The Charlotte market will be turned upside down when a Classic Hits / Oldies stations hits the air! The PPM markets are showing this format on a fast track to being top 2 - 3 and in some markets Number One. WTHZ with studios in Lexington, NC had some reasonable numbers in Charlotte and later switched to K-Love and non commercial. Don't think any of the big guys will make this move but the lame Ride could. The Ride was a pretty good radio station but has become out dated and not real listener friendly. Musically The Ride continues to play deep cuts, marginal hits, and normally anything that Dave likes. Certainly doesn't make it a bad radio station but there is so much room for imporvement and the opportunity for a major surge in the ratings is certainly at hand. There was a station in Chicago that Dave monitored to build The Ride but they have moved on and made major adjustments in their format and have stayed in touch with the audience. Come on Dave take the big step and be the big dog in town! Some simple adjustments and you are there!
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Charlotte Classic Hits / Oldies
- Thread starter nuffsaid
- Start date
Yes that would be the likely station to do it with.
I laven't seen any PPM AQH numbers but I did see some cume PPM estimates from Arbitron. Wow K and Lite cume through the roof! This report showed them way ahead of the rest. Things could get very interesting.
I laven't seen any PPM AQH numbers but I did see some cume PPM estimates from Arbitron. Wow K and Lite cume through the roof! This report showed them way ahead of the rest. Things could get very interesting.
What made The Ride so great could easily be an HD or web station, but it's time to give people what they want.
And use the WAIZ letters and call it BIG WAYS!
And use the WAIZ letters and call it BIG WAYS!
The Charlotte area has seem lots of new folks move in since the glory days of WAYS. It's been over 20 years now. Do you think there are enough people who remember/care? I'm uncertain.
Mike I'm not sure there are lots of people in Charlotte who remember Big Ways but the concept of Big Ways would be a winner or at least have the opportunity to be a winner. A strong Classic Hits / Oldies station playing tunes from the day with good jingles, promotions, and talent would certainly have a chance to win. There is zero competition for such a format in the jungle of radio stations so there is room for Dave at The Ride to capitalize on an opportunity and "ride" the wave of success. Is it an over night success no. Is it a possible thorne in the side of Clear Channel and the other groups yes. Is it a potential money maker for the person willing to take the plunge YES!
AC stations usually do well in the PPM with high cume. This will help both AC's, which have not been doing as well lately. I am most curious to see how 107.9 does...too much music to be a talk station, too much talk to be a music station.Mike Sheridan said:
Classic Hits can do well in PPM also. However, since the market hasn't had a station like that since 2004, I wouldn't hold my breath.
nuffsaid said:
Today I don't see many stations that promote themselves as aggressively as they did back in the days of "Big WAYS". You're lucky if they spend the money on good talent.
Someone summed it up in a message when he said: Management thinks, why should I spend money on someone to run the station when the computer can run it for free?
Most management seem more concerned with transmitting instead of excelling.
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
Mike Sheridan said:
I lived in Morganton in 1968 and WORKED as a social worker at Broughton Hospital. I remember Big Ways and Long John Silver rocking into Burke and Catawba Counties.
MsMusicRadio said:
That must have been during the day because I work in Huntersville at night and can't pick up old 610-AM.
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
I think it was day and night, but my memory is fading. I know I went to Charlotte on week-ends so that might be where I heard them. Hickory had an AM Top 40 that although a daytimer, sounded better than I expected coming from Pittsburgh and KQV. Wasn't 102.9 licensed to Hickory in 1968 and doing a fairly decent 24hour country sound with live jocks? Charlotte had another 24/7 Top 40 at 1240 and R&B with WGIV at 1600. With MOR at 1110, Country at 930 and at least another F/T AM station. Charlotte had as much going as Pittsburgh.
MsMusicRadio said:
Technically 102.9 is still licensed to Hickory but as you know moved to Charlotte. Their signal didn't improve till the '80's so I'm not sure what format they were doing. I do know that WFMX in Statesville had been Country for years.
Back to Charlotte and AM, yes 1240 was top 40 and a lot of other things before I got here in '81. WAME 1480 had been Country, so when they went religion 1240 went Country. I don't think 930 went Country till 1985 when they basically gave up on the station. I was there from '81 to '85 doing the standards formats (and variations). Prior to that it was News/Talk at first part of the ill fated NBC News and Information Service (NIS). Like WINZ Miami and probably lots of other stations WSOC did the News/Talk format on their own for awhile.
