WALI goes silent

[charlestondxman]

Sad day in Colleton County. The county has lost its last radio station. WALI 93.7 has signed off, as Karl Hess, its owner, has signed it off for the poor economy and personal reasons. They signed off Monday (Jan. 30).

Here's an article from The Press and Standard of Walterboro:

http://colletontoday.com/news/wally-goes-silent/article_78dccdb2-4de0-11e1-9132-001871e3ce6c.html

Hopefully someone will take it over. They were falling behind, with no website or online feed. They were a very quirky station (fun to listen to). Country music, with lots of sports programming and local stuff. They were pretty much a full-service country station, with the swap shop each morning, obituaries and other items.

Thoughts?

[somdradioguy1]

I've listened to them frequesntly driving through. They were horrible. Music was not up to date. Swap shop in drive time. Area is large enough to support a station. Does anyone know what rthe asking price is?

[stereolane]

It's not the first time Walterboro has lost it's radio station. The AM station was moved to some lonely, wide place in the road up toward Myrtle Beach...Still can't figure out what the point was in doing THAT.

I assume the short tower in front of the WALI FM tower is the old AM 1080 stick?

[upstate29651]

I smell a Charleston move in.....

G

[DudeFan]

Probably. But given the more stringent requirements for such moves, it would be tougher to get the commission to approve the loss of primary service to Walterboro even with the economic hardship.

[charlestondxman]

They can't move it in, as there's the 93.7 in Georgetown that simulcasts I-100 out of Myrtle Beach and comes in well in northern Charleston county.

Mr. Hess didn't run that station well. The jingles have been the same for at least a decade, probably more. A big hodgepodge of stuff (country music, almost all automated except for morning show), local and national news (for several years ran hourly network news), lots of sports (Braves, NASCAR, South Carolina, Phil Kornblut), the swap shop every morning, obituaries, and a lot of syndication.

Colleton County football was the only thing that made money there, and that dates back to the WONO days. Another owner would help that signal a lot.

Kirkman could buy it and simulcast one of their sports stations (FM sports?) or maybe WJNI. Apex could buy or LMA it, and do several things with it. If they could pair it with 99.3, that translator, you could have a very good signal. 93.7 covers most of Colleton, western Charleston, and a good amount of Dorchester well, while 99.3 is good inside 526 and in West Ashley. It probably would be just as good as 98.9 in the metro.

You could run any number of formats with Apex, or another local owner could get it and run it the way they want it. This signal shouldn't go away.

[charlestondxman]

Cumulus could also grab it and simulcast WTMA on there. Another suggestion. Adding that signal and making it mono could add several miles to the signal. So many possibilities with that signal. Don't even have to move it.

[DudeFan]

Cumulus is full up in Charleston and Columbia.

[Gatekeeper007]

I am very sorry to hear this we don't need another independent station going to a cluster if it can be helped.

[stereolane]

They can't move it in, as there's the 93.7 in Georgetown that simulcasts I-100 out of Myrtle Beach and comes in well in northern Charleston county.

Mr. Hess didn't run that station well. The jingles have been the same for at least a decade, probably more. A big hodgepodge of stuff (country music, almost all automated except for morning show), local and national news (for several years ran hourly network news), lots of sports (Braves, NASCAR, South Carolina, Phil Kornblut), the swap shop every morning, obituaries, and a lot of syndication.

Colleton County football was the only thing that made money there, and that dates back to the WONO days. Another owner would help that signal a lot.

Kirkman could buy it and simulcast one of their sports stations (FM sports?) or maybe WJNI. Apex could buy or LMA it, and do several things with it. If they could pair it with 99.3, that translator, you could have a very good signal. 93.7 covers most of Colleton, western Charleston, and a good amount of Dorchester well, while 99.3 is good inside 526 and in West Ashley. It probably would be just as good as 98.9 in the metro.

You could run any number of formats with Apex, or another local owner could get it and run it the way they want it. This signal shouldn't go away.

Most of your suggestions would drive yet another local radio station straight into irrelevance.