For most of its history, WBTW was the dominant station in Florence/Myrtle Beach according to local Nielsen ratings. This is in part because that station essentially had the area to itself for over a quarter-century with the only real competition being Grade B signals from WECT in Wilmington and Columbia's WIS (both affiliates of NBC). WPDE's launch offered a second option of newscasts from WBTW. It was the first station in the market to move the majority of its operations to Horry County in the early 2000s, a few years after setting up a weather studio in the Myrtle Beach Pavilion.