WTSB (1090 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed by the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

to serve the community of

Selma, North Carolina Selma is a town in Johnston County, North Carolina, United States. In 2010, the population was 6,073, and as of 2018 the estimated population was 6,913. Selma is part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area. The area has a populati ...

. The station is owned by Truth Broadcasting Corporation. The station is daytime and "critical hours" only on AM station and all day on W288DH-FM 105.5 MHz, providing local news, obituaries and typical small town full service programming along with

Southern gospel Southern gospel music is a genre of Christian music. Its name comes from its origins in the southeastern United States. Its lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as ...

, bluegrass gospel, and classic gospel music.

History of WTSB, Lumberton

WTSB was located at 580 AM, and broadcast at 500 watts during the day and 50 watts at night in 2000.Michael Futch, "Folksy 'Don Ross' Journal' Is Dropped," ''The Fayetteville Observer'', May 9, 2004. The station signed on in 1947, owned by Robeson Broadcasting Corp. Jack Pait, who had a furniture business in Lumberton, was majority stockholder. Levi E. Willis Sr., president and owner of Willis Broadcasting of

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...

, bought WTSB in 1997 from

Beasley Broadcast Group Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. , the company owned 63 stations under the Beasley Media Group name. History The company was founded in 1961 by George G. Beasl ...

Michael Futch, "WTSB Will Be Back on Air, Owner Says," ''The Fayetteville Observer'', July 2, 2000. which had bought WTSB and

WKML WKML (95.7 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Lumberton, North Carolina, United States, it serves the Fayetteville area. The station is currently owned by Beasley Media Group, LLC., through licensee Beasley M ...

. Both stations aired

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

for a year when they were co-owned, but WTSB ended up going off the air for a while. Willis played traditional black gospel until WTSB went off the air in 2000. Though Willis believed the station could return, it did not.

History of WBZB, Selma/Garner

Prior to 1999, WBZB aired

along with

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

. The former owner walked into Bass Music Enterprises, owned by Steve Bass, and asked, "Wanna buy a radio station?" In 2002, about two years after Bass became the primary owner of WBZB, the station was located in

Garner Garner may refer to: Places United States * Garner, Arkansas * Garner, Iowa * Garner, Missouri * Garner, North Carolina Other uses * Garner (surname), a surname * Granary, a grain store * ''Tennessee v. Garner'', a United States Supreme Court cas ...

and played anything and everything by North Carolina musicians or well-known musicians from neighboring states. The playlist included about 1,700 songs. Artists included

Arrogance Hubris (; ), or less frequently hybris (), describes a personality quality of extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence, often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance. The term ''arrogance'' comes from the Latin ', meani ...

, Nancy Middleton, Blue Dust Box, Jam Pain Society,

John Saylor John Phillips Saylor (July 23, 1908 – October 28, 1973) was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania serving from 1949 until his death from a heart attack in Houston, Texas in 1973. Biography Saylor w ...

, and

Tift Merritt Tift may refer to: Places * Tift County, Georgia, a county in south-central Georgia, United States People with the given name * Tift Merritt (born 1975), American singer-songwriter People with the surname * Andrew Tift (born 1968), British portr ...

. In 2003, Shane Gentry, a

nudist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

and member of Nekkid Monday (a band similar to

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...

), began hosting the ''Naked Monday Show'', celebrating the nudist lifestyle. WBZB received approval for a power increase from 800 to 1,600 watts, but after a year, even though Bass claimed the station was close to making money, his investors were unable to stay with him. He sold the station on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

. Triangle Sports Broadcasters bought WBZB and changed the letters to WTSB, also increasing the signal to 9,000 watts, and switched to sports talk July 12, 2004, calling the station "Your Triangle Sports Ticket". The programming included local hosts as well as

ESPN radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

. WTSB was sold to Lamm Media Group in November 2007. LMG head Carl Lamm retired in 2019 and sold it to the religious broadcasting group Truth Broadcasting in 2019. Truth Broadcasting acquired the station facilities and an

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...

for $175,000 in July the same year.

Programming

WTSB runs a full-service variety format, including local news and

tradio Tradio is a type of talk radio show format, though now considered archaic, where listeners call in to buy or sell items. The concept is analogous to classified ads in local newspapers and most prevalent in the south and midwest. "Tradio" is a po ...

, with much of its programming sold to

radio evangelists Radio is the technology of signaling and telecommunication, communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device ...

. Reruns of ''

Lum and Abner ''Lum and Abner'' was an American network radio comedy program created by Chester Lauck and Norris Goff that was aired from 1931 to 1954. Modeled on life in the small town of Waters, Arkansas, near where Lauck and Goff grew up, the show proved i ...

'' air every weekday on the station.

Translator

WTSB 1090 AM is a daytime-only signal, but programming can be heard 24/7 on 105.5 FM as well as online.

References

External links

WTSB Homepage
{{Daytime-only radio stations in North Carolina Full service radio stations in the United States

TSB Banking A trustee savings bank is a type of financial institution. * In the United Kingdom: ** Trustee Savings Bank, a bank in the United Kingdom that merged with Lloyds Bank in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB until 2013 ** Lloyds TSB, the name used by ...

Radio stations established in 1964 1964 establishments in North Carolina