Abandoned Conway Radio Station WLAT/WYAV

[more kilowatts]

Many times passing through Conway, SC on the way to Myrtle Beach I can't help but notice the abandoned radio station with the sign out front that says WLAT/WYAV. You just don't run across many stations that appear to have been "abandoned in place" like this one. The building looks intact. The 2 towers are getting pretty rusty and are not even lighted at night.

Does anyone know anything about this station's past, when it went on the air, when it was abandoned, and where did the AM go? I realize WYAV is now WAVE 104.1 Classic Rock with its stick out near Garden City.

I passed through Conway in October 2006 and noticed the property was up for sale.

Thanks

 

[fortmill]

Since nobody else replied, I'll tell you what I know, strictly from memory. WLAT-AM was on 1330 with 5kw day and 500 watts directional at night. I have no idea when it went on air, but it was the only AM in Conway. In the very early 70s, it was one of only 3 AMs in Horry County, the other two being WMYB 1450 and WTGR 1520 (daytime only). There were 2 FMs, WMYB-FM/92.1 and WLAT-FM/104.1, both simucasted their AM co-owned. Radio on the Grand Strand was grim, to say the least. Most younger people, when visiting the beach, resorted to listening to WAPE/690Am from Jacksonville FL. WLAT-AM/FM was a classic small town radio station that had no single format--they did play top 40 at night, but even in the early 70s signed off about 10PM. Everything changed when WTGR signed on their FM on 101.7 with the signs of WKZQ. Though it broadcast with only 3000 watts, it was an instant sensation. WTGR was a top 40 station, so they made WKZQ album rock, a format that was very big at the time. WMYB-FM went beautiful music and was also an instant success. THat left WLAT-FM chugging along in Conway---broadcasting from one of the short towers that still stand along the highway, but with 20,000 watts much more powerful than the other two. THe owners finally took 104.1 full-time top 40, but the station still sounded like country bumpkins so had little impact on the area. Finally, in the early 80s, a regional or national radio group can't remeber which one) bought WLAT-AM-FM. They took 104.1 full-blown rock against WKZQ and changed the calls to WAYV. THe power was increased to 100 K, still from the same short tower. The AM stayed WLAT but was changed to black gospel. I doubt the owners ever spent another penny on the AM side--I remember it sounding horrible. By this time, a few other FMs had come on in the area---a country on 103.1 and another top 40 on 105.5, so the market started being more competitive. About 1985, the number of FMs EXPLODED, leading to the crowded dial MYB has today. Meanwhile, if memory serves me, WAYV got in trouble for excessive RF radiation---of course they moved their FM transmitter to a much taller tower. WLAT/WAYV was bought and sold several times. During one of these transactions, the buyer didn't take the AM, so it was simply turned off. WAYV moved their studio to some office park in MYB. I too, think its crazy that the original AM/FM facilty has been left to rot in the middle of all of that commercial sprawl in Conway. Also a shame that someone wlaked away from a perfectly good AM signal---would have made a nice community station for Conway, which today has none.

 

[thebroker]

You know, every time I go to the beach, I pass that old abandoned radio station and think about what a tragedy it seems. It's really just a bit creepy, because it looks like somebody just turned out the lights and left one day, and nobody ever went back. It doesn't look abandoned in the sense of being boarded up and intentionally left, but rather just like it was forgotten about.

 

[raydiofreak]

Okay, you got me, a tear! I grew up right there in small town Conway, and remember when WYAV came on the air as a Top 40, I was the worst radio germ in the world, I drove the DJ's crazy! Finally when I was 17 they gave me a job, there my career started. It's so sad to know that building just stands there with no love.

Somebody has to own the property, who? It's suprizing with the growth of "West Myrtle Beach", someone hasn't just wanted the property to build another McDonalds or (heaven forbid) Wings! LOL

 

[carlosswicegood]

all I can say: Get pictures!! and save them and put some on the web. upload them to photobucket....something. Just in case the next time I ride through I don't have a chance to get some, or I'm too late in getting some shots.

I have a feeling this site will soon just be a memory with nothing left to prove it stood except for our memories.

ps. when I was younger I would use that station as a landmark. After riding in a car for 4 1/2 hours, I knew I was close to the beach!

