I really expected Urban One to have a Urban based talk format on 1110, similar to their WOL in DC and WOLB in Baltimore. That, to me, made the most sense considering the ownership.
While I basically agree with what you're saying about AM in general, I just can't overlook that 1110 had a respectable share and an awfully good cume before the switch. Maybe not as good as desired, but (in my opinion) nothing to flush down the drain.
While I do agree that AM is dying, and WBT should have moved to a full market FM signal several years ago, I do have to disagree with that statement at least in a way. Isn't EVERY station just a vehicle for the programming? No matter if it's a 1000w daytimer or a 100kw FM, nobody is listening to the station. They're all listening to programming. And WBT's 1110khz station was able to supply that programming to thousands of people prior to Jan 2026. To me this means they're not completely dead yet. Or, to put it another way - if U1 didn't have a full market FM to put the news-talk format on, would it have made sense to just SHUT IT OFF back in January? Of course not.
That would have been a lot of overhead for little return. Radio One used to do syndicated urban talk via their Tom Joyner/Reach Media partnership (Michael Eric Dyson, 2 Live Stews) but that was 20 years ago. So if they even had considered urban talk, it'd have to be all-local, unless you really want them to loop Al Sharpton endlessly, which is what WERE in Cleveland does.
I'm pretty sure Radio One was looking at WIBC—another FM talker they got from Emmis—and realized WBT would be a powerhouse if they went on FM, even if they had to sacrifice WLNK. Clearly it wasn't that hard a decision, Hot AC is another format not necessarily in their wheelhouse, even as they have been trying to diversify.
I kind of expected it to get real up in here, just like Cleveland.
That actually makes the most sense
Personally, I think they should have stayed in their lane.
That definitely would have made sense, a whole lot more than what they've done for the last almost six months.
voca.ro
agree 100%.
Radio One is not going to incinerate money for a format that will have zero ROI. I would safely say they did the research and it said not to bother.
People were listening to the content on 1110, not just to listen to 1110 for the sake of listening to 1110. They moved to 107.9 without any problem. 1110 is a mere vessel and now it has nothing whilst continuing to transmit on a dying band.
you obviously know more about U1 than I do. I thought they were pretty much a one-trick pony. I never expected to hear that they were pushing "mass market." I had actually considered Houston, and thought they had just fallen into that accidently. I'm glad to see that I was mistaken.
I have been amazed at the success they had with Mary Katherine Sneed. She led from outside their demo, and did it amazingly. But I thought today's U1/R1 didn't know what they didn't know. And the extended re-direct loop on 1110 seemed to affirm that, at least to me.
Radio One owns the land under the towers and building, Beasley owns the rest of the land. When Radio One sells the land, Beasley gets 60%.. I don't see anywhere that Radio One doesn't have control over what happens. It's only after they decide to sell the land that Beasley gets their cut.
I've thought of that, but reckon we'll never know.
Oops, accidentally edited a little too much of the above post out, sorry, Amos. Anyhow, I agree.
