WSVM 96.5 FM

A radio station with roots on the AM dial at 1490 kHz, licensed to Valdese, North Carolina, serving Burke, Caldwell, Lincoln, Catawba, Alexander, Cleveland, and Gaston counties. Currently owned by Main Street Broadcasting, Inc., the station has also expanded to the FM band at 96.5 MHz. The station signed on October 6, 1961. Its call letters are popularly interpreted to stand for "We Serve Valdese Merchants," though a secondary reading is "We Serve Valdese, Morganton," and with its arrival on FM, "We Serve a Variety of Music." During the early 2000s it operated the Timeless format under Burke County Broadcasting, with principals Robert R. Hilker and William R. Rollins, both past presidents of the North Carolina Association of Broadcasting and inductees into the North Carolina Broadcasting Hall of Fame. The station was part of the Suburban Radio Group owned by Hilker and Rollins. The station was subsequently sold to GHB Broadcasting Company, which in August 2008 sold it to Radio Emmanuel with plans for a Spanish-language Christian music format that did not materialize. WSVM ceased operations on May 31, 2010, with Jim Reeves's "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You" as its final broadcast. It returned to air on September 1, 2010 under Bannon Broadcasting Company of Hudson, operated by Jim Bannon, offering classic hits from the 1960s through 1980s along with high school sports coverage. Local programming has included the Breakfast Club morning show, Clegg and Company hosted by Jerry Clegg, and The Trading Post.