SALISBURY, N.C. -- Silence is all you hear now when you tune into AM station 1490 in Salisbury. The radio station signed off for the last time Tuesday night, after broadcasting across the airwaves for 77 years.
“We thought by moving to this building we could cut our overhead and make it work,” said WSTP General Manager Buddy Poole. “But it didn’t, so here we are.”
Buddy Poole has been involved with the Salisbury Radio Group since his high school years in 1964. He knows losing the station will be hard for the community, but he says the cost of running the station was digging them into a hole.
“If people can’t hear it then they’re not going to respond to the advertisements, if you can’t sell the advertisers and if you can’t put money in the cash register, you can’t stay,” said Poole. “That’s kind of the bottom line, you know.”
Even though the signing off of WSTP is the end of an era for some, Poole says they already have another project up their sleeves.
“We’re getting ready to add an FM to it which is going to be 103.3, and that’s going to make it better for Salisbury,” said Poole. "We ain’t going nowhere with 1280 folks. We’re here to stay.”
Poole is hopeful by creating a new FM station and continuing WSAT, the Salisbury Radio Group will keep providing great content for the area.
“We’re Salisbury and Rowan County’s local radio station. We’re not after a bigger market. We’re here to take care of folks here, and we always will be,” said Poole.