 

[vchimpanzee]

I hope the poster won't mind my making a few corrections here.

Everything changed when WTGR signed on their FM on 101.7 with the signs of WKZQ.

According to one source I saw, WTGR-FM was easy listening, and then sometime later it became WKZQ, with the rock format.

WMYB-FM went beautiful music and was also an instant success.

You're forgetting that they went disco first as WXTL. Also, before Big Yak, according to a source I saw, it was country. And WMYB-FM was WJYR Joy 92 during its many years of easy listening. I liked that station a lot in its early years, by the way.

They took 104.1 full-blown rock against WKZQ and changed the calls to WAYV. THe power was increased to 100 K, still from the same short tower. The AM stayed WLAT but was changed to black gospel.

The letters were WYAV, and before they went rock in the 1990s, they were adult contemporary and then hot adult contemporary. It could be they broadcast from the short tower with 100,000 watts, but I sort of doubt it.

As for WLAT, I don't remember precisely what it was before 1988, the year WLIT in Charlotte changed its letters. I do remember hearing the absolutely pathetic recording (or guilty pleasure, depending on your taste) "A Woman In Love" which was on "Real People", one of the early "reality" TV series. But in 1988, the WLIT letters had been moved there and it was a black starion (not just gospel) called Hot 1330. Later WBIG in Greensboro changed its letters and they ended up on 1330. At some point the format did change to gospel and they became WPJS. There is some community programming there, but it's not like in the old days.

According to the phone book, WPJS is still in that building. Now, they don't seem to be keeping it in that good a shape ...

 

[I Kick]

Wow thanks for this, as I too have wondered on my trips to MB.

 

[fortmill]

Wow--I had no idea 1330AM was SUPPOSED to still be on the air. I do know it was absent on my last few trips to the beach. I looked on RECnet and found that it recieved a license to broadcast with 3,200 watts day and 23 watts night in March, 2006, from a site east of Conway. Then it occured to me that WPJS might be a Bishop Willis station. Willis is notorious for horribly rundown radio sites, which would go right with the current state of the site on 501. Also, WPJS was the former calls of a Bishop Willis station near Fayetteville. I believe the FCC forced him to sell the Fayetteville station.

 

[more kilowatts]

From the dilapidated looks of this facility over the last few years I have passed by it on the way to Myrtle Beach, I was convinced it was not in use. I had never seen towers in this bad need of painting. Apparently the facility was in use until recently.

According to a technical statement I found on the FCC site, the WPJS owners were notified that the 501 facility would no longer be available for their use after April 1st, 2005. They were granted a CP for a new facility. They converted an existing 2-way communications tower for AM use by installing guy wire insulators, a ground system, and a three-wire folded-unipole feed system. The FCC AM Query now only lists the new facility as WPJS 1330.

Tha last time I passed by in October of this year, the building had a for sale sign out front, so it probably is the end of the line for this old station.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my original post. I knew very little about this facility until you folks replied.

Every time I go to Myrtle Beach, I still go through Conway on 501 just so I can get another look this station. It would be much easier to bypass Conway on the new highway 22, but something about that old station just keeps drawing me back by it.

I compare seeing this old radio station to spotting an old rusty junk car out in a field-you know at some point it was brand new and enjoyed many glory days before being forgotten and left to rot.

 

[thatwasradio]

Pennacle Broadcasting of Texas was the Broadcasting Company that bought the AM & FM and took the FM to 100,000 watts. I remember the Pennavle logo on the paychecks, they were very proud of it (the logo)!
Unlike the old WROQ/Big Ways studios that were demolished in Charlotte, the old WLAT studios building in Conway is bare, nothing in it, all the stuff was either trashed or moved to the 'working" attic at the "new" location in the industrial park (Not Industrial Park Blvd.) area in Myrtle Beach. They had a neat attic in the Myrtle Beach location complete with a printing press and a T-Shirt-making machine (it also did the Wave 104 logo on hats and stuff), all the old WLAT records and carts were up there in hoards of boxes. The engineer's office was nearby, and I remember he had a shower close by, between his office and the news studio, all this was on the second floor with the Programming offices. The FM control room, two production rooms (one was four-track), conference, sales, kitchen and reception was downstairs.
I have some old super 8mm film of the studios and people on the air that I will try to dig out and transfer sometime.

