WQSC
| City of license | Charleston, South Carolina |
|---|---|
| Branding | WQSC 1340/950 |
| Slogan | News Talk Sports |
| Frequency | 1340 kHz |
| First air date | 1946 (as WHAN) |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 34590 |
| Former callsigns |
WHAN (1946-1958) WOKE (1958-1994) |
| Owner | Kirkman Broadcasting |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wqsc1340.com |
WQSC (1340 AM, "The Boardwalk") is a news/talk radio station licensed to serve the community of Charleston, South Carolina.
History
Harry C. Weaver (June 12, 1916-May 30, 2001), who had worked for the Knoxville Journal in Knoxville, Tennessee, bought WHAN in 1955, which was renamed WOKE in 1958.[1]
WOKE was a unique station in Charleston. Its format included "good music", local and regional sports, religious programming, and news and weather forecasts. According to local radio buff J. Douglas Donehue, three of the station's announcers—Harry Weaver, Buck Clayton, and Tennessee Weaver—were all Harry C. Weaver himself. Weaver's daily editorials began and ended in a style reminiscent of the fictional radio newsman Les Nessman from the TV show WKRP. Saturdays were for sports or The Metropolitan Opera. Sunday airtime was filled with local and national religious programs. Each night, the station would sign off the air following Mr. Weaver's poetry readings.
15 year old John "Cousin Johnny" Busbee co-hosted the stations morning show "Carolina in the Morning" with Weaver's "Buck Clayton" for two years beginning in 1979. When Busbee left for college in 1981, former evening host "Uncle" Dave Bannon took over hosting duties alongside Weaver.
The late morning program, "Talk of the Town" was directed toward housewives/homemakers and was originally hosted by Weaver's wife Ruth, and later by his daughter Kathy. For over twenty years beginning in the 1970s operations manager Wally Momeier did the afternoon drive program "Hits and Gold Records of Yesterday and Today".
Gil Kirkman, who had worked for WOKE, bought the station in 1994, and changed the callsign to the current WQSC and a sports radio format in 1994. The station moved to new facilities and the old WOKE studios were occupied by an insurance agency in 1999.[2]
Don Imus was on WQSC prior to April 2007.
As of March 2009, the station dropped News/Talk format in favor of beach music.[citation needed]
The mission of WQSC 1340 The Boardwalk was to promote, preserve, and perpetuate South Carolina's most popular music "beach music" and the South Carolina state dance "the shag".
On July 31, 2012 WQSC changed their format to news/talk with Dave Solomon as the main station imaging voice.
Charleston Veteran Rocky D was chosen for afternoons at its launch. Bryan Crabtree, a veteran real estate agent and news/talk broadcaster formerly with WTMA joined on June 24, 2013 to host mornings. The station hosts also include Mike Gallagher, Laura Ingram, Dennis Miller and Jim Bohannon. [3]
References
- ↑ http://www.wokememories.com/WeaverObit.htm, Retrieved on 2008/05/05.
- ↑ http://www.wokememories.com, Retrieved on 2008/05/05.
- ↑ http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/59096/wqsc-charleston-flips-to-talk/
External links
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WQSC
- Radio-Locator Information on WQSC
- Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WQSC
- Tribute site to WOKE
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Coordinates: 32°49′07″N 79°57′43″W / 32.81861°N 79.96194°W