WWCS changes formats, but did anyone notice?
October 19, 2021I have had a couple of people contact me about WWCS (540 Canonsburg) in the last couple of weeks. Most recently a sports station of at least one flavor, we have been told that it’s a religious station. But most people only know that if they’ve heard it! Meanwhile, Birach Broadcasting hasn’t updated their website listing for WWCS since it was “News/Talk/International” and we have yet (as of the day this was written) to find any other listing for WWCS to have updated its listing.
Observant readers Pat and Carson, meanwhile have checked in about the format change. Pat remarked, “the late Brother R. G. Stair has a new affiliate for his Overcomer Ministry 24/7 on WWCS. The switch comes within six months of his death in April 2021.”
Sure enough, Brother Stair died of heart failure and had been under hospice care. Be that as it may, he had been awaiting trial after being accused of sexually assaulting several women and children at his office. He was arrested in late 2017 in South Carolina where he lived by county deputies, the state Law Enforcement Division, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. He was arrested on eight warrants most of which involved sexual crimes but also one count of kidnapping and one count of first-degree burglary.
A Bethlehem, Pennsylvania native, Brother Stair eventually moved to South Carolina where he bought an old motel complex and turned it into his ministry headquarters. People started to live within the community he created. He made several “predictions” over the years including a nuclear confrontation in 1988 and that President Reagan would not complete his presidential term.
But 2017 was not the only arrest for Brother Stair. He had also been arrested in 2002 with two counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. According to the Wikipedia page about him, the victims were 17 and 20 and they claimed that he “enforced his religious/personal beliefs” on them. He pleaded guilty in 2004 and served 77 days in custody and while it caused division within his religious community, 70 people remained within his community and two small branch communities remained faithful as well.
There have been allegations over the years that Stair’s ministry was a cult and that he objected to medical treatment and encouraged avoidance of doctors.
While most of the radio affiliates dropped his programming in 2017/18 after the arrest, it seems that the ministry has either found new affiliates since or the drops were temporary. Perhaps the strongest signal in the lineup is the well-known shortwave channel for WBCQ in Monticello, Maine. WWCS is listed on this page as a 24-hour affiliate.
WWCS used to roll into Pittsburgh pretty well, but it has been difficult to receive north of the city for at least a decade now. If you live near Canonsburg, we’d love to hear your take on what you’ve heard on 540 AM lately.
Thanks for the details on the identity of this preacher. I had presumed this material was recorded some time ago as the other day he was ranting about Muammar Gaddafi (who has been gone for some time). Horrible line nose, hiss and transformer hum on these broadcasts. Is it being pulled straight from shortwave? This guy or someone who sounded just like him used to air nights on WWVA years ago. As always the intriguing question is just who is buying up all this airtime to air cruddy recordings of sermons from a long-dead preacher? May as well apply for the callsign WOGE for Waste Of Good Electricity.
I noticed the change a couple of weeks ago, tuning in one night, not hearing sports and wondering what was going on. At least they seem to be at full strength more consistently, and they’ve done some improvement to the sound, even though the feed isn’t so good.
I listen to shortwave radio also, so I’m familiar with Brother Stair and Overcomer, they’ve been on shortwave stations for decades, and as Carson said, on WWVA 1170 overnights, and may still be there, hearing it at least several months ago.
I always found these overnight AM radio preachers interesting, anyone remember Reverend Ike, Prophet Sun, Mother Truth, Rev. Roosevelt Franklin (WLAC) and others like Dr. Gene Scott and the iconoclast Roy Masters, who had a Freudian take on self improvement.
I remember the glory days of WWCS, when they were classical music and in AM stereo, a great audio format that really worked. It was always a fun station, even back when they were 250 watt WARO they had some odd DJs there.
I remember Dr. Gene Scott from his very strange satellite televised sessions which aired on WTOV in the wee hours. It used to make me long for the days when they ran Movies Till Dawn.
Ahhh. Dr Gene Scott and RG stair, con artists cut from the same cloth. Scarry as all get out that RG speaks from the crypt on 540 AM.
Do they have the coffin echo on his voice?
Ha! I use Cool Edit to as wave recorder/editor, and it actually does have coffin echo under:
Echo Chamber – Wooden Coffin
I\’ll agree, some of the recordings sound ancient, difficult to understand what\’s being said, mostly on the sermons. I also heard a speech on the topic of \’faith\’ that had the vocal cadence and audio quality of a recording from the 1950s, like clean audio from an instructional film. It was actually Brother Stair, and I could barely tell, he sounded so different!
Boomer