio enthusiasts enjoyed what they were doing. But the overall and demo numbers shared back in this thread weren’t good.
The Lake is often top 5 and is an automated jukebox. WROQ is syndicated in the mornings and voicetracked from out of market in afternoons. WESC is voicetracked out of market other than mornings and is very regularly top 3. The lack of personality or all local personality doesn’t seem to be hurting these stations, while Earth was local (and live during the day) trailing behind. The argument could be made for 103.3/95.9 not being a class C FM like the general leaders, but we saw what it had done before, and we’ve had a C3 finish in the top 3 and #1 in the past without having much coverage west of Greenville. As much as I hate to say it, those numbers tell me the listeners don’t mind automated or voicetracked radio and their operators are likely enjoying a much lower payroll as a result.
On another note I forgot to mention - it was great hearing Rick Woodell call in to the staff on Friday! He does AM drive at an AC in Toledo now, he was great on WSPA-FM, and Rick & Kimberly were awesome.
The Lake is often top 5 and is an automated jukebox. WROQ is syndicated in the mornings and voicetracked from out of market in afternoons. WESC is voicetracked out of market other than mornings and is very regularly top 3. The lack of personality or all local personality doesn’t seem to be hurting these stations, while Earth was local (and live during the day) trailing behind. The argument could be made for 103.3/95.9 not being a class C FM like the general leaders, but we saw what it had done before, and we’ve had a C3 finish in the top 3 and #1 in the past without having much coverage west of Greenville. As much as I hate to say it, those numbers tell me the listeners don’t mind automated or voicetracked radio and their operators are likely enjoying a much lower payroll as a result.
On another note I forgot to mention - it was great hearing Rick Woodell call in to the staff on Friday! He does AM drive at an AC in Toledo now, he was great on WSPA-FM, and Rick & Kimberly were awesome.
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It was fixed when I checked it out at 6pm. “103.3 WRTH Greer / Greenville / Spartanburg, 95.5, Anderson.” RDS is fully active showing artist/song/Air1. 103.3’s the only one showing the song info right now.
94.5 is still showing as Talk and has the 94.5 The Answer logo, but the PSD is displaying the static “K-LOVE 95.5” as the artist and “Positive Encouraging” as the song. 94.5-2 is still playing Earth FM airchecks but the PSD says “Air1 Worship Now” with the Earth logo. 94.5-3 still has the Rejoice 96.9 logo and info. 95.5’s PSD is blank (it has been for a while) genre is Adult Hits on HD and still Info on analog, and I still can’t get any RDS to load from the analog signal (it’s always only seemed to broadcast intermittently)
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The team is literally out there putting some of this together as we talk, so you;re listneign as they work.
Yeah, I’m just curious as to how they change stuff over. It sounds like with 94.5 right now EMF is providing the programming to Salem who’s still actually broadcasting the signal since they’re still under an LMA. Maybe?
The HD signal on 95.5 sounds amazing. It did as Earth FM too, may still be the same processing
This is especially true of WGTK, which was called Unique FM when it had sacred music, preaching and secular beautiful music as a Bob Jones station.
94.5 WGTK-HD2 now ID's as
"The Spirit Of Earth-FM WRTH /
K-Love 2K's Coming Soon"
"The Spirit Of Earth FM" sounds like a Ghost of its former self / Someone on Life Support, about to pull the plug, sad that its temporary....
HD2 is Playing old recordings of Earth FM, but will be greatly missed again, once EMF takes full ownership of 94.5 (when the LMA ends)
"The Spirit Of Earth-FM WRTH /
K-Love 2K's Coming Soon"
"The Spirit Of Earth FM" sounds like a Ghost of its former self / Someone on Life Support, about to pull the plug, sad that its temporary....
HD2 is Playing old recordings of Earth FM, but will be greatly missed again, once EMF takes full ownership of 94.5 (when the LMA ends)
That was a nice way to pay tribute to Earth FM staff while also seeking new displaced listeners at the same time.
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