WVOT explained

WVOT
City:Wilson, North Carolina
Country:US
Airdate:June 1948
Last Airdate:December 19, 2017 (date of license cancellation)
Frequency:1420 kHz
Format:Defunct, was urban contemporary gospel
Class:B
Facility Id:8778
Coordinates:35.7357°N -77.8836°W
Callsign Meaning:"Wilson's Voice of Tobacco" or "Wilson's Voice of Truth"
Owner:Kingdom Expansion Corporation

WVOT (1420 AM) was a radio station licensed to and located in Wilson, North Carolina, United States. The FCC assigned frequency was 1420 kHz. The station operated at 1,000 Watts non-directional by day, and 500 watts directional at night, largely on a north-facing axis.

History

WVOT signed on in June 1948.[1] The station's call letters originally stood for "Voice of Tobaccoland".

In 1984, Century Communications sold WVOT and FM sister station WXYY to Voyager Communications. The FM was moved to Raleigh and the call letters were changed to WRDU. A new tower site for WRDU (now WTKK) was built near Middlesex, North Carolina. The AM facility remained in Wilson.

Career Communications bought WVOT in 1990.[2] In 1997, Career Communications sold the station to Al Taylor's Taylor Group Broadcasting. During this time, the call letters were changed to WALQ.[3]

WVOT's final format was urban contemporary gospel. Past formats have included talk, Carolina beach music, oldies, adult contemporary, contemporary hit radio, and block programming.

On November 9, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) informed WVOT that it had received a complaint on September 9 that the station had not operated since 2011 (broadcast stations are required to return to the air within a year of going silent), and ordered it to provide information about its operations since the expiration of its most recent special temporary authority authorization on August 29, 2014.[4] The station did not respond to the operational status inquiry, and its license was cancelled on December 19, 2017.[5]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 1999. 1999. D-332. December 22, 2017.
  2. Web site: Magic 95.9FM, THE Music Lovers Station, Plymouth, NC. June 16, 2010.
  3. http://archive.wilsontimes.com/archive_detail.php?archiveFile=1997/November/27/LocalNews/54901o.xml&start=0&numPer=20&keyword=wvot&sectionSearch=&begindate=1%2F1%2F1987&enddate=12%2F30%2F2012&authorSearch=&IncludeStories=1&pubsection=&page=&IncludePages=1&IncludeImages=1&mode=allwords&archive_pubname=Wilson+Daily+Times%0A%09%09%09
  4. Web site: Doyle. Peter H.. In re: WVOT(AM), Wilson, NC Facility ID No. 8778 Operational Status Inquiry. CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. December 22, 2017. PDF. November 9, 2017.
  5. Web site: Broadcast Actions. Federal Communications Commission. December 22, 2017. December 22, 2017.