Hogback must be liberal -- and protesting
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WORD to 98.9, Magic to 106.3
- Thread starter 101tm
- Start date
BIG problem. If you know how to find old versions of Wikipedia articles, it's not a big deal. But someone removed all the history of both stations before the switch, other than former call letters. Wikipedia has been a good source for this information for as long as I can remember, but when you add information, you should provide a source.
Someone put the unsourced information back and was warned you can't do that if unsourced information was removed, until you find a source.
Wikipedia editors who use newspapers.com get free access, and one of the libraries I go to has NewsBank. I found some good sources this afternoon for Magic, and it was fun reading about the protests when they dropped beautiful music. But for WORD (Meaning the FM), nothing.
Someone put the unsourced information back and was warned you can't do that if unsourced information was removed, until you find a source.
Wikipedia editors who use newspapers.com get free access, and one of the libraries I go to has NewsBank. I found some good sources this afternoon for Magic, and it was fun reading about the protests when they dropped beautiful music. But for WORD (Meaning the FM), nothing.
I enjoyed the talk station's change more. Well, until the big story came on. Don't care for the "music" on Magic.
Anyone who worked there prior to 1991 would react the same way to what passes for music on that station.
I was trying to reply to this above. I'm about nine minutes in.
Edit: Finished, now back to steaming WERT, which plays MUSIC.
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There is tons of history behind 106.3 but none of it can be traced unless you start digging around on archive.org and RadioInsight and you will find some from 2003-on. I noticed that was gone as well last night. 106.3 was a move-in from Newberry and was WGVC at the time from being Groovin’ 106.3. They changed to “Oldies 106-3” late in 2002 I believe once Barnstable bought it, Entercom bought Barnstable’s cluster in 2005 and 106.3 began a wheel of formats (The Walk, Greenstone Media’s female leaning talk format, Charlie FM) between then and 2008. Most of this info can be found, but the fact that it was deleted (and I know in this case was close to 100% accurate for both stations) is beyond frustrating.
I guess whoever is doing this is going to wipe the articles for 103.3, 103.9, 104.9, and others that have a lot of (accurate) information but most of it pre-dates a lot of the internet.
Anyway, I feel like this is what Magic has needed for a long time with their ratings struggles at 98.9. The playlist is extremely tight for an AC, but the hosts seem to have gotten a lot more energetic with the change, and the imaging is much better and cleaner. I like the jingles and I noticed they’re ID’ing the Seneca and Anderson translators now as well.
Well, I found one reference to WGVC which mentioned its format but not the Groovin' name.
I found something else not particularly useful but did see a reference to Magic 98.9 which reminds me. When did they start calling it that? Also, at some point the music changed to AC. That's totally different from what they were playing in 1991.
2002. Prior to that it was Lite Rock 98.9, and I think Lite FM? Or something like that before then. Back in those days they lived in My 102.5’s shadow.
The on air signal for 106.3 still sounds rough. It almost sounds like it’s clipping on liners/commercials and has this weird muddy sound phasing in and out. It also has these echoes behind certain instruments in songs I’ve never heard before. It’s a super harsh sound.
Latest ratings: Radio Industry News, Radio Show Prep, Radio Promotions, Radio Station Data, Podcast News
WSPA-FM / Magic 98.9 was up to a 6.1 and 3rd place 12+ which was an extremely impressive showing. WYRD, meanwhile, was back below a 4 share. They just screwed with the currently highest rated station in the cluster that’s made an impressive comeback this year. LOL
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I just saw the numbers as well and had to LOL. It’s a long non-election year summer ahead so WYRD is probably going sink back into the 2’s again by summer.
I’m sure someone (or more) has given thought to this move not working out. I totally get the advertising revenue part, but I can’t see the numbers going up much at all considering they already covered most of the market. Yes, the signal is better to the west (which is very conservative in Powdersville and west) on a solid signal unlike the translators and it goes deeper in to counties like Laurens. But I feel like most people that were going to listen have already been listening. Even when 1330/950 added 106.3, there wasn’t a long term increase. 1330/950 averaged around where WYRD-FM does now.