Kahuna
www.thatwasradio.com

 

[vchimpanzee]

The good news is that I saw someone mowing the lawn. The bad news is the sign looks worse than ever, and so do the old call letters.

 

[Ssummers]

THe owners finally took 104.1 full-time top 40, but the station still sounded like country bumpkins so had little impact on the area. Finally, in the early 80s, a regional or national radio group can't remeber which one) bought WLAT-AM-FM. They took 104.1 full-blown rock against WKZQ and changed the calls to WAYV. THe power was increased to 100 K, still from the same short tower.......About 1985, the number of FMs EXPLODED, leading to the crowded dial MYB has today...

WKZQ had morphed into Top 40 well before 1985. It was late 1984 or early 1985 when WYAV went Top 40. I know, because I was hired by 'KZQ from WNOK in 1985 after WYAV cleaned their clock. WYAV continued to fare well against WKZQ for a long time after that. The argument could be made that the Top 40 'KZQ never recovered from the drubbing by WYAV.

 

[vchimpanzee]

THe owners finally took 104.1 full-time top 40, but the station still sounded like country bumpkins so had little impact on the area. Finally, in the early 80s, a regional or national radio group can't remeber which one) bought WLAT-AM-FM. They took 104.1 full-blown rock against WKZQ and changed the calls to WAYV. THe power was increased to 100 K, still from the same short tower.......About 1985, the number of FMs EXPLODED, leading to the crowded dial MYB has today...

WKZQ had morphed into Top 40 well before 1985. It was late 1984 or early 1985 when WYAV went Top 40. I know, because I was hired by 'KZQ from WNOK in 1985 after WYAV cleaned their clock. WYAV continued to fare well against WKZQ for a long time after that. The argument could be made that the Top 40 'KZQ never recovered from the drubbing by WYAV.

I hate to disagree with someone who actually worked there, but WYAV was AC until 1986.

 

[Ssummers]

I hate to disagree with someone who actually worked there, but WYAV was AC until 1986.

No offense taken or meant, but if Wave was AC until 1986, then it didn't play what it reported. It was playing pure Top 40 when I arrived at 'KZQ in February 1985. It was a bee in Hennecy's bonnet that Wave effectively ended the 60 and 70 shares that KZQ had enjoyed from the late 1970's until the early 80's. By 1982 or 83, KZQ was no longer rock, tho it still used the famous Rock 102 logo until 1984(I think) when it went to the Outer Space Lightning Bolt "Energy FM" logo.

 

[thatwasradio]

I can tell you that Wave 104 was off-and-on programming-wise, sometimes they were Top 40 (NEVER CHR in the 1984 to 1989 era) and most of the time they were A/C/, I heard them every year at that time and they were more Top 40 during the summer, but COMPLETELY A/C during the off-season for that region. And someone was correct, they did not play exactly what they reported, I remember hearing everything on the air from The Beach Boys' old stuff to a lot of slow ballads and light A/C stuff that never showed up on their list of adds in R&R. But, hey, they had some good numbers 1986 to '89.
As far as pics from the old site, I have some pics I took just a couple of years ago I will post soon, as well as some super 8mm silent home movie film of it from 1990, when we cleaned all the Pop music carts and records out of the building there. As soon as I can get the films transferred, I'll put them on youtube or something, lots of film footage of the re-building of the Ripley's Believe It Or Not building in 1987 and the Pavillion from that time, also behind-the-scenes footage on film (not video tape) of the cast and sets of the movies "Shag" and "Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken" that were both shot in the Pavilion area. Gawd I could go on and on, I gotta' get a life!

 

[Ssummers]

I can tell you that Wave 104 was off-and-on programming-wise, sometimes they were Top 40 (NEVER CHR in the 1984 to 1989 era) and most of the time they were A/C/, I heard them every year at that time and they were more Top 40 during the summer, but COMPLETELY A/C during the off-season for that region. And someone was correct, they did not play exactly what they reported, I remember hearing everything on the air from The Beach Boys' old stuff to a lot of slow ballads and light A/C stuff that never showed up on their list of adds in R&R.


Gawd I could go on and on, I gotta' get a life!

