WRTH (103.3 MHz) is a non-commercial FM radio station licensed to Greer, South Carolina. It is owned by the Salem Media Group (operated via a Local marketing agreement by Educational Media Foundation pending sale closure) and they simulcast a contemporary worship music format known as "Air1". It serves the Greenville-Spartanburg radio market in Upstate South Carolina.
The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 2,700 watts. WRTH's transmitter is in Wellford off State Route S-42.
History
WLYZ, WXWZ
The 103.3 facility signed on the air in January 1993 as WLYZ, a simulcast of WLWZ (103.9 FM)'s urban contemporary format as "Double Z". WLYZ was intended to cover the Spartanburg part of the market.
In late 1994, the station's owner, Emerald City Broadcasting, purchased WWMM (107.3 FM) and moved the urban format to the new station since it had a much stronger signal than the 103.3/103.9 simulcast. WWMM was relaunched as WJMZ "107.3 Jamz", while the 103 simulcast became alternative rock "103-X" with 103.3 picking up the WXWZ call sign and 103.9 picking up the WXWX call sign in early 1995. 103-X was the first alternative rock station in the market, but the same signal problems that the station(s) had remained.
WOLT and Howard Stern
On January 1, 1996, 103-X added The Howard Stern Show for morning drive time; the station was faced with a backlash from both radio listeners and advertisers. During that time Emerald City decided to sell the stations to Entercom. 103-X changed formats to oldies in February 1996. A few months later, 103.9 became WOLI and 103.3 became WOLT. The stations took their programming from a satellite-delivered oldies service for the next few years with no local DJs. In late 1999, a local airstaff was finally added.
In November 2000 the station jumped on the 1980s hits bandwagon that was going on at the time. The moniker became "Star 103", but the stations retained the same call letters. The syndicated Bob and Sheri radio show based in Charlotte was added. A new airstaff was also hired. Over time, the station slowly evolved toward classic hits, but kept the Star 103 handle. In late 2003, WOLT and WOLI changed their format to a contemporary Christian/country hybrid as "The Walk".
Davidson Media
In 2005, Entercom sold WOLT, WOLI, and WSPA (910 AM, now WOLI) to Davidson Media Group, while retaining "The Walk" and placing it on its newly acquired 106.3 (WGVC) signal. Davidson Media Group, a company that specializes in Latino music but offered other formats, time-brokered the entire station. WOLT's morning airtime went to Spartanburg legend Bill Drake, and the rest of the airtime went to a company that carried an urban gospel format, branding the station as "Praize 103.3" (this started in October 2005).
In 2006, following differences between Davidson Media Group and the company managing "Praize 103.3", the urban contemporary gospel format was abruptly dropped on August 10, 2006. The following morning, after Bill Drake's program, WOLT debuted an oldies format, programmed by Davidson. The station was known, when not airing brokered programming, as "103.3 WOLT - The Best of the 60s and 70s". WOLT subsequently brokered a large part of its airtime out to various other music/local affairs programming, and also became the flagship station for Furman University football, basketball, baseball, and coaches shows until 2013. Classic hits was the underlying 'format' of the station outside of brokered time, as an attempt to give the station an identity that tied in with all of the other classic based programs during brokered times.
In January 2012, WOLT began running CHR mix programming in certain dayparts, using syndicated programming from Chicago-based company Jamtraxx, billing their dayparted hours as "103-3 SPIN FM". During all other hours, they broadcast and identified simply as "103-3 WOLT".
Earth FM
On March 1, 2013, the Earth FM oldies format on WOLI (910 AM, and later an accompanying FM translator on 105.7), which had been launched by Davidson Media in 2012, moved to 103.3, and all brokered programming was removed. The station continued to focus on oldies and classic hits from the mid-1960s through early 1980s.