Ah, nope!
WVWB didn't fold. It lives on...
WGSE is dark. But may come back...
In the early 70's, Conner, Radio Smiles, and a 3rd group pulled off an allocation swap that moved 106.5 to Bridgeton for WVWB, and 97.7 to Kinston as WISP-FM (later WQDW). WVWB remained elevator music as Stereo 106 WVWB, later changing calls to WSFL "Wonderful Sounds For Living" when it went 100kw on WCTI-TV's old Glenburnie Gardens stick. A non-compete clause with the 97.7 frequency in Kinston kept 'SFL from going urban for years. But the clause did not apply to a new AM sister station, so WGSE "Great Soul Entertainment" was born as a 5kw daytimer at 1380 on the unused tower in Bridgeton. The FCC approved this daytime allocation because it was New Bern's first Regional AM station. (As a side note, the 1380 application was originally 1kw at Trent Woods, but this wasn't as strong a reason for a new daytime station to the FCC. Also the folks currently running WCPS in Tarboro helped to start WGSE. )
WSFL 106.5 remained licensed to Bridgeton until 1983, then the 100kw station 'moved' to New Bern. The antenna remained at WCTI-TV Glenburnie Gardens.
WGSE became Disco WBIC in the mid 70's, then Southern Gospel as WBIC until financial issues surrounding a proposed 3-tower array at Tuscarora got the entire AM staff fired. WBIC overnight became WWMG Magic 1380, with a live assist Soul/Funk format that actually pulled some numbers. Around the Summer of '84, satellite-fed country music was the new format at WWMG Country Magic 1380. Later that year, when the FCC changed the simulcast rules, WSFL 106.5 became WSFL-FM and WWMG 1380 became WSFL.
If you listened to the AM/FM simulcast, the FM jocks would walk over to the AM control room (when they remembered) to give a seperate legal ID. In other words, they never said "WSFL and WSFL-FM New Bern" at the top of the hour. Instead, a cart played on the FM that simply stated "106-POINT-5 WSFL-FM NEW BERN". Then as the next song played, the jock would later open the mic on the AM and ad-lib a usually comic 'do I really have to do this' sounding ID for 1380. I think I heard Rick say, "Hey You! Buy an FM radio! They're really cheap now! This is WSFL New Bern" They were almost always fast or funny, and I made a habit out of hitting the AM button on my Mustang's tuner right after the FM legal, just to hear jock do the I.D.
WGSE/WBIC/WWMG/WSFL came to an end as WCOO Cool 1380 in 1990 under seperate ownership. They were late on their tower lease to AnswerQwik Paging, the Bridgeton tower's new owner. The transmitter shack, and all of its contents were seized by the sheriff. A sad end for a station that was born due to a non-complete clause, and an unused 300ft stick in Bridgeton.
Recently, another group has applied for a 1380 station licensed to Bridgeton. With WEED as a class-D station now, a reborn 1380 won't have to protect Rocky Mount at night. We'll have to see where this one goes.
A frequent board contributer (now running a local network of great public stations) was WSFL/WSFL-FM's engineer for a while. Maybe he can flesh this out for you a little better. And when he ran 'SFL, it sounded good!
