98.9 WORD: История радиостанции из Спартанбурга

Radio station in Spartanburg, South Carolina
WYRD FM (98.9 MHz, "98.9 WORD") is a news/talk station licensed to Spartanburg, South Carolina, and covering the Upstate region, including Greenville as well as part of North Carolina. It is owned by Audacy, Inc., with studios on Garlington Road in Greenville. WYRD FM has an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100,000 watts, the maximum for most FM stations. The transmitter is on Hogback Mountain Road in Landrum. "98.9 WORD" carries three local programs on weekdays: The Tara Show with Tara Servatius airs in morning drive time. Straight Talk with Bill Frady is heard in late mornings and The Charlie James Show airs in late afternoons. Syndicated talk programs include The Dana Show with Dana Loesch, The Mark Levin Show, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory and America in the Morning. Most hours begin with an update from Fox News Radio.

The station signed on the air on August 29, 1946. The call sign was WSPA FM and the station largely simulcast its AM sister station, 950 WSPA. WSPA FM was the first FM station in South Carolina. WSPA FM became the strongest FM station in the United States with a move to Hogback Mountain, 3200 feet (975 m) in elevation. Coupled with a 100,000 watt signal, WSPA FM was one of the first stations to use a new system of vertical and horizontal towers. The station could be heard from Asheville, North Carolina, to Augusta, Georgia, and from Gainesville, Georgia, to Charlotte.

By the late 1960s, WSPA FM had a separate format from 950 AM. WSPA FM aired a beautiful music sound including some classical music, such as "The Metropolitan Opera," 'The Classical World of Stereo" and other shows on Sundays. The station broadcast from 8a. m. to midnight seven days a week, with light music during the day, dinner music in the evening, and "featured works" at night. As of 1976 WSPA FM used the syndicated "FM 100" beautiful music format. It originated at FM 100 WLOO 100.3 in Chicago.

WSPA FM ranked third in the Arbitron ratings and second with adults in Fall 1984, with midday numbers taking a significant jump. Though still considered beautiful music, WSPA FM added more contemporary artists such as the Captain and Tennille, Dionne Warwick and John Denver while decreasing the instrumentals. The station was making an effort to stop being considered background music. With the switch by WZXI in the Charlotte area from beautiful music, WSPA FM showed up in the Spring 1986 Arbitron ratings for Charlotte, the only beautiful music station serving the area. On February 19, 1991, WSPA FM officially made the switch to soft adult contemporary or "Lite music." The change improved the station's ratings from eighth in Fall 1990 to fifth in Winter 1991, and from sixth to fourth with adults. In fall 1994, Spartan Radiocasting, owner of WSPA and WSPA FM, made a local marketing agreement with Augusta, Georgia based Keymarket Communications. Early in 1995, WSPA FM, described as "light rock", was moving its studios to Greenville, along with WFBC and WORD (AM), while 950 WSPA would move in with WSPA TV.

River City Broadcasting, which bought Keymarket, also purchased an option to buy the radio stations. Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of WFBC TV and WLOS TV, bought River City and on July 1, 1998 bought "Light Rock 98.9", WFBC FM, WYRD (formerly WFBC), WORD, WOLI FM and WOLT. In December 1999, Entercom bought 41 radio stations from Sinclair. Entercom became Audacy in 2021. By 2002, WSPA FM was "Magic 98.9, The Upstate's Best Variety", with a mainstream adult contemporary format.

On March 6, 2023, Audacy announced that WSPA FM and WYRD FM (106.3) would swap formats and call signs beginning March 28. The move was intended to put WYRD FM's talk radio programming on the larger 98.9 signal running 100,000 watts vs. the 25,000 watt signal on 106.3 FM. The Magic format is now heard on 106.3 FM, and continues to be available on HD Radio via 98.9's HD2 digital subchannel as well as WFBC FM's HD4 subchannel.