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1110 New Format

This may be the plan. I noticed Mark Levin just got bumped from 107.9 in favor of Nick Craig and Tony Katz. Perhaps he will show up on 1110 along with some of the other national conservative hosts. We shall see. WFNZ is already stable on 610 and 92.7, so I don't see the point in moving that unless they want full clearance of ESPN on 1110.
I just can’t see it working. They have to drag listeners OFF streaming and FM to the AM band. The programming will have to be high level engaging. There is a way to do it. We shall see if they do it.Especially an upstart
 
They could always pair 99.3 back with 1110 AM?
I certainly hope not. They could survive if they picked up and were the flagship for ALL the local sports teams. They would have first PAY the team, then sell enough advertising to cover the contract. But that’s a challenge. There are soooooooooooo many sports stations and no one is make big $$$$.
 
They could always pair 99.3 back with 1110 AM?
Not going to happen. Mix needs the coverage to the south that 100.9 doesn’t provide, and it’s certainly a more attractive format than a simulcast of a dinosaur running syndicated news/talk that attracts listeners 65+.

Also, WFNZ is only on 92.7 now and has been for quite some time. 610 AM is WPZS now.
 
This may be the plan. I noticed Mark Levin just got bumped from 107.9 in favor of Nick Craig and Tony Katz. Perhaps he will show up on 1110 along with some of the other national conservative hosts. We shall see. WFNZ is already stable on 610 and 92.7, so I don't see the point in moving that unless they want full clearance of ESPN on 1110. I guess we'll know soon enough.

I just don't see the rationale in creating another talk station to compete with their existing talk station. They have to realize that if they clear Hannity, Levin, et al. on 1110 they're going to get more listeners there than they're getting for their all local lineup on WBT. I use to listen to WBT on a regular basis but once they started going 100% local I started listening to SiriusXM more. Maybe I'm wrong, and the ratings are telling them people want more local voices and that is their reasoning, but it seems more likely to me that they're cutting costs by changing up the programming on WBT. The new shows seem to be originating from stations they already own, so they're saving $$ by dropping Levin and airing them.
 
I certainly hope not. They could survive if they picked up and were the flagship for ALL the local sports teams. They would have first PAY the team, then sell enough advertising to cover the contract. But that’s a challenge. There are soooooooooooo many sports stations and no one is make big $$$$.

I doubt teams would be interested in pairing with 1110 as an AM station only. One of the reasons the Panthers stated for leaving WBT a few years ago and going to WRFX was their stronger FM signal into the Charlotte market. My guess is moving WBT to the stronger FM signal to begin with was a play to give them more leverage to get the Panthers rights back when their current contract expires. Given the Hornets lack of success I doubt they have any interest in picking the Hornets back up.

I originally suspected 1110 would go all sports too, but in thinking about it more the biggest obstacle to 1110 being a sports station at all is the fact that they have no FM Translator. I personally wouldn't be surprised if they lease 1110 out for programming by a third party to collect $$. Maybe talk programming, but not in the way we've been thinking. Possibly a barter carriage deal with Salem News?
 
I just don't see the rationale in creating another talk station to compete with their existing talk station. They have to realize that if they clear Hannity, Levin, et al. on 1110 they're going to get more listeners there than they're getting for their all local lineup on WBT. I use to listen to WBT on a regular basis but once they started going 100% local I started listening to SiriusXM more. Maybe I'm wrong, and the ratings are telling them people want more local voices and that is their reasoning, but it seems more likely to me that they're cutting costs by changing up the programming on WBT. The new shows seem to be originating from stations they already own, so they're saving $$ by dropping Levin and airing them.

Look at it this way. If IHeart is able to have (mostly) local talk on KFI in Los Angeles and keep most of the national talkers on KEIB and still manage to be, at least somewhat, successful, why shouldn't another company (Beasley) try the same in Charlotte with WBT-AM and WBT-FM.
 
Radio One has said that they were still going to operate it. I don’t see them doing any format as a standalone on AM only. I think pairing it with WFNZ is the only thing that makes sense.

It’s still simulcasting WBT as of today, which is January 7th. I know people wanted to argue with me about the date. I will accept your apology now.
 
This may be the plan. I noticed Mark Levin just got bumped from 107.9 in favor of Nick Craig and Tony Katz. Perhaps he will show up on 1110 along with some of the other national conservative hosts. We shall see. WFNZ is already stable on 610 and 92.7, so I don't see the point in moving that unless they want full clearance of ESPN on 1110. I guess we'll know soon enough.
To clarify, the signal at 610 on the dial is now gospel: Praise 610 WPZS.
So WFNZ sports talk is exclusively on FM.
 
I just don't see the rationale in creating another talk station to compete with their existing talk station. They have to realize that if they clear Hannity, Levin, et al. on 1110 they're going to get more listeners there than they're getting for their all local lineup on WBT. I use to listen to WBT on a regular basis but once they started going 100% local I started listening to SiriusXM more.

From Urban One's standpoint, creating another talk station wouldn't be competition; it would be complementary. That's a different, though similar, segment of the audience than what 107.9 targets. If, in fact, 1110 gets more listeners than 107.9, that would be good for them. I don't think it will if that's indeed what happens, but management would be elated if that were to end up happening. A few people might listen to talk radio simply because they like talk, but most talk radio listeners either change stations or turn the radio off when they don't like the hosts. You're a lot more typical of a talk radio listener than you might think since that's exactly what you did when your favorite hosts got bumped off of WBT!

Maybe I'm wrong, and the ratings are telling them people want more local voices and that is their reasoning, but it seems more likely to me that they're cutting costs by changing up the programming on WBT. The new shows seem to be originating from stations they already own, so they're saving $$ by dropping Levin and airing them.

I could be remembering incorrectly, but I believe Levin is offered on barter. So, WBT would save some inventory that it could theoretically sell itself by dropping Levin, but dropping him doesn't directly save cash. Levin also isn't on during a prime listening spot for talk radio. Talk radio listening after 6:00 is practically nonexistent. Most talk stations, even popular ones, have more local avails than they can sell. I suppose carrying Levin might've forced WBT to carry some of the barter spots in the daytime as that's a fairly common arrangement, but I can't imagine that amount of spots would be enough to significantly affect revenue.
 
Wonder if BIN could show up? Low overhead to run, and wouldn't hurt WBT FM.
theyd be pretty .. not bright ......to run that on such a gas guzzling transmitter with a format thats not really made for B2b local direct sales
 
BIN is already on the 98.7 translator. If they have it in mono, especially, they’re better off than moving to 1110.
 
As of this morning (1/8), AM 1110 is running a bright, soothing music loop with frequent drops to tune exclusively to 107.9 for News/Talk
 


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