WULR (980
AM) is a
commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
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 ...
in
York, South Carolina
York is a city in and county seat of York County, South Carolina, York County, South Carolina, United States. The population was approximately 6,985 at the 2000 census and up to 7,736 at the 2010 census. York is located approximately southwes ...
, and serving the
Charlotte metropolitan area
The Charlotte metropolitan area, sometimes referred to as Metrolina, is a metropolitan area of the U.S. states of North and South Carolina, within and surrounding the city of Charlotte. The metropolitan area also includes the cities of Gastonia, ...
. The station license is owned by Iglesia Nueva Vida of High Point. WULR broadcasts a
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
Christian talk and teaching
Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk programm ...
radio format
A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...
.
By day, WULR is powered at 3,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s, using a
directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance ...
. But to avoid interfering with other stations on
980 AM 98 may refer to:
* 98 (number)
* Windows 98, a Microsoft operating system
Years
* 98 BC
* AD 98
* 1798
* 1898
* 1998
* 2098
See also
* Californium (atomic number), a chemical element
* 98 Degrees
98 Degrees (stylized as 98°) is an American p ...
, it reduces power at night to 167 watts. The station uses a two-
tower array
A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower a ...
.
History
Curtis Sigmon
signed on
Signing may refer to:
* Using sign language
* Signature
A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a handwritten (and often stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on do ...
WYCL at 1580 AM on April 19, 1956, with 250 watts. The station later moved to 980 AM and increased power to 1,000 watts. In April 1978, its call letters changed to WBZK.
[ WDZK, at 99.3 FM in ]Chester
Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...
, signed on in 1969.
For five years before the 1986-87 season, WDZK broadcast Winthrop University
Winthrop University is a public university in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was founded in 1886 by David Bancroft Johnson, who served as the superintendent of Columbia, South Carolina, schools. He received a grant from Robert Charles Winthrop, ...
men's basketball.
On January 20, 1988, after 31 years as a day time-only station, WBZK broadcast at night for the first time, reducing its power after dark from 1,000 watts to 290 watts. This meant better coverage of local government and sports, which included Clemson Tigers
The Clemson Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Clemson University, located in Clemson, South Carolina. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) ...
basketball and York Comprehensive High School
York Comprehensive High School is the sole high school in York County School District 1. Dr. John Tharpe serves as principal. The school is located in York, South Carolina.
Due to growth and aging of the original building, a new high school was ...
football. The station continued to simulcast the adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
of its sister FM WDZK except for Sunday morning religious programming. York High games had been broadcast on the next day on tape. WDZK had broadcast Chester High School football for 20 years.
In 1990, WDZK moved from a tower three miles south of Chester to a 495-foot tower, the highest in the area, 10 miles north of Chester. WDZK increased its power from 3,000 to 6,000 watts. WBZK also moved to two new towers south of Rock Hill and increased power to 3,500 watts, giving the station six times as many listeners.[Dan Huntley, "2 Stations Preparing for Boost," ''The Charlotte Observer'', March 15, 1990.]
In 1993, WBZK and WDZK broadcast several Clemson women's basketball games, the first area stations to do so. In the same year, WDZK broadcast Charlotte Knights
The Charlotte Knights are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. They are located in Charlotte, North Carolina, and play their home games at Truist Field, which opened in 20 ...
baseball.
In 1994, now-retired broadcaster and journalist Jon Mayhew worked the 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday airshifts. He also worked the weekends, producing a teen-oriented talk show on Saturday and overseeing the broadcast of Sunday morning religious programming. Mayhew left the station in mid-1994 for a stint at the Piedmont Superstations Radio Network, which was based at WOHS radio in Shelby. Mayhew, who lived in Mooresville, said the drive would be shorter to Shelby from Mooresville than from Mooresville to York, SC.
In 1995, the Sigmon family sold WBZK-FM to the owners of WBT in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
after owning the station for 26 years. The family kept the AM, which played oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
and beach music
Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, and to a lesser extent, Beach pop, is a regional genre of music in the United States which developed from rock/ R&B and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s. Beach music is most closely associate ...
.[Tim Funk and Blair Skinner, "Family Sells Off WBZK FM", ''The Charlotte Observer'', February 2, 1995.]
WBZK began 24-hour broadcasts in 1995.
In July 2000, Carolina Metro Radio LLC (Edward A. Baker, managing member/33.33% owner) reached an agreement to purchase WBZK from York Clover Broadcasting Co. (C. Curtis Sigmon, president) for a reported sale price of $500,000. At the time of the sale, WBZK was broadcasting a beach music
Beach music, also known as Carolina beach music, and to a lesser extent, Beach pop, is a regional genre of music in the United States which developed from rock/ R&B and pop music of the 1950s and 1960s. Beach music is most closely associate ...
format.
At one time, WBZK broadcast Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
programming.
Osiris Collazos hosted the "Amanecer en America" ("Wake Up America") morning show on "La Maxima".
980 AM Inc acquired WBZK in September 2008. According to the documention of the sale, 980 AM Inc was owned by Michael B. and Dara Glinter. WBZK was exchanged for station WPYR
WPYR (1380 AM broadcasting, AM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The station currently airs a Catholic Church, Catholic programming format.
History
WPYR was originally WYNK, a country music ...
in Louisiana with no money changing hands, according to the agreement filed with the FCC. At the same time, the station's call sign was changed to WULR.
Before its switch to Christian talk, WBZK's programming consisted largely of contemporary Christian
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
music. The music was programmed on an automated basis rather than having live-on air personalities. WBZK had relatively few interruptions between songs for commercials or other non-musical items. Songs were often played back-to-back with no bumpers in between.
According to industry reports, the Glinters have relocated to South Carolina from Florida and wanted to operate a radio station near their new home. Truth Broadcasting paid $400,000, minus a security deposit and credit for the tower lease, for WULR and began operating the station on August 16, 2010, broadcasting the same programming as WCRU
WCRU (960 kHz) is an AM radio station licensed to Dallas, North Carolina and serving the Charlotte metropolitan area. The station broadcasts a Christian talk and teaching radio format and is owned by the Truth Broadcasting Corporation. WCRU c ...
in Dallas, North Carolina.
On January 1, 2013, WULR was swapped to Iglesia Nueva Vida of High Point, North Carolina
High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the United States, U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, North Carolina, Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph County, North Carolina, Randolph, ...
in exchange for the license to WEGO and $46,501.73.
References
External links
Official site
{{Charlotte Radio
ULR
Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) is a sympathomimetic agent which is used as a decongestant and appetite suppressant. It was commonly used in prescription drug, prescription and over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter cough and cold preparations. In v ...
ULR
Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) is a sympathomimetic agent which is used as a decongestant and appetite suppressant. It was commonly used in prescription drug, prescription and over-the-counter drug, over-the-counter cough and cold preparations. In v ...
Radio stations established in 1956
1956 establishments in South Carolina