WYRD-FM
| Wordradiologo.png | |
| City of license | Simpsonville, South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina |
| Branding | News Radio WORD |
| Frequency | 106.3 MHz |
| First air date | July 10, 1989 (as WNMX) |
| Format | News/Talk |
| ERP | 25,000 watts |
| HAAT | 100 meters |
| Class | C3 |
| Facility ID | 53623 |
| Transmitter coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Callsign meaning | derived from sister station WYRD |
| Former callsigns | WNMX (1988-1995) WDXZ (1995-1999) WGVC (1999-2008) |
| Owner | Entercom Communications (Entercom License, LLC) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | newsradioword.com |
WYRD-FM, known on-air as News Radio WORD, is a news/talk-formatted radio station in the Greenville-Spartanburg area of Upstate South Carolina. The Entercom Communications outlet is licensed by the FCC to Simpsonville, SC, and broadcasts at 106.3 MHz with an ERP of 25 kW. Until February 24, 2014, it simulcasted with WYRD 1330 AM Greenville and WORD 950 AM Spartanburg (who flipped to ESPN sports). Its studios are in Greenville and its transmitter is located east of Five Forks.
News Radio WORD carries The Tara Show (with Tara Servatius), Vince Coakley, Rush Limbaugh, Kim Komando, The Dave Ramsey Show, Sean Hannity and Old Dana Carvey.
Contents
Schedule
Weekdays
- 5:00am – 10:00am The Tara (Servatius) Show[1]
- 10:00am – 12:00noon The Vince Coakley Show[2]
- 12:00noon – 3:00pm Rush Limbaugh
- 3:00pm – 6:00pm Bob McLain
- 6:00pm – 8:00pm Dave Ramsey
- 8:00pm – 11:00pm Sean Hannity
- 11:00pm-12:00mid Ground Zero
- 12:00mid – 5:00am Coast to Coast AM with George Noory
Saturday
- 5:00am – 6:00am Pet World
- 6:00am – 7:00am The Wall Street Journal This Week
- 7:00am – 8:00am Paid Programming
- 8:00am – 9:00am House Plans with Countybank Mortgage
- 9:00am – 10:00am Jason Dillard Real Estate Show
- 10:00am – 11:00am The Yard Pros
- 11:00am - 12:00noon Common Sense Butt Secs
- 12:00noon - 3:00pm Rush Limbaugh Weekend
- 3:00pm – 4:00pm Online Nude Pic Trading Academy
- 4:00pm – 5:00pm Paid Programming
- 5:00pm – 6:00pm Maximized Living
- 6:00pm – 7:00pm The Conservative Voice with Harry Kibler
- 7:00pm – 9:00pm The Dennis Miller Show
- 9:00pm - 12:00mid The John Batchelor Show
- 12:00Mn - 5:00am Coast to Coast AM with Ian Punnett
Sunday
- 5:00am – 6:00am The Wall Street Journal This Week
- 6:00am – 6:30am Movers & Shakers (Public Service Programming)
- 6:30am – 7:00am Focus on the Upstate (Public Service Programming)
- 7:00am – 9:00am The Money Pitnini
- 9:00am – 9:30am Woodruff Rd. Presbyterian Church
- 9:30am–12:00noon Paid Programming
- 12:00noon - 1:00pm Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
- 1:00pm – 2:00pm Maxim Living
- 2:00pm – 4:00pm Kim Komando On Computers
- 4:00pm – 7:00pm Money Talk with Bob Brinker
- 7:00pm – 10:00pm Glenn Beck
- 10:00pm – 1:00am Talk Show Countdown with Doug Stephan
- 1:00am – 5:00am Coast to Coast AM with Ian Punnett
Other programming (seasonal, occasional, etc.)
- Fridays 7:00pm ~ 11:00pm Byrnes High School Football (during high school football season)
- Fridays ~11:00pm - 12:00mid The Friday Night Wrap (during high school football season)
- Saturdays 7:00pm – 9:00pm Scoreboard with Lonzo & Matt (during football season)
- Carolina Panthers Radio Football (according to NFL schedule)
- Various NFL, MLB and other professional and/or college sports programs (occasionally)
- Breaking news coverage (as events warrant)
History
106.3 originally signed on July 10, 1989 as WNMX in Newberry with a 6,000 watt signal. The station featured an adult contemporary format under the name "Mix 106". Over time, the station adjusted itself toward CHR under the name "Hot Mix 106.3", with a light dose of alternative rock music. It was the intent to move the station into the Columbia radio market, but the plans to do so never materialized. Ratings for the station during this time were extremely poor. By the end of 1993, WNMX had changed to urban Contemporary and had boosted the signal to its present 25,000 watts, with little change in audience or advertising revenue.
