Salisbury NC Radio: WSTP 1490 AM Signs Off

Salisbury's first radio station, WSTP 1490 AM, on the air since 1939, is gone from the airwaves.

In a press release, station manager Buddy Poole says the ownership group, 2B Productions, has tried to improve the signal but after “much expense and engineering consultation has learned it can’t increase the station’s coverage area.”  Poole said the station was designed to cover Salisbury with a 2 millivolt signal and does not have good coverage outside of the city limits in Rowan County.

“We are just tired of pouring money into a dark hole,” Poole shared.  He noted that only six AM stations have been sold since 2006 in the Charlotte ADI.  WSAT, WSTP and WTIX in Concord of three of those six AM stations and all are owned by 2B Productions.

According to WBTV,  WSTP signed on New Year's Eve in 1939 in a studio at what was then the Yadkin Hotel.  The station's call letters actually stood for "Salisbury Time and Post," since the owners of the Salisbury Post also were part owners of WSTP.

In 1963 Tom Harrell bought WSTP and owned the station for the next forty years.  The station was located on Statesville Boulevard until it moved to the WSAT studios in 2014.

WSTP 1490 AM (1 Kw)

Harrell added WSTP-FM, later WRDX 106.5, to simulcast some WSTP programming along with its own format of country music.

Several notable broadcasters came through WSTP, including Cincinnati Reds announcer Marty Brennamen, sportscaster Bob Rathbun, Doug Rice and Kent Bernhardt of the Performance Racing Network, popular morning show host Bill Henderson, announcer Larry Bruton, sportscaster Howard Platt, and many more.

WSTP broadcast several different formats over the years, from classical music to top 40, talk radio with Dr. Laura, G. Gordon Liddy, Michael Savage, and Larry King, to Business Radio, and finally to a syndicated country music format.