WUIV (1580 AM) was a radio station licensed to Icard, North Carolina, United States. It operated on 1580 kHz with a power of 5,000 watts daytime. The last owner of the station was Unifour Broadcasting Co., Inc.

History

Jimmy R. Jacumin applied on June 30, 1976, for a new broadcast station to serve Icard. The construction permit was granted on April 27, 1979,^[1] and the new station began broadcasting as WUIV on March 29, 1981. It originally broadcast a middle-of-the-road soft rock format.^[2]

Two years after going on air, on February 21, 1983, Jacumin switched the format to Southern gospel. He told a reporter from The Charlotte Observer that with the former format, "in essence, we were serving the Devil" by broadcasting such artists as Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, and Glen Campbell.^[3] The station still lost money after the format flip, but it noted an increase in listener interest—over 2,000 people signed petitions to make sure the new format stayed—as well as a doubling of the number of advertisers. Many listeners were shut-ins, but there were also young people.^[3] By 1989, WUIV was one of five stations, four of them on the AM band, airing similar music.^[4]

In 1991, WUIV entered into a local marketing agreement with WNNC in Newton, North Carolina, and began simulcasting that station's adult contemporary format.^[5] The agreement ended in January 1993, at which time WUIV was reported silent.^[6]

References