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WORD to 98.9, Magic to 106.3

1

101tm

At the end of March, WSPA-FM and the AC format will move to 106.3 FM. WYRD-FM and it’s news talk format will move to 98.9 FM.

radioinsight.com

Magic 98.9 And 106.3 WORD To Swap Frequencies - RadioInsight

Audacy will swap frequencies of AC "Magic 98.9" WSPA-FM Spartanburg and News/Talk "WORD 106.3" WYRD-FM Simpsonville SC on March 28. The move will place the News/Talk on the 100kw/581m 98.9 signal adding coverage of Asheville NC. It marks the second move for the brand as it first moved from 950...
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

News/talk has been struggling nationwide, but it appears Audacy is doubling down. WYRD-FM doesn’t even have HD, hopefully they at least turn the stereo carrier on. iHeart’s identically powered 104.9 broadcasts in HD.

Not a surprise with the struggles we’ve seen with WSPA-FM (even though they were just 3rd 12+), but odd they would move an underperforming and demographically old/declining format to such a strong signal.
 
394B0DCC-23BD-4083-A274-B8D253934509.jpeg

New logo for Magic 106.3/WSPA-FM. This will be the first time music has been played on 106.3 in 15 years.

I wonder what will become of all of the translators in Pickens/Anderson etc for WORD, and the HD2 channels carrying WORD that fed them? Will they carry Magic? I’d guess 98.9-HD2 will carry Magic given some of the limitations of the 106.3 signal.
 
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A month or so is normal notice when a change like this happens. They’re moving two stations that are well established. They aren’t going to up and tell people they’re moving the week of.

The sad thing that’s a statement of the industry today is we will have two heritage full power FM’s (94.5 and 98.9) now spewing hate talk.

Hopefully Magic will get an on air refresh as it’ll need to get new imaging, jingles, etc. Perhaps this has been planned and that explains why Audacy hasn’t put much effort in to 98.9 on air. Or, are they relegating Magic to their weakest signal and “putting it out to pasture” so to speak as a placeholder until something they think is better comes along?
 
101tm said:
A month or so is normal notice when a change like this happens. They’re moving two stations that are well established. They aren’t going to up and tell people they’re moving the week of.
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No, I meant this sounds like it would have been announced April 1. That's the only thing that would make sense.
 
Follow the money. The audience for hip hop is young and dont draw enough advertising to get a big signal. Why listen to heavily edited music on broadcast hip hop when you can stream the music and get every cuss word.
 
This is what I don’t get. WORD’s audience is heavily 55+. This is known for news/talk, but if you can listen to Tara or Charlie, you hear most of the callers are quite past that age. Most of the ads are centered around retirement wealth. It’s a very old leaning station. The numbers haven’t been very good for a while until the past couple months. Same for 94.5, but that is a clearinghouse for Salem’s syndicated fare that has to spend little money.

I know news/talk can carry a higher spot load but is it worth putting on a signal that reaches far in to areas outside of the actual market? Very little of the market is in NC. You’re trading a 35-54 female heavy format (sweet spot) that I feel still had potential on a 100kw signal for a male 55+ format that’s not getting new listeners. More and more news/talk stations are just using translators unless they carry a lot of local, less political programming that is more demographically friendly. I’m not getting where Audacy is coming from here. 106.3 was fine for 15 years (even though WORD hit top 3 during that period several times so it’s not the signal) but all of a sudden they want to reach a few remote areas of NC. Weird.

With all of the issues Audacy is having financially, I wonder if there are divestitures coming and they plan to try to sell or swap 106.3 and are doing this to hang on to the WORD news talk brand.
 
There are several places in The South that have Conservative Talk Radio on full power FM signals.

95.5 WSBB-FM Atlanta (Cox)
104.5 WOKV-FM Jacksonville (Cox)
105.3 WWL-FM New Orleans (Audacy)
99.5 WRNO New Orleans (iHeart)
106.1 WTKK Raleigh (iHeart)
94.5 WPTI Greensboro (iHeart)
94.3 WSCC Charleston (iHeart)
105.5 WERC-FM Birmingham (iHeart)
99.5 WZRR Birmingham (Cumulus)
99.7 WWTN Nashville (Cumulus)
102.9 KARN-FM Little Rock (Cumulus)
98.9 WKIM Memphis (Cumulus)
And as mentioned above, 94.9 WGTK-FM Greenville (Salem).

I'm not including the three Hot Talk stations in Florida, WTKS Orlando, WHPT Tampa or WZZR West Palm Beach. Hot Talk is a different format.

Is it that The South is soooo conservative that putting an older-skewing talk format on a full-power FM makes sense?
 
