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Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill Radio Ratings: Holiday 2023

Mike Sheridan said:
Forget about Rushie? I don't think so! As for the Republican Party moving more right stations like WBT have amplified the voices of those who chose to resort to doom and gloom. WBT had a great reputation and still does among many people. I heard it on WBT so it must be true, well that used to be the case.

As for going after rich old white Republican men, there are plenty who are not rich listening too. To be a Republican seems to be a Southern thing.

If Radio One/WBT waits until the format doesn't work anymore it just may be too late but you're probably right, they'll probably wait, then flip it to a Sports Format...brilliant!
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If you don't like WBT's content, don't listen. It's simple as that. Outside of a few major markets, there aren't any true unbiased "News" stations anymore. It's conservative MAGA talk, and it's been trending that way for some time. That's nationwide.

If I'm programming a station, and a listener says they don't like something, the first thing I'm going to ask is that person my target? If the answer is no, it's irrelevant. It's just like David Eduardo complaining about hip hop lyrics. Urban stations target African Americans 18-34. Do you really think they care what a 65+ year old Hispanic dude thinks? I'm a 30 something, left leaning unaffiliated, and just like you, I'm turned off by some of WBT's content. I wish we could bring some common sense back to politics. Again, the reality is we're not who they're trying to target and they don't care.

Radio is a business, and stations sell their audience. I've bough advertisements on WBT, and while everyone who listens is not rich, the high "disposable" incomes are a huge selling point and pushed really hard. If I'm a business owner, why would I want to buy advertising on a station where everybody is broke?

Charlotte, like most major metros, is becoming younger and more Democratic. Rural areas are becoming older and more Republican. Not really a southern thing. Democrats actually dominated North Carolina state government until 2010, and we've only had 1 non-Democratic governor in the last 30 years (Pat McCrory 2012-2016). We still have several statewide seats that are held by Democrats, and the partisan divide is usually around 50/50.
 
Well for the most part I don't listen to WBT. Occasionally when I do it's the same old attack politics. If you're 30 something you are in the age demographic WBT is looking for aren't you?

As for radio being a business don't give me that line. Along with that license comes something called responsibility. Right-Left-or middle there is the responsibility to tell the truth and not pander to any one group.

As for the Talk format, does it have to be 95% political? Is that all there is?
 
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Mike Sheridan said:
Well for the most part I don't listen to WBT. Occasionally when I do it's the same old attack politics. If you're 30 something you are in the age demographic WBT is looking for aren't you?

As for radio being a business don't give me that line. Along with that license comes something called responsibility. Right-Left-or middle there is the responsibility to tell the truth and not pander to any one group.

As for the Talk format, does it have to be 95% political? Is that all there is?
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People naturally gravitate to drama and negativity. It's human nature. They have to dumb it down and play on emotions to reach the largest possible audience. I don't agree with it, but that's reality. Common sense is boring.

I'll also point out that running an all news station and having people actually do research can be very expensive. It's cheaper to pay somebody to spew nonsense than to actually do it right. Especially with falling ad revenue.

I may be in the age demo, but I'm not in the political demo. They're really pushing Gen X, so I might not even be in their target age group.
 
I’m not sure why WBT is being singled out for running things like Fox News. Look over in the progressive Triangle and what’s normally #2 6+? 106.1 WTKK, which is almost entirely syndicated conservative talk - much more MAGA than WBT. In a lot of markets, despite the demos, news/talk pulls numbers. They’re able to make up for the poor demos by the way the talk format allows for more and different kinds of ads, and selling out the weekend time.

I do believe WBT will have an end, but that’s not due to the programming. That’s because it’s on AM, and as a band, AM is on a death spiral. At some point if R1 wants to salvage what WBT has, it’ll need to migrate to a better FM than 99.3.

I’m not a fan of a lot of what comes out of WBT either, although I appreciate the fact it’s more moderate than the nutjobs we have on WYRD over here in market 57.

FNZ has consistently outperformed its 610 numbers on 92.7. Are they big? Nope, but sports talk brings in $$$ so I’m sure they’re fine. 92.7 never did well as a music station, it’s a good signal for sports and it seems like finally a format is working for that frequency.
 
Easy we are singling out WBT for running Fox News because this is the Charlotte board.

As for AM being on a death spiral, that may be true in most cases but if you have a decent radio WBT comes in loud and clear throughout most of Charlotte. We know the nighttime signal to the west is lacking which is the reason for 99.3.
 
Gregg. said:
Look what's tops in the youth demo. WKQC and its Christmas format is #1 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54. And WLKO and its Christmas format is #2 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

It's always fun to see the youngest demo listening to Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Karen Carpenter and Andy Williams from November to December. Folks in this demo weren't born (or just barely) when these people were still alive.
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Meanwhile, those are the people I listen to year-round but I have to go online to do it.
 
