1980's Broadcasting Yearbook lists Aiken, South Carolina's WLOW AM as Top-40 although they were probably still an MOR station when this 1970s-era sticker came out. By 1981 they had switched calls to WKTX while WLOW FM became WPBM. After that it's a complete mystery what happened to these frequencies. There are no longer any stations licensed to Aiken at either 1300 AM or 95.9 FM although there is a WLOW at 107.9 FM further downstate in Port Royal with a Soft AC format. I also wonder if there is a story behind the carousel...or whatever that thing is. Anybody know?
Sunday, January 24, 2010
WLOW
1980's Broadcasting Yearbook lists Aiken, South Carolina's WLOW AM as Top-40 although they were probably still an MOR station when this 1970s-era sticker came out. By 1981 they had switched calls to WKTX while WLOW FM became WPBM. After that it's a complete mystery what happened to these frequencies. There are no longer any stations licensed to Aiken at either 1300 AM or 95.9 FM although there is a WLOW at 107.9 FM further downstate in Port Royal with a Soft AC format. I also wonder if there is a story behind the carousel...or whatever that thing is. Anybody know?
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I can tell you that the original WLOW was called "Carousel Radio" though I don't know why. It was always an MOR station. Never knew it as Top-40 at all. Some time in the mid-80's the AM went dark and the FM changed frequencies and moved to Augusta as WRXR.
“Carousel” radio was in reference to WLOW’s automated programming set-up. With the exception of live news segments (rip’n’read off the wire) and special events, every ad and music selection was on a separate prerecorded cartridge (like 8-tracks) which could be popped into literal rotation and pulled/rearranged as needed. The machines were enormous. I had the pleasure of working there in the early 70’s.
Photo of carousel:
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fd8%2Fdc%2F31%2Fd8dc3143dddd0af4c4fe1f831a25744b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=b26c5c1c48796ba1f086a8a7d81ee738270fca2abe407986ced2a162aab98439&ipo=images
I was an on-air 'personality' there in 1970, right after I graduated high school. It was not automated at that time, and the format was MOR, I would say. The studio was located above Aiken drug store, and I remember playing Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' because it was about six minutes long and gave me time to run down to the drug store and get a candy bar before the song ended.
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