I just gotta know Matt...what would have persuaded WIST to trade a 5 KW/1 KW signal for a local 1 KW signal at 1240?
I have wondered about that myself. I can only see one reason, and it is pure speculation. Let's suppose....
The WSOC of World War II was the weakest station in Charlotte. It was a locally-owned independent with 250 watts on 1240 kHz. The station probably just barely covered Charlotte, and were it not for the compensation it received from the NBC (Red) Network, times would have been tough to impossible.
WSOC's competition in Charlotte was WBT, the 50,000 "Blaw-Torch", with money to spare thanks to being a CBS O&O, and WAYS, then with 1,000 watts day and night and also with an NBC (Blue) network affiliation.
During the economic "freeze" on new station construction during the war, would-be broadcasters commissioned engineering studies, prepared budgets, acquired land and procured any available non-rationed materials, waiting for the war to end and the FCC to begin authorizing new stations as it had promised to do before the war.
For a city of its size, Charlotte in World War II was under-radioed. With three stations and four national networks, it was a given that the FCC would grant another station to the city. Following the war, applications tendered for two frequencies in Charlotte....930 and 1600. No doubt that WSOC would have thrown its hat into the ring for one of the frequencies if they could, but the FCC was more interested in putting more stations on than helping existing ones to become more powerful.
Of the applicants for 930, the most well-monied (it took lots of that to win out in comparative hearings back then) was Cosmos Broadcasting, owner of WIS in Columbia (now WVOC) and (I think) WFBC in Greenville (now WYRD). While WSOC might have had a viable argument with the FCC for a better facilitiy, their owners were saving what they could put back to eventually build a TV station.
So in 1947 two new stations come on the air in Charlotte....WIST at 930 and WGIV at 1600. WIST snatches up a full-time affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System, and WGIV becomes Charlotte's first "disc-jockey" station, playing "white" pop tunes by day, and "race" records at night.
Right away, several things became evident....1) Advertising sales in Charlotte almost ALWAYS went to WBT, with WSOC and WAYS making do with "dollar-a-holler" accounts and paid preachers. All three of the established stations guarded their accounts voraciously....2) Mutual, as an entertainment network, played very poorly in the South when compared to CBS, ABC and NBC....3) Young people were quietly turning their radios to WGIV, and turning onto the emerging R&B sounds, much to the consternation of Charlotte-area parents.
As more and more of the staples of network entertainment programming shifted from radio to television, WIST turned more of their broadcast day over to the younger sound. They stayed away from the heavy R&B that WGIV was playing, and aired more cover versions and things that would be reasonably acceptable to young, white adults. In doing this, they were going after the same, limited sources of advertising dollars not flowing to WBT or one of the other more long-established stations.
Without network compensation, and very limited advertising dollars, I'm sure that Cosmos Broadcasting eventually came to the realization that Charlotte was not a good market for them. After having built TV stations in two of South Carolina's markets, by the early 1960's they were probably looking for a way out.
Meanwhile....things were going on with WSOC. After enduring the TV freeze of the early 1950's, they secured the license to build a TV station on Channel 9. It took every bit of the local ownership's money to build WSOC-TV, and one year after putting Charlotte's second VHF TV station on the air (there was a UHF on Channel 36, but few even knew it was there) the WSOC stations were sold to Cox Broadcasting of Atlanta.
With a full stable of newspapers, radio and TV stations, Cox could apply the financial leverage that the former owners never could have mustered. And Cox was very interested in improving its stations, even if they had to resort to unconventional means to do it.
And so, we come down to the persuasive factors in the frequency swap. Cosmos wanted out of the "money-sucking hole in the broadcast ether" they had built with WIST. Cox had the money at hand to improve their investment in WSOC, plus the influence with the FCC to make the deal go through. The funds and frequencies were exchanged, and the FCC signed off on the deal.
Following the switch, Cosmos sold WIST...AM 1240 and FM 95.1...to Henderson Belk for little more than a song. WSOC...AM 930 and FM 103.7...went on to be solid players in Charlotte Radio. The AM held its own until the demise of its all-news format in 1981, the FM is still strong today.
That's the story as I have heard it. Probably more than you wanted to hear, but all of Charlotte's AM stations (and most of the FM's) have interesting stories behind them.
Later....
Matt Smith
WGSR-TV
