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WLNK PD Neal Sharpe retires

101tm

101tm

Neal Sharpe is out at WLNK this time, this time via retirement.

ramp247.com

Neal Sharpe Hangs Up His Headphones

• We are sending our best wishes to a longtime friend -- Neal Sharpe, PD of Radio One Hot AC WLNK (Mix 100.9 & 99.3)/Charlotte, who announced his retirement from radio, effective today. Sharpe's big news follows the career milestone achieved by Mix morning co-host Matt Harris, who yesterday...
ramp247.com

We are sending our best wishes to a longtime friend — Neal Sharpe, PD of Radio One Hot AC WLNK (Mix 100.9 & 99.3)/Charlotte, who announced his retirement from radio, effective today. Sharpe’s big news follows the career milestone achieved by Mix morning co-host Matt Harris, who yesterday celebrated his 25th anniversary with WLNK.
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Matt Harris was cohost of Matt and Ramona in the afternoons for years before he was moved to morning drive, now with Liz Luda. And he has previously hosted The Edge on WCCB channel 18.
 
haze1268 said:
He left by his own choice.
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Maybe he saw the writing on the wall. But I hope this is not the end of WLNK and the Mix format. Hopefully there is some sort of plan for it to be relocated to another signal, although I really don't know what that could be. There is still good talent there, such as Matt Harris who just marked 25 years there. I think before the signal swap they had good billing and advertising support, and desirable demographics. Especially during the heyday of Bob and Sheri, Matt and Ramona, and Pam Stone. Hopefully WLNK can continue somewhere, somehow.
 
tylerSC said:
Maybe he saw the writing on the wall. But I hope this is not the end of WLNK and the Mix format. Hopefully there is some sort of plan for it to be relocated to another signal, although I really don't know what that could be. There is still good talent there, such as Matt Harris who just marked 25 years there. I think before the signal swap they had good billing and advertising support, and desirable demographics. Especially during the heyday of Bob and Sheri, Matt and Ramona, and Pam Stone. Hopefully WLNK can continue somewhere, somehow.
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I, for one, hate to see it go. It was the last station/cluster that had live jocks and community involvement in the area. It's sad that corporate radio has traded local talent and content for money...hopefully there is a plan, but for now I, along with the rest of the air-staff is in the dark. It's been a good run
 
haze1268 said:
I, for one, hate to see it go. It was the last station/cluster that had live jocks and community involvement in the area. It's sad that corporate radio has traded local talent and content for money...hopefully there is a plan, but for now I, along with the rest of the air-staff is in the dark. It's been a good run
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Hate it for you, Holly. Fingers crossed. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed hearing you on the Charlotte airwaves for years.
 
haze1268 said:
I, for one, hate to see it go. It was the last station/cluster that had live jocks and community involvement in the area. It's sad that corporate radio has traded local talent and content for money...hopefully there is a plan, but for now I, along with the rest of the air-staff is in the dark. It's been a good run
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Are you live or voicetracked on Mix?

Unfortunately, the decline in radio is self inflicted. Stations used to do a lot of NTR events in the community, had a relationship with the listeners and actually had local advertisers. They dropped most of that in the name of profit margins, and became too dependent on national agency. Now that national is declining, they’re having to make up that revenue, which means more cost cutting and starting all over again with revenue diversification, which would have been a non issue if they hadn’t cut it out in the first place. The reality is radio isn’t going to win in digital, which is the direction most of these broadcasters are headed, because it is not a unique product and competing industries understand it better and are actually able to monetize it.
 
tylerSC said:
Maybe he saw the writing on the wall. But I hope this is not the end of WLNK and the Mix format. Hopefully there is some sort of plan for it to be relocated to another signal, although I really don't know what that could be. There is still good talent there, such as Matt Harris who just marked 25 years there. I think before the signal swap they had good billing and advertising support, and desirable demographics. Especially during the heyday of Bob and Sheri, Matt and Ramona, and Pam Stone. Hopefully WLNK can continue somewhere, somehow.
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Those were the best days of "The Link". Personality lifestyle talk + music. I would sometimes deliver computers to our customers and when riding along "The Link" kept me entertained. Pam Sone was really funny!
 
CLTRadio said:
Are you live or voicetracked on Mix?

Unfortunately, the decline in radio is self inflicted. Stations used to do a lot of NTR events in the community, had a relationship with the listeners and actually had local advertisers. They dropped most of that in the name of profit margins, and became too dependent on national agency. Now that national is declining, they’re having to make up that revenue, which means more cost cutting and starting all over again with revenue diversification, which would have been a non issue if they hadn’t cut it out in the first place. The reality is radio isn’t going to win in digital, which is the direction most of these broadcasters are headed, because it is not a unique product and competing industries understand it better and are actually able to monetize it.
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Sometimes live, sometimes tracked. Mornings and afternoons always live. Sat and Sun always live middays. It varies on station remotes and things. Mix still did live broadcasts, remotes and many community events.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
Those were the best days of "The Link". Personality lifestyle talk + music. I would sometimes deliver computers to our customers and when riding along "The Link" kept me entertained. Pam Stone was really funny!
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Her column used to run in the Myrtle Beach Sun News. I guess so.

I don't see how people who wanted music would have been happy.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
Those were the best days of "The Link". Personality lifestyle talk + music. I would sometimes deliver computers to our customers and when riding along "The Link" kept me entertained. Pam Sone was really funny!
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Yes indeed those were the heydays of The Link. Bob and Sheri in the morning, Pam Stone midday, and Matt and Ramona in the afternoon. A good mix of music and talk. And not all that political talk. And they still had news from WBT. They even built a studio for Pam Stone at her home in Landrum in western Spartanburg County so she would not have to commute to Charlotte. Amid all the horse farms.
 
tylerSC said:
Yes indeed those were the heydays of The Link. Bob and Sheri in the morning, Pam Stone midday, and Matt and Ramona in the afternoon. A good mix of music and talk. And not all that political talk. And they still had news from WBT. They even built a studio for Pam Stone at her home in Landrum in western Spartanburg County so she would not have to commute to Charlotte. Amid all the horse farms.
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Quite possibly they were ahead of their time.
 
I’m not sure I’d say it was ahead of its time. The Link’s format could not survive today; I don’t even think it could do so in a top 10 market. It’s incredibly expensive to pay that many people and just not tenable anymore. They had a weekday air staff of 15+ people.

JP being a small, paid-for company is one of the main reasons it worked back then. CBS Radio was doing the male version of it but spreading the cost across multiple large markets.

Real Radio 104.1 in Orlando is still kicking it as a localized, general topic talk station under iHeart. I listen to them here and there. It’s so nice to hear non-political talk, and I think their heritage carries them along to an extent. New Jersey 101.5 was doing it, but is all-right-wing-all-the-time these days.
 


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