Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting’s Lake Hartwell Radio has launched Oldies 95.3 WEGG Bowman GA.
WEGG is utilizing programming from Westwood One’s Good Time Oldies network. The station moved in from Due West SC where it was owned by RFPJY, LLC as R&B Oldies WYPJ. Lake Hartwell Radio purchased the signal in May 2020 for $280,000 to make it a duopoly with their AC “Lake Hartwell Radio” 92.1 WLHR-FM Lavonia GA.
In 2019 when Cox Communications WSBB-FM 95.5, simulcasting the news-talk format of Atlanta’s legendary WSB(AM), moved its transmitter site over thirty miles southwest into Midtown Atlanta, the move not only greatly enhanced the station’s metro Atlanta coverage, it allowed a Class A FM station operating on 95.3 in rural Upstate South Carolina to relocate to the more economically vibrant area of northeast Georgia. Lake Hartwell Radio, Inc., a subsidiary of Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting group, has launched its second station in the area midway between Atlanta and Greenville, South Carolina. The call sign WEGG was chosen to honor the local poultry industry. The three Georgia counties which form the station’s primary service area; Franklin, Hart and Madison are the three largest poultry producing counties in Georgia. WEGG is being operated with the company’s long established WLHR-FM in Lavonia.
The station’s music format is Good Time Oldies provided by Westwood One filling a void left by format changes years ago on two area stations according to WEGG/WLHR Vice-President and General Manager Daniel Brown. “The public fondly remembers when Atlanta’s Fox 97 and Gainesville’s Magic 102.9 aired the contemporary hit songs of the 1960s, 70s and 80s. WLHR-FM airs a widely followed country format but there is sizeable audience in our area which doesn’t care for country music. WEGG will reach the adult audience which grew up listening to contemporary Top 40 music radio.”
WEGG was formerly located in Due West, South Carolina and operated with the call sign, WYPJ. In January 2021, Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting, which operates 13 other signals, purchased the station and relocated it over 40 miles to its new location in Northeast Georgia. The westward move of WSBB-FM and WEGG allowed WLTE, Pendleton, SC, sold in 2014 by Georgia-Carolina to Salem Communications, to be granted a FCC construction permit to relocate closer to the city of Greenville.