CLTRadio said:
If you don't like WBT's content, don't listen. It's simple as that.
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Well, in most small to medium markets, it's a little hard to avoid the Conservative Talk station. That's because it often doubles as the big station for news, traffic and weather at the same time. If you want one, you almost have to get exposed to the other.

In large cities, we have All-News stations. They are the stations in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. for the full service elements we might want. But leave the biggest cities and there are few alternatives.

So if you are an informed adult looking for more than just music, in Charlotte, it's nearly impossible to avoid WBT. In Atlanta, it's nearly impossible to avoid WSB. Yes, there are NPR stations in nearly all markets. But those stations have a different programming model. You don't get "traffic and weather together" every ten minutes. NPR stations only break a few times an hour and those breaks are short.

(Can I ask for no responses here that "I get all that stuff on my phone." Yes, you may have your phone set up for all those things as you're driving. But some of us don't want to work that hard, our phone in one hand while we're driving with the other. We want to press one button for the station that gives us these things, along with a bit of personality. Some people are fine picking up their breakfast at a drive thru window. Some want to be served at a diner by a waitress/waiter, who will pour us another cup of coffee and comment about the weather.)
 
All news only seems to work in the southeast if it’s done in drive time-type blocks. It was tried as a 24/7 format in Houston and Atlanta, and was met with disastrous results even though the programming was, IMO, more than acceptable.

Gregg is 100% correct. Atlanta has one commercial talk station (I’m not counting the flea signals) with WSB. All news up against it failed miserably. So, that leaves WSB straddling the fence between being the conservative talk station and the news station outside of WABE in drive times. When you get down to markets like Greenville SC, Raleigh, and the Triad, its conservative talk with breaking news added in to canned news sourced from sister stations.

I’d love to see a more mainstream talk format that’s more news-intensive, but almost every time it’s been tried, it’s flopped. Even all news startups when the format saw a bit of a boom around 2010-2011 - outside of the south in DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and NYC - failed. It seems like the successful all news stations were created decades ago, and it’s impossible to build that loyalty now in the format.
 
Gregg. said:
Well, in most small to medium markets, it's a little hard to avoid the Conservative Talk station. That's because it often doubles as the big station for news, traffic and weather at the same time. If you want one, you almost have to get exposed to the other.

In large cities, we have All-News stations. They are the stations in NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. for the full service elements we might want. But leave the biggest cities and there are few alternatives.

So if you are an informed adult looking for more than just music, in Charlotte, it's nearly impossible to avoid WBT. In Atlanta, it's nearly impossible to avoid WSB. Yes, there are NPR stations in nearly all markets. But those stations have a different programming model. You don't get "traffic and weather together" every ten minutes. NPR stations only break a few times an hour and those breaks are short.

(Can I ask for no responses here that "I get all that stuff on my phone." Yes, you may have your phone set up for all those things as you're driving. But some of us don't want to work that hard, our phone in one hand while we're driving with the other. We want to press one button for the station that gives us these things, along with a bit of personality. Some people are fine picking up their breakfast at a drive thru window. Some want to be served at a diner by a waitress/waiter, who will pour us another cup of coffee and comment about the weather.)
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That’s not accurate. Almost every station runs news reports during AM Drive. Same with traffic reports during rush hour. All of the Beasley and iHeart stations run weather reports every hour. Local morning shows will talk about big local news stories.

The reason all news works in major markets is because there’s enough content and stations are profitable enough to justify the expense. If you watch the local Charlotte tv news, the stories repeat every half hour and there is a lot of filler content.
 
Okay news, I'll buy thay, traffic nah. Even though I have done traffic reports in the air (best), on the ground (okay) and in the studio( poor). Many times as a motorist I have heard reports of an accident where there is no sign of one and traffic is flowing normally. Traffic reports are just a sales tool. Give me Waze any day, far more accurate.
 
Mike Sheridan said:
Okay news, I'll buy thay, traffic nah. Even though I have done traffic reports in the air (best), on the ground (okay) and in the studio( poor). Many times as a motorist I have heard reports of an accident where there is no sign of one and traffic is flowing normally. Traffic reports are just a sales tool. Give me Waze any day, far more accurate.
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WBT still has good traffic reports, althought they were best back in th day when they had Jeff Pilot in the air. Whenever I go to Charlotte or down to Atlanta, I always listen to WBT and WSB for traffic. Driving through Atlanta, WSB traffic is essential, even on the weekends.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I like WLML's traffic reports even if they're not in this area. The man has a real conversation with the DJ I listen to the most. It's like they're a morning show duo.
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That can be fun. When I did afternoon drive (back when dinosaurs roamed the earth) they always wanted us to get in and out of traffic and back to music. No chatter with the traffic reporter.
 
Small markets usually have big egos but justified or not I would have never even joke about that on the air. That’s very unprofessional.
 
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