History
Early years
On May 19, 1983, the station signed on as WBJX. [2] It was owned by Sunrise Broadcasting, and aired an adult contemporary music format. At first, it was powered at only 3,000 watts.
The following year, WBJX was bought by O'Grady Communications, which switched the call sign to WLNB. [3] The station featured an early form of Urban Adult Contemporary called Heart & Soul, FM 94 WLNB. The station aimed its programming at African American adults.
In 1987, WLNB was sold to Jones Eastern Broadcasting of Charleston, which changed the station to a rhythmic contemporary format or "CHUrban" as Hot 94 under the call letters WWHT, with the HT standing for Hot. The Hot 94 disc jockeys or "Hot Jocks" as they were known, included Madeline (formerly of crosstown Album Rock WAVF) for mornings, Mick Barker (from rival Top 40 outlet WSSX) for middays, with Chris Kelly (from WMMC/Columbia, South Carolina) for the afternoon, and Rocky Love (from WXTU/Philadelphia) for evenings. The station was programmed by Bob Casey, formerly Vice President of Programming of crosstown WXTC. [4]
Switch to Oldies
Hot 94 failed to make headway due to strong competition from Top 40 stations WKQB (Q-107) and WSSX (95SSX). Hot 94 had a 3,000 watt signal, while WKQB and WSSX were powered at 100,000 watts. In mid-1989, Hot 94 dumped the CHUrban format as well as much of the staff and flipped to Oldies as Hot Gold 94 WWHT. Again, ratings failed to materialize.
In early 1990, WWHT switched to an Urban Contemporary format as WUJM, 94 Jams. But once again, the station faced strong competition from established Urban stations WWWZ and WPAL-FM. It switched to easy listening and soft adult contemporary by late 1991 as "Easy 94.3".
Fly 94 and The Beat
In the Fall of 1992, WUJM entered into a LMA with WSSX, which resulted in the station's format changed to Contemporary hit radio (CHR) as "Fly 94." The WSSP call sign was added that October. Although the station became Charleston's only CHR when WSSX moved to a Hot Adult Contemporary format in December 1992, the ratings for WSSP were still dismal. [5] In September 1993, the LMA was broken off and WSSP flipped to satellite fed adult standards as "Stardust 94.3."[ citation needed ]
In 1999, Clear Channel Broadcasting, the forerunner to current owner iHeartMedia, bought both WSCC and WSSP. WSSP dropped adult standards for a return to Rhythmic Contemporary under the "94.3 The Beat" name. In the Spring 1999 ratings, The Beat finished second to WWWZ among 18-34 listeners and doubled its numbers with that audience. [6] By 2002, WSSP flipped to Urban Contemporary as "Power 94.3." Clear Channel also boosted WSSP's power to 25,000 watts, allowing it to be heard around Charleston and most of its suburbs.
Debut of Talk format
WSCC's signal on AM 730 was limited to only 1,000 watts by day and 100 watts at night. Clear Channel wanted to make its talk radio format more widely available; as a result, in early 2004, WSSP dropped the urban format and began simulcasting WSCC's talk format. [7] FM 94.3 would change call letters to WSCC-FM.
After two weeks, the simulcast ended; with the talk radio format staying on WSCC-FM, the AM station's call sign became WLTQ and flipped to adult standards. Clear Channel sold WLTQ in 2008.