When I got here the AM band still had some life to it. 610, 930, and 1110 were all stations I enjoyed. 99.7, 102.9 and 95.7 were all outside the market in those days. 96.9 had some listeners as A/C Love-97. I was there in '85 when they moved the studios to Charlotte and became WLVK, K-97-FM. It took them many years to catch up to WSOC-FM.
1240 was WIST. They actually b-e-a-t Big WAYS one book in the early 70's. It was a real big deal.
I can answer this!Mike Sheridan said:
The Charlotte Observer did an article which must have appeared in the early 80s before I moved to the Hickory area.
They talked about the southern gospel music and other religious programming on WHKY-TV and WHKY-FM.
When I moved there, I didn't know about Y-102.9, but I heard a fuzzy signal from somewhere and assumed it was Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol. They played some of the really off-the-wall stuff like A Flock of Seagulls.
But to give you an idea of what Y-102.9 sounded like, Jeff Borden covered radio for the Observer in those days and he got a letter saying Charlotte may have lost all its rock stations, but they still have a station that rocks up in Hickory. And a few people in the Charlotte area could pick it up too. Back then WROQ was Q-95 and very much a top 40 station. Z-100 had just gotten full power but it was the same. WBCY was more top 40 than they had been. But THIS station was different.
A few years later they started simulcasting the AC music on the AM and then just disappeared. While they were still rock, they had "Dr. Demento", the guy who discovered Weird Al Yankovic and played a bunch of other silly records. The AM picked that up but I was too far south to really hear it, and then I moved.
I was a freshman up at App State in Boone in 1985. WHKY 102.9 was REQUIRED listening on Sunday nights. That's when Dr Demento and Weird Al took over the flamethrower. WRDX had just gone rock. And John Boy and Billy were still funny as hell on 'BCY. On a side note, Greensboro's easy listening station just went alt/pop as Z93. North Wilkesboro's WKBC played automated Hot AC. Those stations were basically the big boys for a while. (Then came Rock 92, Z100, Magic 96, etc.)
WRDX didn't go rock for 10 more years. They were AC.ToddJenkins said:
And Z93 was hot AC or top 40 when I was a college freshman in 1979. They started playing rock in 1985, though.
Wasn't WRDX country in the early 80's?
I think I remember hearing the "X-Rock 95 7" tag on the air between 86 and 88. We had their bumper sticker on the wall at WASU.
I think I remember hearing the "X-Rock 95 7" tag on the air between 86 and 88. We had their bumper sticker on the wall at WASU.
Yeah, both of these were true. I even remember WRDX having "Radio 15" in the early 80s at one point, which was top 40.ToddJenkins said:
H
hballard_HB
Guest
vchimpanzee said:
Since I worked for both WIRC-WXRC and WSTP-WRDX during my time in radio, I can provide the history behind both operations. WXRC went from being Channel X Country to X Rock 96 in the summer of 1978 after being purchased by Jerry Oakley. It was a TM Productions automated format. This lasted until around 1984-1985 when the transition to live album rock radio as 95.7 The Rock began. I was chief engineer and did overnights from late 1986 to mid 1987. I can't recall the exact year when Dave Lingafelt prurchased the stations from Jerry Oakley, since I was gone by then, but eventually, what was The Rock evolved into The Ride. What was originally WSTP-FM became WRDX in 1968, programming country all day up until 7pm each evening when it would simulcast Top 40 WSTP-AM, which is on 1490 and at the time was promoted as "Radio 15". If you heard "Radio 15" on WRDX, the two stations were simulcasting. In the early to mid 1980s, the stations would simulcast morning drive and 7pm-12am. WRDX remained country and mono until 1985, when new studio equipment and a new tower and transmitter sight were built between Salisbury and Statesville. The format was changed to satellite delivered adult contemporary until 1986, when WRDX became Beach 106, a full time beach music station, programmed by 'Fessa John Hook. This lasted until 1995, when the Daltons, owners of Magic 96.1, WWMG, Charlotte, purchased WRDX from owners Tom Harrell and Mary Ann Lanningham. That is when it became WEND. All of this was B.C.C. (Before Clear Channel).
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