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1110 New Format
- Thread starter amos1001
- Start date
I have actually wondered along those lines, maybe some kind of "Music Of Your Life" format or similar. Seems kind of counter-intuitive, to use a 50KW signal for something such as that, but stranger things have happened. It would appeal to all of us old dinosaurs who still like AM and who would kind of enjoy that type of music.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That wins the award for best "they're still stunting" post, ever.
Quite right, by this point, any listeners that 1110 had, have migrated over to 107.9.
It seems as though WBT is trying to "kill 1110 dead", rather than being in a hurry to roll out some kind of "brand spanking new" format. National syndicated conservative talk would seem to be the most intuitive option, Hannity, Clay and Buck, et al, in that they have no clearance on any station in Charlotte proper, but that's reading the tea leaves and I promised myself I was going to stop doing that as regards WBT.
Advertisers hate dinosaurs.😞
Okay given. But if you took away the dinosaurs out of the conservative talk ratings what would be left?
All 3 you listed are way past their sell by dates. If there had been a market or interest for their shows they would have been here by now. The downfall of WBT started when they went conservatives with no talent hacks and Limbaugh wannabes like Winterble and now they pass off a recycled morning DJ who calls himself the green eyed patriot. They frequently have WFAE ahead of them in ratings. Hitch your wagon to the wrong ideology, you get what you deserve.
LOL!
Romans 11:33-36 KJB
Josh
Church Podcast: Pleasant View Baptist Church | SermonAudio
Personal Podcast: Back To The Old Paths
TIBPF Podcast: https://www.tibpf.sermon.net
I believe most would agree Rush Limbaugh squeezed as much life as he could out of dying AM stations. Not that I agree with the man but he spoke for people who worry about socialism, replacement theory, gun rights, government overreach etc. Most times doing so in a flamboyant, outrageous fashion that attracted attention. Establishing "Rush Rooms" is something I'd never heard of and was a great promotion.
Probably for good reason. It would be embarrassing if the new format on 1110 had better ratings than 107.9. I know, not likely but why take chances?
I still believe they want the AM gone. One less commercial station to get a slice of the market "pie". Don't be surprised if they sell the land and send the license to the FCC or sell it to a non profit broadcaster. I can only guess they are trying to figure out how to get out of their EAS commitment.
I guess I just don't understand the radio biz. Why wouldn't we want every station in the cluster to be as successful as possible?
I personally agree with you but:
If there are 15 radio stations in a market and 5 are doing spoken word formats and one goes away or non commercial, then only 4 stations after the amount of revenue. I personally believe that theory is applicable only for poorly managed companies that can't program.
IMHO as long as there is positive cash flow there is nothing wrong with (cutting your own throat). Flanking stations can deter a real competitor because instead of taking on one station you are dealing with two.
D
Deleted member 108832
Guest
Because regardless of it being a 50kW blowtorch, and having a long-standing relationship with the city of Charlotte, it's still an antiquated AM.
Canada and Mexico have the right idea in taking a significant number of their's dark. The U.S. is just lagging behind because larger operators simply want to squeeze as much out of them as absolutely possible. Sounds like WBT has been wrung dry, at least from its owner's perspective, and this lengthy "stunt" is just how little they actually regard the 1110 facility.
In Atlanta 750 is still 10 to 20% of WSB's audience. Way back in the day, WSB beat WGST when Chear Channel had Rush their Republican talk on 640 and 105.7*.
IMHO a 24 hour strong AM signal that covers over 95% of a market should be able to make some money. Even Salem without their Fish stations is near breakeven with primarily AM stations. I personally question Salem's business model but it is not my money or mission.
Free programming just give me credit:
Looking at the last ratings, Charlotte only has one Sports talk station listed. They could do ESPN or Fox on 1110 or run 92.7 on the AM too. Then put any overlap from 92.7 on 1110. You can do so many hours separate and still get the two stations reported together.
* If you look at the demographics of Atlanta, 105.7 covers a lot of high income zip codes.
Making "antiquated" operations profitable is the sign of a really good programmer / marketer. It could be a stepping stone for bigger and better opportunities.
Morning show’s fine, but after that it’s just old angry fellas yelling at clouds. New frequency, same pig — lipstick and all. Nights have been rough, too: automation dropping 20+ minutes of dead air, then popping back with ‘Stations, stand by for FOX News.’ The lights are on, but nobody’s home. That’s not a top-notch operation for a market #21 station carrying the ‘legendary’ WBT brand.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I have commented on this, here on RD and elsewhere. These days, automation for audio control is a necessity, even at live stations. But too many operations make the fatal error of not having someone assigned to doublechecking that the command log files and program sources are properly loaded into the automation computer (or accessible via a LAN to an on-site server).
I will share what we do with the New Mexico stations that I consult. I am directly responsible for programming one of the Albuquerque stations, which means that I create and upload the command logs to that machine. We also carry the classic American Top 40: The 80s on Sundays, and the station production director has primary responsibility to download the show from Premiere via FTP and upload it to that machine, but I also have the login for the Premiere FTP server and serve as his backup, so one of us will always do that every week.
I also have the login to the FTP server at UARN, and make sure each week's public affairs programs from there are downloaded and then uploaded to the main server in ABQ, where a utility that runs automatically overnight copies any new files from there to all of the automation machines.
And, if all else fails, I have the remote login to the automation machines for every station, in every community where the owner has one ... so if something goes horribly wrong I can get in and either restart the automation or reboot the machine, which will also restart the automation after reloading the OS. (I even have that access for the three stations that are under a LMA.)
The standing joke there is that "the consultant is the director of station operations".
There is no excuse for what @caudleweather described, and the only explanation is not an excuse but an admission to sloppy operations.
I don’t like most of the content either, but I don’t think you can say they’re not running a top-notch operation because of issues with the automation system. Most of the time during overnights or weekends they only have one person in the building monitoring 5 or 6 stations.
I’ve had issues with my client’s spots at all the clusters. A couple of their spots “misfired” during a voicetracked show on WSOC. On WBAV, the music continued to play during the whole stop set and you couldn’t hear any of the spots. There is a hard stop at 7pm to start syndication on WOSF, and one of my clients spot was cut off after 10 seconds because DL Hughley ran late. WKKT’s automation system jumped an hour ahead, and they had to make up everybody’s time. Automation issues are very common unfortunately.
If there is a jock in the studio live, I’m less forgiving. They should be catching those issues ahead of time.
Funny how well WBT was doing when Rush Limbaugh was on the station. If the programing is good the audience will find a way to hear it. I have never been a fan of Rush Limbaugh but these problems didn't surface until after he died.