WQSC transmits with a power of 1,000 watts. The transmitter is located off Braswell Street.[2] Programming is also heard on FM translatorW253BW on 98.5 MHz.
WOKE was a unique station in Charleston. Its format included "good music", local and regional sports, religious programming, and news and weather forecasts. According to local radio buff J. Douglas Donehue, three of the station's announcers—Harry Weaver, Buck Clayton, and Tennessee Weaver—were all Harry C. Weaver himself. Weaver's daily editorials began and ended in a style reminiscent of the fictional radio newsman Les Nessman from the TV show WKRP In Cincinnati. Saturdays were for sports or The Metropolitan Opera. Sunday airtime was filled with local and national religious programs. Each night, the station would sign off the air following Mr. Weaver's poetry readings.
Fifteen-year-old John "Cousin Johnny" Busbee co-hosted the station's morning show "Carolina in the Morning" with Weaver's "Buck Clayton" for two years beginning in 1979. When Busbee left for college in 1981, former evening host "Uncle" Dave Bannon took over hosting duties alongside Weaver.
The late morning program, "Talk of the Town" was directed toward housewives and homemakers and was originally hosted by Weaver's wife Ruth, and later by his daughter Kathy. For over twenty years beginning in the 1970s, operations manager Wally Momeier did the afternoon drive program "Hits and Gold Records of Yesterday and Today".
Ownership changes
Gil Kirkman, who had worked for WOKE, bought the station in 1994, and changed the call sign to the current WQSC. It began airing a sports radio format in 1994. The station moved to new facilities and the old WOKE studios were occupied by an insurance agency in 1999.[4]
As of March 2009, the station dropped News/Talk format in favor of beach music.[citation needed] The mission of WQSC 1340 "The Boardwalk" was to promote, preserve, and perpetuate South Carolina's popular music known as "beach music" and the South Carolina state dance "The Carolina Shag".
On July 31, 2012, WQSC changed its format back to news/talk with Dave Solomon as the main station imaging voice. Charleston Veteran Rocky D was chosen for afternoons at its launch. Bryan Crabtree, a veteran real estate agent and news/talk broadcaster formerly with WTMA joined on June 24, 2013, to host mornings.[5]
On December 6, 2016, WQSC changed its format from news/talk to sports, branded as "98.5 The Sports Zone" (simulcasting FM translator W243CO/98.5—Charleston, now W253BW).[6]
On August 17, 2020, the sports format known as "The Zone" was moved to WTMZ 910 AM Charleston. WQSC flipped to classic country, branded as "98.5 WQSC".[7]
