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WTPT, also known as "93.3 The Planet", is an Active Rock station serving the Greenville-Spartanburg area of South Carolina. It can be heard as far away as Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina. The Entercom outlet operates at 93.3 MHz with an ERP of 93 kW. and is licensed to Forest City, North Carolina.
[edit] Station History
Both WBBO FM 93.3 and AM 780 signed on September 10th, 1947 in Forest City. The station was owned by the Anderson family, which also owned the "Forest City Courier" newspaper and WPNF in nearby Brevard, North Carolina. Both stations simulcasted with each other on a full-time basis until the late 60s. WBBO-FM featured a variety of formats throughout the next decade, including Country and Adult Contemporary. In 1988, after building a tower on Tryon Peak near Columbus, North Carolina to improve its signal range, WBBO switched to a satellite smooth jazz format, distributed from St. Paul, Minnesota, and began calling itself "The Breeze". [1]
On February 14th, 1991 (Valentines Day), WBBO-FM flipped to CHR as "Power 93". This move brought back the format to the nearby Greenville-Spartanburg market that the former WANS (now WJMZ) had before they abandoned it for Adult Contemporary. Initially, ratings were very good, but quickly fizzled out to 9th place, where it stayed throughout much of its existence. In August of next year, the Power 93 moniker was dropped for "93.3 WBBO" as the station became more Dance-oriented. Again, ratings had shown little improvement and was re-adjusted toward Mainstream CHR within a year.
In mid-1994, the station was re-branded as "Q-93" and adopted a more uptempo-ed CHR format sprinkled with plenty of Alternative Rock. Ratings started to slowly tick upward, but the station was sold to Benchmark Communications (then-owners of WESC AM-FM) and the format was dropped altogether on January 1st, 1995 for a younger-skewering Country format as "93-Q Country" under the WFNQ call letters. The station began the format with 19,095 songs in a row commercial-free, the most ever on a commercial radio station up to that time. The idea was to use WFNQ as a flaker against then-rival Country outlet WSSL-FM so that WESC-FM could be the #1 station in the market. This strategy failed miserablely as WFNQ went to the bottom of the ratings within several months.
In September of 1996, WFNQ dropped Young Country for Active Rock as "93.3 The Planet". The call letters of WTPT-FM were adopted by the end of the year.
The station is owned by Entercom Communications.
[edit] References
- ^ Jeff Borden, "New Format Breezes Into Town," The Charlotte Observer, February 10, 1988.
[edit] External links
