Burlington

[nuffsaid]

I understand there are two AM statioins in Burlington that are doing about the same thing. Is there any opportunity in that market or is it way to close to Raleigh and Greensboro?

 

[RadioDaze]

Burlington's oldest signal, WPCM (the former WBBB) 920 AM does a Carolina-beach music leaning oldies format, while cross-town WBAG, 1150 AM, does more popular standards, also with a beach music influence, though not quite as strong as that of WPCM. Though 200 miles inland, Burlington seems to be a hotbed of Carolina beach music. Both WPCM and WBAG are originally daytimers that now have low-power nighttime authorization. WBAG is locally owned, while WPCM is a part of Raleigh-based Curtis Media, which also owns sports-formatted WSML 1200 AM in the Alamance County seat of Graham (part of a simulcast focused on the Triad market) and the city's lone commercial FM, talk WZTK 101.1 (a 100,000-watter which is based in Burlington but targets the Triad with significant listenership in the Triangle area as well. As far as other Alamance County radio, there's non-commercial college-formatted WSOE 89.3 in Elon and Spanish language daytimer WGSB 1060 in Mebane, which actually directs all of its 1,000-watt signal east, away from Burlington. Raleigh-market WKSL 93.9 was once Burlington-licensed WBAG-FM, but it moved east in the early 1980s and relicensed to Cary, NC just a few years ago.

 

[quadraphonic]

There's plenty of opportunity, depending on what king you're looking for.

 

[nuffsaid]

Good information! I was on the way to Raleigh yesterday and tuned in both WBAG and WPCN and listened back and forth for some time. Think WBAG has a slightly better signal but not real sure since it was raining and kinda nasty. While listening I found WPCM to be more produced and sounded more professional and that is most likely because they are a part of the Curtis Media Group.

 

[quadraphonic]

WBAG does a lot of local coverage. Way more involvement than most standalone AMs.
At least as of a few years ago, they did high school sports, some Little League sports. They have a morning talk show you can hear podcasts of on the web. The last few years I've only heard them on an occasional weekend of holiday visit, but those times they sound the same as they used to. Everybody there has been in Alamance County radio for 105 years on average (slight exaggeration, but it's at least 100). They used to be (I think) the only station to run Duke AND UNC sports. It seems like they were Music of Your Life before that format stopped, now they're another satellite format.

WPCM's production benefits more from being in the WZTK building. Years ago, well let's just say it was a
rustic-not-modernized building, and I don't think the building or the antenna system has been improved much lately. They have definitely found a niche that seems to work for them though. It still seems wrong for them to be WPCM though, and for WBBB to be a rock station 50 miles away.

 

[nuffsaid]

I attempted to listen to them on line but later found they only stream during their "talk" segments of the day.

 

[RadioDaze]

Though I haven't been in the door in a decade, the Tower Drive studios of WPCM and (then) WKXU were very rustic indeed. There was some interesting equipment in the rack such as an FM monitor (don't know if it was still functional) which tuned in both the old 49-52 and current 88-108 FM bands, complete with a history of regional FM marked in pencil below the dial. There was a huge green Gates daytime transmitter with the power button literally glued on. Their nighttime power (52 watts I think) comes from a small wall mounted transmitter and an antenna on a telephone pole beside the building. The main guyed tower wasn't the original, as I found pictures and cement anchors of the original self-supporter. The daytime signal (5,000 watts) is really strong here in Durham, some 34 miles away from Burlington.