RadioRonnie285 said:
Follow the money. The audience for hip hop is young and dont draw enough advertising to get a big signal. Why listen to heavily edited music on broadcast hip hop when you can stream the music and get every cuss word.
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I understand. I'm just flabbergasted that the Planet is safe on a big stick and Magic is not. Never thought I'd see this day. Magic has always done better than Planet also. What a shake up, and not for the better.
 
The answers as to why are in the press release.
"The move will increase broadcast signal coverage from 25,000 to 100,000 watts and 250,000 to 500,000 adults 35+ from the South Carolina/Georgia border to Asheville, NC, while covering parts of four South Carolina congressional districts and several North Carolina congressional districts.". Key words: Congressional districts. In other words, they hope to get political buys from several NC and SC races and PACs.
 
gr8oldies said:
Key words: Congressional districts. In other words, they hope to get political buys from several NC and SC races and PACs.
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Interesting they didn’t do this a year ago before the midterms but makes sense as a factor.

It is true there are a number of FM talkers that have been successful. In Birmingham and Nashville, for example, those stations built their success off of having predominantly local programming. Same for WOKV, KMBZ, WIBC, WWL, WWTN, etc. I’ve been told on this site before that talkers that stay more center lane - such as WIBC, WSB, or KMBZ - tend to grab younger demographics. WORD has more local hosts than, say, WVOC, but theybe never been an achiever like most of the above mentioned stations. Just recently we were remarking about how their ratings had collapsed slowly over the past several years. Just crazy to think the extreme WORD style talk is still popular enough (excluding Salem and non-comms) to get such a signal upgrade in 2023.

Also, it appears Vince Coakley will be leaving on 3-16. I didn’t see if he will be staying on in Charlotte at WBT or not.

“WSPA-FM Simpsonville Greenville Spartanburg”(No HD)….this is going to be so weird 🤣
 
98.9 has a very strong, full power signal and can be heard all the way up and down I-85 from parts of Charlotte to the suburbs of Atlanta. Perhaps they could coordinate news and traffic reports for I-85 travelers. I know when I drive into Atlanta it is crucial to listen to the traffic reports on WSB, even on the weekends. And WBT/WLNK have the best traffic reports when visiting Charlotte.

But since 98.9 has such a strong signal, I wonder if they could shift some of the WORD translators to the Magic format or one of the other Audacy stations.
 
tylerSC said:
98.9 has a very strong, full power signal and can be heard all the way up and down I-85 from parts of Charlotte to the suburbs of Atlanta. Perhaps they could coordinate news and traffic reports for I-85 travelers. I know when I drive into Atlanta it is crucial to listen to the traffic reports on WSB, even on the weekends. And WBT/WLNK have the best traffic reports when visiting Charlotte.

But since 98.9 has such a strong signal, I wonder if they could shift some of the WORD translators to the Magic format or one of the other Audacy stations.
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I'm assuming the current translators for 106.3 will switch to Magic at the same time the main station does. It's too bad they don't have that 97.7 translator in Asheville anymore.
 
Regarding Vince Coakley. He previously was a longtime news anchor at WSOC-TV, Channel 9 Eyewitness News in Charlotte. Then he was an afternoon host on WBT radio, and he also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in NC. After he departed WBT, he joined WORD in the Upstate. Then his mid morning show was added again on WBT. I am not sure if he is recently employed by Audacy, Radio One, or if he owns his own program. But he has hosted from WBT in Charlotte the past few years, although the show continued to be carried on WORD. If he is dropped by WORD, I wonder who will replace his spot.
 
I haven’t listened very long to 106.3 since 2008 or so, but I tested the signal in some areas this morning to see how big of a downgrade this will be in the core market for WSPA-FM.

106.3 is a better signal than the market’s other C3’s (103.9 and 104.9) as far as market coverage because it is more centrally located (tower is near GSP) but it’s much lower than 104.9 with a lot more power. 106.3’s issues start around I-85 MM 40 (SC-153) where there are small blips and flicks of static and it basically starts to get bad in Easley and deteriorates pretty quickly heading south on 85. If I recall, it’s much better to the east and can make it to Gaffney on 85. Anderson is a city in the DMA that’s screwed, but I agree they should keep that translator there which is sufficient.

Assuming the stereo pilot is turned back on for 106.3, the signal will suffer a bit but it still hits all of the cities of Greenville, Spartanburg, and the suburbs. Penetration should be good enough for offices. I really don’t know if we’ll see that big of a drop for Magic on 106.3 as long as the principal cities and suburbs of the market are covered. The rest is gravy.
 
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