107.3 "The Promise" to sign on the air soon...

[tothedj]

I learned today that WBOB-FM, to be known as "107.3, The Promise" is scheduled
to sign on the air in the next few weeks with a gospel music format.
It will be a commercial radio station as they are searching for sales people to
cover the areas of Rocky Mount, Enfield, Tarboro and other communities in
Nash, Edgecombe and Halifax Counties.
The studios will be in downtown Rocky Mount with the transmitter facilities
in southwest Halifax County near the Nash County line with about 4,000 watts
power.
I'm not sure if they will have live announcers and what there website will be,
but they should do well, once listeners know they are around, and will probably
pick up those who are listening to WCPS-AM in Tarboro and WYAL-AM in Scotland
Neck, if they go with the type of gospel those outlets are currently playing.

[BIG APE]

Boy, I bet Clear Channel would like to get their hands on thoses Call letters  WBOB...If they have to depend on me for a listener  they'll go broke..Gospel??  Don't worry, I am NO where near...There   APE!

[EncSpy]

it will be interesting to see how this station pans out...I see its owned by Jule Epperson..I wonder if she is any relation to ralph epperson.... city grade is pretty much the middle of nowhere minus rocky mount...most of the AM gospel stations in eastern NC have a lot to be desired..lets see...WYAL sounds poor on-air (I don't know what they are using down there...but it sounds bad...)...murfreesboro has a gates yard II console, no processing to the transmitter except a NRSC filter...Ahoskie (still stuck in the dark ages, reel-to-reels, and carts still dominate there), audimax/volumax to a BTA-1R that blows NEW tubes every 3 months, with roughly 50% modulation broadcasting at night at either 500 or 1kw (licensed 80watts)..still cannot be heard outside ahoskie at night....windsor sounds decent now.(but you should have heard the clock radio connected to the transmitter days..about 5 years ago).they stopped broadcasting at night though I guess 25 watts wasn't worth it...weldon has a new solid state tx..tower/ground system, has 0 downtime and sounds decent....WCPS sounds great over the air...live and local all day...it will be a strong competitor

[Matt Smith]

I see its owned by Jule Epperson..I wonder if she is any relation to ralph epperson

Not that I'm aware of...but she IS related (daughter, I think) to Stuart Epperson of Salem Media.

Later....
Matt Smith, WGSR-TV

[tothedj]

The replies, especially from Matt, gets me to speculate what kind of format they
will have, the Eppersons have three christian AM stations in North Carolina, and
are in the process of putting on one in Richmond, Virginia.
The Rocky Mount based station will be selling ad time, so it should be interesting
to see how WBOB-FM does.

[eacalhoun1]

Okay...this gives me opportunity to "gripe" about the defintion of gospel music. There's Southern Gospel, Black Gospel, and I'm sure other genres of Christian music with the name "Gospel" in the description. Nationally, I think "Gospel" refers to mainly Black Gospel, Soul Gospel, etc. "Contemporary Christian", "Christian AC"....well, those are no-brainers in my opinion.

Eric

[EncSpy]

I had a chance to listen to them in roanoke rapids for a few min..it sounds like they are still "under construction"

[Johnny Caudle]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't this the family of Stu Epperson who runs Salem Communications?

[BIG APE]

See post 476 above.Matt Smith

[Double J]

I listened to them for a bit and to me it sounds like a really bad MP3 file or even a stream from somewhere. It defianately needs some work, but I hear they just let go their engineer so that dosen't bode well. I also hear they use an Omia on-air processor it could be that it is not setup properly.