WRCM
City of license	Wingate, North Carolina
Broadcast area	Charlotte/Metrolina
Branding	"New Life 91.9"
Slogan	"Charlotte's Number One Family Friendly Station"
Frequency	91.9 (MHz)
First air date	June 14, 1993
Format	Contemporary Christian music
ERP	30,000 Watts
Callsign meaning	W Robertson C. McQuilken (First president of Columbia Bible College)
Owner	Columbia International University
Website	http://www.newlife919.com

WRCM, known on-air as New Life 91.9, is a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina. It airs contemporary Christian music and identifies itself as "Charlotte's Number One Family Friendly Station". It is a noncommericial listener supported ministry of Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, broadcasting at 91.9 mHz.

The station is licensed to Wingate, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte, with studios in another Charlotte suburb, Indian Trail, North Carolina.

Columbia International University, then known as Columbia Bible College, applied to the FCC for the license in 1982. Internally, this was known as The 92 FM Project. Other entities applied on top of CBC including Wingate College (now Wingate University) and a church in Waxhaw, North Carolina area. After 10 years of negotiations with the other groups, WRCM was granted the license and was signed on the air by founding general manager Ken Mayfield at 12 noon on June 14, 1993. Present at sign on were CIU president, Johnny Miller; CIU vice president John Davidson and former CIU president, Robertson C. McQuilken. (The station's call letters -RCM- were in honor of his father, Robertson C. McQuilken, the first president of Columbia Bible College.)

WRCM's first staff consisted of full-timers Ken Mayfield, the station's first general manager and afternoon personality, program director and morning host, Rodney Baucom and Karen Wycoff who served as mid-day announcer and secretary. Mayfield had built and managed another contemporary Christian station, WNOW, and had hosted a very popular Sunday morning Contemporary Christian music program for 7 years on Charlotte's 100,000 watt WBCY (now WLNK). Part-time staff members included Shelly Mitchell and Joe Paulo. Paulo stepped into the role of general manager shortly after Mayfield departed in 1999.

WRCM garnered immediate success with a 2.4 in its first Arbitron ratings. This success was in spite of the lack of advertising. Almost all of the "promotion" for the fledgling station had to come by word of mouth and from the station staff at Christian concerts.

Original plans were for WRCM to be a satellite station of Columbia Bible College's original station, WMHK However, these plans were scrapped, and the station has never been a satellite or semi-satellite of WMHK.

Although the station identifies itself as "New Life 91.9, WRCM Wingate/Charlotte" and heavily promotes churches throughout the Charlotte metropolitan area, its signal is not as strong as those of the major FM stations in the Charlotte area. For most of its history, it operated at only 10,000 watts, resulting in marginal coverage even in some parts of Charlotte. It has since increased its power to 30,000 watts, but still provides only a grade B signal to large portions of the market. This is because it operates from a tiny (by modern broadcasting standards) 495-foot tower near its studios in Indian Trail. This may be due to the need to protect WSGE in Dallas, which is located on adjacent 91.7 FM. Most Christian music fans in the western part of the market get a better signal from WMIT in Asheville.

WRCM's music rotation consists of six or seven current songs in heavy rotation and a mix of six or seven new songs and "classics" from the last two to five years in medium rotation played in a tight format, often back to back with only the station jingle separating songs from each other. It also airs Martha Hadley's nighttime syndicated program of music, prayer, and advice, which it receives via satellite.

New songs are chosen with the help of the listener advisory panel. A survey is distributed every two weeks on a Thursday and usually contains anywhere from 12-18 of the most recently released songs with the option of rating them and identifying which songs are played too much or too little or just right. Also, five new songs are put up for votes. However, it is quite common for many new songs to be passed up, as the station's playlist is heavy on songs from the last couple years that have proven to be popular with listeners.

The station often promotes live concerts by (CCM) musicians, and carries out its Christian mission by performing good works such as collecting donations of baby clothes to support mothers in need who might otherwise consider getting abortions. The station sponsored a mission trip to Brazil during the summer of 2006.

[edit] See also

• WMHK

[edit] External links

• New Life 91.9 WRCM official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRCM
• Radio Locator information on WRCM