WGTL (defunct)

WGTL
City	Kannapolis, North Carolina
Frequency	870 kHz
First air date	1946
Format	Defunct
Power	1,000 watts (day only)
Facility ID	22428
Callsign meaning	World's Greatest Textile Land
Owner	Fred H. Whitley, Inc.

WGTL (870 AM) was a radio station licensed to Kannapolis, North Carolina. It operated on 870 kHz with a power of 1000 watts, daytime, non-directional. The call letters were chosen to represent a common slogan for its city of license, "World's Greatest Textile Land." WGTL has been off the air since 1992.

History

The beginnings

The 870 frequency in the Charlotte market first went on the air with the call letters WGTL in 1946, it was owned and operated by Fred H. Whitley. From 1946 to 1948, the station had studios in downtown Concord at the Hotel Concord.

From 1948 to 1992, the studios were co-located with the transmitter on Highway 29 across from the Carolina Mall.

A side story: sister station WAAK

The 960 frequency in the market first went on the air with the call letters WAAK in the town of Dallas, North Carolina on January 1, 1963.

The station was initially applied for by Wayne M. Nelson and was to be licensed in Concord with 1000 watts daytime and nighttime. In 1960. Fred Whitley, owner of WGTL applied for the frequency as a daytime-only station in Dallas in order to keep new competition out of his market.

He won the construction permit for the station in Dallas, took the call letters WAAK off the top of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) call letter list, refurbished WGTL's studio (bought the audio board from WSJS-TV) and put the old WGTL console in Dallas.

Station engineers

WGTL was built for Whitley by Foy T. Hinson, a local radio repair shop owner who developed an interest in broadcast electronics during his service in World War II. Hinson was the Chief Engineer for the station until December 1961. During the previous year, he had applied for a station of his own, and had constructed the facilities without the knowledge of WGTL's owner, Mr. Whitley. Hinson resigned from WGTL the last week of November, and signed on WRKB-AM 1460 in Kannapolis the very next week.

William E. Rumple became the Chief Engineer of the station from that time until it went dark in 1992.

Location in Concord

Although licensed to Kannapolis, North Carolina, both studio and transmitter were within the corporate limits of Concord, North Carolina, for the last 15 years of its existence.

The station was able to do this because Kannapolis was an unincorporated city until 1984, and lacking definite city boundaries allowed the station to be built closer to the commercial center of Cabarrus County than would usually be allowed.

Programming

From 1948 until 1992, WGTL was known primarily as a Big Band and Easy Listening format, but had blocks of its day set aside for Country music and religious programming. Each day began and ended with "The Lord's Prayer," which the station also played when it first signed on.^[1]

WGTL was most remembered for playing all Christmas music between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, doing it decades before it became fashionable for Charlotte-area FM stations to do so.(I was an announcer at WGTL from 1964 to 1969 and this is true about the Christmas music format. It is also true that commercial content was so high during the Thanksgiving to Christmas season that not much music of any type was played. Commercials were as cheap as .25 each! The official "name" for the format was Variety, meaning we played what was later known as "middle of the road." We did have a teen segment with rock music from 3:30 to 5PM each weekday. Jerry Hancock)

The final sign-off

Following bankruptcy and an extensive eviction proceeding, WGTL signed off for good at sunset, December 25, 1992.^[1] The tower was dismantled two years later. Fred H. Whitley moved to Las Vegas, Nevada.

The future of 870 kHz

Radio station WGHC, formerly licensed in Clayton, Georgia, changed its community of license to Mount Holly, North Carolina, in 2009. When the move occurred, the station also changed broadcast frequencies from 1370 kHz to 870 kHz, the dial position formerly occupied by WGTL. The new call letters for the relocated station are WTCG.

The WGTL call letters are currently unassigned, but not available for assignment, by the Federal Communications Commission.

References

1 2 Mark Plemmons, "WGTL Signs Off the Air with 'The Lord's Prayer,'" Concord Tribune, January 1, 1993.

Radio stations in the Charlotte–Concord–Gastonia–Rock Hill market

By AM frequency	610 730 870 930 960 980 1030 1060 1080 1110 1150 1190 1220 1240 1270 1290 1310 1340 1370 1410 1430 1450 1480 1540 1660

By FM frequency	88.9 89.9 90.3 90.7 91.1 91.5 91.7 91.9 92.7 93.5 94.3 95.1 95.7 96.1 96.9 97.9 98.5 98.7 99.3 99.7 100.9 101.9 102.3 102.9 103.3 103.7 104.1 104.7 105.3 106.1 106.5 106.9 107.1 107.9 (HD2)

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.425 162.475 162.525

By callsign	KHC27 KJY85 W254AZ W281BE WAVO WBAV-FM WBCN WBT-AM WBT-FM WCGC WCRU WDAV WDEX WEND WFAE WFNZ WGFY WGIV WGNC WGSP WGSP-FM WHKY WHQC WHVN WIXE WKKT WKQC WLNK (HD2) WLKO WMIT WNKS WNOW WNSC-FM WOGR WOLS WOSF WPEG WPZS WQNC WRBK WRCM WRFJ WRFX WRHI W232AX WRHM WSGE WSOC-FM WTCG WTIX WULR WXL70 WXNC WXRC WYFG WYFQ WYTX-LP WZGV

Defunct	WLCM WGTL WYLI-LP

North Carolina radio markets Asheville Charlotte Fayetteville Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point Greenville–New Bern–Jacksonville Raleigh–Durham Other North Carolina radio regions Elizabeth City–Nags Head Roanoke Rapids–South Hill Rocky Mount–Wilson Wilmington South Carolina radio markets Charleston Columbia Florence Greenville–Spartanburg Myrtle Beach Rock Hill Other South Carolina radio regions Hilton Head See also List of radio stations in North Carolina List of radio stations in South Carolina

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