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WRBK-FM Richburg question

Y

yugoidar

Does anyone know anything about WRBK in Richburg? Pretty good sounding oldies station on 90.3, good jingles and decent oldies music but no personalities.

Just curious who owns them? Is it programmed locally or satellite? Since it's non-commercial, somebody's coming up with some pretty good out of pocket money to keep it on the air.

They must really love their oldies music!
 
owned by Richburg Educational Broadcasters, Inc with 7500watts.
 
They are listed in Chester, SC at a PO Box and show a starting date of 3/14/2008. Interesting they also show an FS class which is Aux backup station, their phone # is listed on the FCC data base give them a call. I won't put it here as they might care for that.
 
A lot of this has been discussed before on the SC and Charlotte forums, but I'll tell you what I know. I listen to WRBK a good bit and finally I got very curious and called the station and asked questions. Some guy in Chester County basically owns the station and runs it as a hobby. They do get a good bit of funds from "underwriters" in Chester and Fairfield Counties, such as the local telephone/cable company, banks, doctor's offices, etc. The station is locally produced, but the vast majority is off a server with over 3000 songs programmed in. A few volunteers present live shows on the weekends. WRBK orignates from the old 1490AM/99.3 studio in Lowrys, just northwest of Chester, though 90.3's tower is just off I-77 just south of Richburg. WBT-FM99.3 still broadcasts from the tower at what is now the WRBK studio in Lowrys. WRBK has a deal with WBT to monitor the 99.3 transmitter and act as a presence for 99.3 in Chester CO. Of course all the programing for 99.3 comes from Charlotte. Since programing for 1490 also originates in Charlotte (simucasts WGIV, I believe) WRBK is the only true local station in Chester Co. You're right, WRBK is a great sounding oldies station--far superior to WOLS-FM/106.1. I fear that when the gentleman (sorry, can't remember his name) tires of his "hobby" 90.3 will land in the hands of one of the so-called "religious" broadcasters. I'm sure the frequency is worth a good bit of money as it covers several hundred thousand people in it's primary coverage area in York and Lancaster Counties, not to mention Chester and Fairfield, as well as much of Charlotte and Columbia.
 
Thanks, Fort Mill.  I confess to being curious as well.  It's amazing to me that someone can run the station as a hobby and have it sound as good as it does.  My hat's off to the gentleman, whoever he is.
 
WRBK is owned by Jeff Sigmon. Jeff's father Curtis built and owned WYCL/York for years and years. WYCL was a top-drawer Top-40 station in its day.

WBT-FM (99.3), began life as WCMJ/Chester in 1969. WCMJ's studio/transmitter was housed in a mobile home, which was located south of Chester, just off Highway 321. In 1978, a very nice brick building was built on that site, which housed new studio gear and a new transmitter.

With that, WCMJ dropped country to become WDZK, which simulcasted WBZK (the former WYCL)/York, from 6:00AM 'till 6:00PM. After 6:00PM, WDZK continued identical programming from the Chester studios, which was then required by the FCC.

As K-99, the stations programmed an adult-oriented Top-40 format, closely resembling WYCL's successful offerings. Jeff Sigmon was K-99's program director. I did mornings at WYCL/WBZK prior to the initiation of the simulcast, as well as afterwards on K-99.

The move to the present 99.3 site happened in 1990, when the station first increased power from 3 to 6 kilowatts (a full "A"), then to a class C-3 in '92. Curtis Sigmon sold WDZK to Jefferson-Pilot in 1995, following which it became WBT-FM

All that to say that I'm not surprised that WRBK has a "spiffy" sound...it's a family tradition.
 
Jay, I think you filled in all the blanks. Thanks! I spent several hours this weekend listening while working on a backyard project.

The more I listen, the more impressed I am with what Jeff Sigmon has done with the station. I know "oldies" stations aren't in vogue these days, but what a pleasure it is to hear one that plays more than the standard 300-400 songs over and over.

Thank you, Jeff Sigmon.
 
Yugoidar, I would just like to point out that Oldies stations seem to be doing pretty good this day in time. Citadel of Atlanta flipped the second biggest FM radio station in the Atlanta area from Country to Oldies. Washington DC has a new Oldies Station, and so does Charlotte. Oldies are certainly still in vogue.

Traditional
 
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