Over the past six months, I have been given the opportunity to sit in on multiple radio shows and see what it is like for a show to be made. The two shows I sat in on were different formats. The first show was SportsTalk with host Phil Kornblut. SportsTalk is the longest-running talk show dedicated to sports in South Carolina. The experience itself was somewhat earth-shattering. At this specific time, the show was being broadcast from the GCI Media building owned by Glory Communications, which hosts stations such as 100.7 The Point (WQXL) and WFMV 95.3.
This came as a shock to me, as I did not know exactly how the physical locations of radio stations other than WUSC functioned. What I learned is that most radio stations are licensed, owned, and operated by conglomerate media groups. In retrospect, this was obvious, but I had not considered it until it was directly in my face.
As for the show itself, it was broadcast simultaneously to several affiliate stations all across the state. WUSC being a non-commercial station means it has a lot fewer restrictions on dedicated segmentation. Now that we have underwriting again there are some provisions that must be taken in order to fulfill the agreements with our donors. This was in contrast to how SportsTalk needed to operate. For the stations SportsTalk was being broadcast on to play advertisements to make money, the show had to follow a rigid time schedule with regular breaks in the program for the stations to play advertisements from their local area.
This is in stark contrast to WUSC where for at least 95% of your designated show time you have free reign to talk or to play what you want with no breaks in between. Another interesting tidbit of info I learned was the WUSC is one of the only stations left in the state that uses Physical CDs to play music. While we may have many songs digitally, we still maintain a difference from the big stations in that we have a music library that houses our large collection of physical media.
The second opportunity was not exactly a radio show but instead a podcast. Specifically involving Rick Wrigley. Out of the blue one day, I asked Rick if I could sit in on a taping of The SLOBcast (Slightly Legendary Old Broadcasters) and he said sure! This specific taping of The SLOBcast was done in the Cumulus Media office in Columbia. This office of Cumulus Media hosts stations such as Kiss 103.1 and 107.5 The Game, which is the studio where it was taped. I spent my time during the taping of SLOBcast in the Game control room. While Rick and his guests recounted many stories from the past, I watched how the control room operated. Even as someone who has been with WUSC for almost two years, the sheer number of buttons and switches in that control room was intimidating.
Overall, the two experiences were very interesting and enlightening. As someone who potentially sees a future career in radio and audio media these experiences will stand out as some of my first bits of exposure to the crazy world that is radio broadcasting.
Pictured: The SLOBs
Hi I’m Jay. I’m a Broadcast Journalism major and have been with WUSC since Fall of 2023.