WOLT

Infobox Radio station
name = WOLT


city = Greer, South Carolina
area = Upstate South Carolina
branding = "103.3 WOLT"
slogan =
airdate = January, 1993
frequency = 103.3 FM
format = Time Brokered Programming (Oldies in non-brokered times)
power =
erp = 2700 watts
class = A
callsign_meaning = "Oldies" (When it was previously known as "Oldies 103".)
former_callsigns =
owner = Davidson Media Group
sister_stations =
webcast = http://www.wolt-fm.com/wolt.m3u
website = http://www.wolt-fm.com/wolt-fm.html
affiliations =

WOLT is a Time-Brokered/Oldies radio station located in the Greenville-Spartanburg radio market. The station is licensed by the FCC to the town of Greer and broadcasts on 103.3 FM with an ERP of 2.7 kW.

History

103.3 signed on in January, 1993 as WLYZ, simulcasting Greenville's WLWZ's Urban Contemporary format to the Spartanburg part of the market as "Double Z".

In late 1994, then station owner, Emerald City Broadcasting, purchased WWMM 107.3 and moved the Urban format to the new station since it had a much stronger signal than the 103.3/103.9 simulcast. WWMM was relaunched as WJMZ "107.3 Jamz", while the 103 simulcast became Alternative rock "103-X" with 103.3 picking up the WXWZ call sign and 103.9 picking up the WXWX call sign in early 1995. 103-X was the first Alternative Rock station in the market, but the same signal problems that the station(s) had remained.

On January 1st, 1996, 103-X added Howard Stern's radio show for mornings, but was faced with a backlash from both radio listeners and advertisers that lasted for weeks. During that time Emerald City decided to sell out to Entercom, so 103-X changed formats to Oldies in February, 1996, with the call letters WOLI (103.9) and WOLT (103.3) added a few months later. The station(s) were on satellite for the next few years and in late 1999, a local airstaff was finally added.

In November, 2000 the station jumped on the 80's Oldies bandwagon that was going on at the time, becoming "Star 103", but retained the call letters for both stations. The syndicated Bob & Sheri radio show was added as well as a new airstaff. Over time, the station slowly evolved toward Classic Hits, but kept the Star 103 handle. In late 2003, the station changed its format to a Contemporary Christian/Country hybrid as "The Walk", along with simulcast partner WOLI-FM 103.9, which covered the Greenville, South Carolina portion of the market.

In 2005, Entercom sold stations WOLT-FM 103.3, WOLI-FM 103.9, and WSPA-AM 910 to Davidson Media Group (a company that specializes in Latino formats; however, some others formats are carried), while retaining "The Walk" and placing it on its newly acquired 106.3 (WGVC-FM) signal. Davidson Media Group time-brokered the entire station out, with Mon-Sat 5:00AM-10:00AM and Sunday mornings going to Spartanburg legend Bill Drake, and the rest of the airtime going to a company that carried a urban contemporary gospel format, branding the station as "Praise 103.3" (this all started in October, 2005).

In August, 2005, due to differences between Davidson Media Group and the company managing Praise 103.3, the urban contemporary gospel format was abruptly dropped on Friday, August 10th, 2006. The following morning, after Bill Drake's program, WOLT debuted an Oldies format, programmed by Davidson, which is a rare case as the company generally brokers its programming out. The station was known as "103.3 WOLT - The Best of the 60s and 70s." The original intention had been for someone to purchase all of the available airtime to run an Oldies format, but no one came forward - thus, in order to make money (the station had run no commercials), the station began to offer time for sale to anyone.

The majority of the station's airtime is now brokered, with Sports talk programming, Entertainment programming, and sports games airing regularly. The oldies format programmed by Davidson remains from 10AM-12PM and 9PM-5AM M-Thurs, and 10AM-12PM and 12AM-5AM on Fridays. The Oldies programming can also be heard on weekends at various times.

External links

* [http://www.wolt-fm.com/wolt-fm.html WOLT official website]
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