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| Name | WBT/WBT-FM |
|---|---|
| City | WBT: Charlotte, North Carolina WBT-FM: Chester, South Carolina |
| Area | Charlotte metropolitan area |
| Branding | News/Talk 1110 |
| Slogan | Charlotte's News, Weather, and Traffic Station |
| Airdate | AM: April 10, 1922 (originally experimental as 4XD from December 19, 1920 - April 9, 1922) |
| Frequency | 1110 kHz (AM) 99.3 MHz (FM) |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 50,000 Watts (AM) |
| Erp | 7,700 Watts (FM) |
| Class | Class A AM Station Class C3 FM Station |
| Coordinates | (AM) |
| Owner | Greater Media |
| Webcast | WBT-AM Live Feed |
| Website | wbt.com |
| Callsign meaning | randomly assigned by FCC; unofficially meant Watch Buicks Travel while it was owned by a local Buick dealer |
On weekdays, the station offers a four-hour morning drive-time newscast with co-hosts Al Gardner and Stacey Simms, and local hosts Keith Larson, Tara Servatius, John Hancock and Pete Kaliner, as well as the syndicated Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz (which is tape delayed), and The Mutual Fund Show with Adam Bold and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory programs.
From 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., Al Gardner and Stacey Simms co-host a morning show entitled "Charlotte's Morning News with Al Gardner and Stacey Simms." Their website advertises "Get all the news to start your day with Charlotte's Morning News with Al Gardner & Stacey Simms, plus weather and traffic every 10 minutes. Weekdays from 5am-9am on News Talk 1110 WBT!"
Keith Larson hosts his own show from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Larson, a former advertising executive, cracks open the microphone each weekday morning to discuss local and national issues important to the Charlotte community. Keith is in touch with the pulse of his listeners and, more importantly, uses the tools he's been given to make Charlotte a better place to live.
The 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. time slot is anchored by Tara Servatius. She inherited the shift when the previous host, Jeff Katz, was fired as advertisers fled his extreme views. Her website says, "The Tara Servatius show is a mixture of local and national commentary, interviews and forensic journalism from the perspective of a life-long Charlottean. Weekdays from 3pm to 6pm."
John Hancock, "Charlotte's Beloved," is the host for the 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. slot. His website describes his show: "Since 1990, John Hancock has been "Charlotte's Most Beloved!" Join us weeknights from 6pm-9pm for "Talk-lectic" programming! You name it... we've talked about it: Politics, Local Issues, Pop Culture, Music, Sports, Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll... yes... all of the above... and then some...."
The 9 p.m. to midnight show is hosted by Pete Kaliner. He is the newest addition to the weekday team after taking Tara Servatius's spot when she moved to the 3:00pm slot. Before moving to the late-night slot, Kaliner spent nearly a decade as a reporter in the WBT newsroom.
Don Russell is the station's longest-tenured personality, having worked at the station on six separate occasions since the 1970s. He currently hosts the weekend version of Charlotte's Morning News.
In 1925, the original owners sold WBT to Charlotte Buick dealer C.C. Coddington, who promoted both the radio station and his auto dealership with the slogan "Watch Buicks Travel." Coddington built a transmitter at a farm property he owned on Nations Ford Road in south Charlotte, where it remains today. He sold WBT to the two-year-old CBS network in 1929. A series of power increases brought the station to its current 50,000 watts. New Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations forced CBS to sell the station to Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, forerunner of Jefferson-Pilot, in 1945, though it remained a CBS affiliate. Jefferson Standard signed on Charlotte's first television station, WBTV, as well as two FM stations. One operated for five years ending in the early 1950s. The other eventually became WLNK.
In 1925, Freeman Gosden and Charlie Correll started a comedy show carried by WBT that was a forerunner to Amos and Andy.
For much of its history, WBT aired a variety of programming including news, sports, soap operas, and musical programs such as "Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks." Smith, best known for writing the song that became the Deliverance theme "Dueling Banjos," went to work at WBT at age 20 at the invitation of station manager Charles Crutchfield. He played guitar and fiddle for musical programs on WBT before getting his own show. Crutchfield believed that Charlotte, not Nashville, could have ended up being the country music capital because of the station's early "Briarhoppers" and "Carolina Hayride" shows, which may have inspired The Grand Ole Opry.