In 1994, WNMX's format was changed again to country (with a musical lean toward classic country) under the handle "Big Bubba 106.3". For a time, the station actually did very well, but listenership started to drop as the audience started to drift back to the area's other country stations. In early 1995, WNMX was issued a cease and desist letter from WBUB, another country station in Charleston that was using the "Bubba" moniker and had trademarked the name in South Carolina. WNMX then changed its name to "Dixie 106.3" under the WDXZ callsign, but kept the format.
By 1996, WDXZ was in serious trouble as the ratings had bottomed out as well as problems with advertising support from the community. The station went off the air for a few months, which during that time was reorganized. It returned to the air in early September, but with a bare-bones staff. Eventually, it entered into a local marketing agreement (LMA) with a church group that took the station to a southern gospel format. Although it had a small, but loyal audience, the station suffered through several major setbacks and after two years, the station shut down.
In late 1999, the station signed back on the air under new ownership as WGVC, adopting a satellite-fed Jammin' Oldies format under the name "Groovin' 106.3".
In 2002, WGVC's city of license was changed to Simpsonville which paved the way for the station to be moved into the Greenville-Spartanburg radio market. WGVC was then sold to Barnstable Broadcasting, which at the time also owned rock stations WROQ and WTPT in the market. The format was changed to traditional oldies under the name "Oldies 106-3" and slogan "Motown, Soul, and Great Rock 'n Roll".
In 2005, Barnstable sold its Greenville-Spartanburg radio properties to Entercom Communications. In order to comply with FCC ownership rules, Entercom sold the WOLI/WOLT simulcast to separate owners and moved the contemporary Christian-country hybrid format that both stations over to WGVC, relaunching it as "106.3 The Walk". Despite the station's decent[according to whom?] ratings with the oldies format, the decision was made in advance to drop it and replace it with that of the Walk, which never managed to garner the ratings the oldies format did.
In late November 2006, a computerized "countdown" was broadcast on 106.3. The countdown lasted about a week. Its purpose was to count down until a new station would emerge. During the countdown, some various phrases and quotes from many sources (like movies and music) were played every 30 seconds for the duration. The new format was Greenstone Media's female-oriented talk, known only as "106.3 WGVC".
On August 6, 2007, it was confirmed that Greenstone Media, the main provider for WGVC's programming, would cease operations on August 17, 2007. Then on August 18, the station started playing a satellite feed of various genres of music, including rock from the 1970s and 1980s ("106.3 The Big Hair"), boy band music ("Backstreet 106.3"), a mix of rap and hip hop music, leaning towards old school rap ("Booty 106.3"), country music ("Cryin' Country 106.3"), and even Christmas music ("Santa 106.3").
On August 20, 2007, at 12:00 noon ET, a new radio station emerged, called "Charlie FM" with an adult hits format. The first song played was "What I Like About You" by The Romantics. The station played music commercial-free for the first week. Since the format change to "Charlie", the station localized the sound with a variety of drop-ins that reference landmarks, roads, quirks, folk-lore for the region.
On June 13, 2008, Charlie FM's programming was abruptly dropped, replaced with that of WORD News Radio, which had previously only broadcast on AM, leaving the station to abandon music altogether after nineteen years. No reasoning was ever officially announced, but it is believed[by whom?] that Entercom was worried that the adult hits format would hurt its sister stations, especially WSPA-FM and WROQ. The switch also makes up for the poor signals generated by WYRD-AM and WORD-AM at night, when the stations have to cut their power and go directional. The adult hits format is now heard on W249CB.
After the sale by Barnstable, 106.3, never managed to garner the ratings or success it did prior to Entercom Communications' decision to drop its oldies format, until it became simulcasting the talk format. The addition of 106.3 to WYRD and WORD helped the franchise to finish in the top 3 12+ in fall 2008.