I do remember that they were all over the road. When you hear "Sex-O-Matic" next to "Break My Stride", someone's driving erratically. But, then again, we played "Like A Virgin" into "Lunatic Fringe" into "Suzie Q" by Sugarcreek, um, I mean, The Creek. I don't think anyone was a true CHR back then. Hell, the term was relatively new back then. When I started at 'KZQ, the PD, Marv Clark, thought that everytime I referred to CHR, I was referring to Christian Radio (and one wonders why Wave handed the Q their lunch).

As far as the "gotta get a life" comment...I feel ya. Me, too.

 

[BlueHen]

I didn't see this mentioned, so I thought I'd ask. I visit MB every year and remember an AM station on 1050 which used to carry the old Westwood One standards format. Wasn't this from Conway? I probably last heard it in the mid '90s.

 

[thatwasradio]

If memory serves me correct, 1050-AM in Conway was WJXY-AM when I lived there, I think it has gone through a lot of changes since, including call letter changes. If this was indeed WJXY-AM, I remember it being a little station with studios in downtown Conway with the FM at the time, Bob Chrysler had ownership in it in the late '80's. They were playing Country at the time and their logo was fairly bland, stock letters with a generic graphic of an analog radio dial on a blue background.
Hey, Scott, do you remember the promos and PSA's on Wave 104 in the late '80's that ALWAYS ended with "...FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT WAVE 104.", we always thought that sounded so weak going into an Eddie Money or ZZ Top song, but it fit well when they went into a Simply Red or Chris Deburgh song... it wasn't just the words, but the way it was said, very soft and gentle, like talking to a child, and it had a faint sound of ocean waves and seagulls very light in the background.
When I worked there in 1990, Chris Ling came along and made it a real CHR station and I asked him if he thought that was cool or not, the way all the promos ended so slack like that, he said "IT DOES SOUND A BIT F_CKED UP DOESN'T IT?", all promos ended with jingles after that.

 

[Ssummers]

Hey, Scott, do you remember the promos and PSA's on Wave 104 in the late '80's that ALWAYS ended with "...FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT WAVE 104.", we always thought that sounded so weak going into an Eddie Money or ZZ Top song, but it fit well when they went into a Simply Red or Chris Deburgh song... it wasn't just the words, but the way it was said, very soft and gentle, like talking to a child, and it had a faint sound of ocean waves and seagulls very light in the background.
When I worked there in 1990, Chris Ling came along and made it a real CHR station and I asked him if he thought that was cool or not, the way all the promos ended so slack like that, he said "IT DOES SOUND A BIT F_CKED UP DOESN'T IT?", all promos ended with jingles after that.

I remember that outro well...especially the ocean waves and the seagulls. And you're right, it did work well with subdued intros or fade ins. On the other hand, going out of that into an up tempo intro would give you a heart attack.

I remember when I was at 'KZQ I was doing the Dixie Electric Company spots for the market and I would always find a way to refer to the Q in the spot. Wave would complain and complain. It finally came to a head when I ended a Dixie spot by saying, "All this and you can get CRAY-ZEE, TOOOO!" just like our voice guy at the time, Henry K, would say "KAY-ZEE-QUE!" at the end of our sweepers. Wave went into a frenzy. We all had a good laugh. Then I changed the spot and that was that. Back then, it was a different time. We (we meaning me, you, everyone at Wave and everyone at the Q) were radio gunslingers looking for a good time and having one on the air. Radio isn't and never will be the same again. It was one of the funnest times I ever had at a "job"...ever.

 

[thatwasradio]

Radio isn't and never will be the same again.

You're probably right. For a long time I had been saying that if you just give it time, radio will come back around, but, it hasn't. I now think of the golden age of radio with the likes of Jack Benny, live orchestras, live actors, announcers always notifying the listener if certain elements were pre-recorded (that's still an FCC rule, but so flexible it's ridiculous), and how it never returned to that type of programming. So I am really starting to think it will never be like it was when we were live all the time in Myrtle Beach. Sure, some stations will have the guts and the money to go all live sometime somewhere (some are doing it now), but that's only that one station in the market. Our all-live, competitive radio days are long gone. And that, my friend, was radio.
Kahuna
www.thatwasradio.com