And seems like they would have at least tried to keep someone local or semi local in the 10am-12pm slot. Vince Coakley wasn’t exclusive to the station after WBT added him but he’s pretty
Much local and familiar with this area. Before WGTK grabbed Mike Gallagher, he was almost like a semi local because he had a long relationship with Russ Cassell and had hosted on WORD back in the day.
97.7 is The Brew and I'm pretty sure it's iHeart. So that's never happening. Also Audacy doesn't care about Asheville. Remember, Asheville is part of the TV market, but not part of the radio market in Greenville- Spartanburg - Anderson.
And while WYRD-FM being such a “big signal” sounds good, I don’t think they’re expecting to get ad buys in or around Asheville. As long as they can get buys that are in districts that border the state, and statewide race ads from NC and GA, that’s all they wanted from this change IMO. There are a number of towns in southern WNC that aren’t “Asheville” like Tryon and Columbus which I think are in the GSP market, as is Toccoa GA. It is still an upstate SC radio station.
Found it. Between newspapers.com, which I have access to as a Wikipedia editor who uses it as a source, NewsBank, which one library I go to has, and ProQuest, which all the libraries I go to have access to, I'm finding a lot of stuff. And this one source has a lot about Greenville TV and radio in 2002. I added to several articles, found the origin of WGVC (but not its move from Newberry, yet), and found its change to The Walk.
What I haven't found anywhere is the change to WYRD-FM and a WORD simulcast.
Entercom Expands 106.3 WORD to Pickens and Oconee Counties in South Carolina | Audacy Inc.
The Upstate’s No. 1 News Talk Radio Station Can Now Be Heard on 95.1 FM in Clemson, Pickens and SenecaPHILADELPHIA, PA – May 4, 2020 – Entercom, a leading
audacyinc.com
This mentions the FM simulcast added in 2008.
Odd that they never mentioned any of the translators on airEntercom Expands 106.3 WORD to Pickens and Oconee Counties in South Carolina | Audacy Inc.
The Upstate’s No. 1 News Talk Radio Station Can Now Be Heard on 95.1 FM in Clemson, Pickens and SenecaPHILADELPHIA, PA – May 4, 2020 – Entercom, a leading
This mentions the FM simulcast added in 2008.
Audio Quality still very bad and almost background static, even in a strong signal area, lacking treble and even sounds like its all in mono...I've heard some AM radio stations sound better than how Magic on 106.3 sounds right now. Their Online Stream sounds way better even though its like 2 minutes delayed. I will try HD Radio on 98.9-2 soon, hopefully even that is better.
I don't know, we've got Trump's indictment and trial circus, and probably Superpac ad buys to keep the MAGA base stirred up.
I also remember when Lee Alexander moved over to Lite Rock 98.9 in the mid 90s when WFBC flipped to CHR and was there for almost 20 years before going to Earth FM. After John, I believe he’s the longest running DJ WSPA-FM has had - definitely the longest in the AC iteration.
Don’t get excited about 98.9-HD2 or especially 93.7 HD-4 which sounds like it’s going in and out of something like a wind tunnel. 98.9 HD2 is so tinny it’s unlistenable.
I could swear it sounds like the signal has static but it doesn’t. It’s got such a harsh, noisy sound and with the occasional clipping it’s unpleasant to listen to on 106.3 even on a car radio. I think the audio chain is just loud and dirty and it’s giving off that static effect because if you just listen to the carrier, it’s not static. It sounds the same 30 miles away as it does down the road from the tx site. I’m assuming since it’s been a talk station for 15 years nobody has paid any attention to audio processing in a long time. I compared it to 99.5, 103.3, and even 103.1 in Anderson all of which are analog and it’s a night and day difference between those and 106.3.
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