Grady Cole was WBT morning host for 32 years, replaced in 1961 by Ty Boyd, who hosted the morning show until 1973, playing such artists as Duke Ellington, Peggy Lee and Petula Clark. Then he moved to WBTV. He returned to WBT in 2008 to co-host the morning show while its regular hosts took time off.
WBT was the number one station in Charlotte for many years; among its employees were Charles Kuralt and Nelson Benton. But by 1970, WBT was down to number nine, and national advertising representative Blair Radio Network wanted ratings to improve. Jefferson Standard did not like the idea of change, but Blair enlisted Mel Goldberg to research what programming Charlotte needed. Even Crutchfield gave in, and WBT let go 28 staffers and spent $200,000 on changes that included new studios. The station dropped CBS for NBC. It also canceled many programs that advertisers supported but which didn't attract enough listeners.
On March 15, 1971, WBT switched to adult contemporary music during the day; Rob Hunter and H. A. Thompson were new DJs. Bob Lacey started at WBT in 1972 with a nighttime talk show "Lacey Listens". Two years later, WBT had reached number one again, reaching the highest Arbitron numbers on record to this day. WBT won Billboard adult contemporary station of the year in 1976 and 1978. In 1979, "Hello Henry" Boggan began his nighttime talk show.
Talk programming continued to increase on WBT through the 1980s, mostly at night. Larry King moved from WSOC and stayed on WBT until 1987, when WBT decided its NBC affiliation needed to take priority over Mutual Broadcasting System requirements. Bruce Williams' NBC show Talknet replaced King. WBT expanded "Hello Henry" and its "Sports Huddle" program.
For their entire 14 years in Charlotte, starting with the inaugural 1988-89 season, WBT aired the games of the NBA Hornets.
WBT made changes to its format on December 10, 1990, hoping to attract more women. The station dropped James K. Flynn, Thompson and Tom Desio, generating numerous protests. Don Russell had hosted "Russell & Flynn" in the morning; the show was renamed "Russell & Friends." John Hancock became midday host, and WBTV personalities Mike and Barbara McKay began an afternoon program. Boggan, whose show had run in the afternoon, returned to his evening slot, replacing Desio, but was sometimes pre-empted by sports programs. WBT also switched its network affiliation from NBC to CBS on December 21
WBT was not the first Charlotte-area station to air Rush Limbaugh. WADA in Shelby, WSIC in Statesville and WHKY in Hickory preceded WBT. But on September 3, 1991, WBT dropped the McKays to become the 400th station to air the conservative talk show host.
WBT aired games of the NFL Carolina Panthers from the 1995 inaugural season until 1999, returning as the team's flagship station in 2005.
Lincoln Financial Group bought Jefferson-Pilot in 2006. The merged company retained Jefferson-Pilot's broadcasting division, renaming it Lincoln Financial Media. In January 2008, Lincoln Financial sold WBT-AM-FM and WLNK to Greater Media of Braintree, Massachusetts. It sold its three television stations, including WBTV, to Raycom Media--thus breaking up Charlotte's last heritage radio/television cluster. Greater Media had long wanted to expand into the fast-growing Charlotte market; its owner had wanted to buy WBT after hearing its signal at night on Cape Cod.
Despite its clear-channel status, WBT's signal is spotty at best in some parts of the Charlotte metropolitan area at night (particularly the western portion)because it must adjust its coverage at sundown to protect co-located KFAB in Omaha, Nebraska. Even though WBT must direct its signal north-south as a result, its nighttime signal still reaches parts of 22 states (including much of the country east of the Mississippi River) as well as portions of Ontario and Quebec. It can also be heard in some Caribbean islands. During the day, it provides grade B coverage as far as the fringes of the Columbia, Upstate and Piedmont Triad areas. Under the right conditions, it can be heard as far east as Fayetteville, North Carolina.
To improve its nighttime coverage in the Charlotte area, WBT first tried a synchronous booster signal in Shelby. Finally, in 1995, then-owner Jefferson-Pilot bought WBZK-FM (which signed on August 30, 1969) in Chester to provide a better signal to the western part of the market at night. Soon after the purchase, WBZK's calls became WBT-FM. The transmitter is located 40 miles southwest of Charlotte. WBT-FM almost always simulcasts its AM sister, although the two have occasionally carried different programming.
For many years, WBT boasted that it could be heard "from Maine to Miami" at night.
BT BT Category:News and talk radio stations Category:Radio stations established in 1922
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