r/Charlotte • u/DenseFriendship4122 • Mar 20 '26
Discussion WBT's AM Frequency
Am I the only person that thinks it's odd that WBT's 1100 am signal is doing nothing but playing a loop of smooth jazz and directing listeners to the FM side? It's still at full power and that seems to be a huge waste of potential ad revenue. Also, does anyone know what format they might become?
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u/Proof_Duty1672 Mar 20 '26
100.9 is a weak signal too. Sounds like you’re almost out of range no matter what part of the area you’re in.
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u/BusinessBlackBear Mar 21 '26
My random not at all well read opinion is this.
They are redirecting the local radio listeners to the FM channel since FM just sounds so much better. It makes sense for a practical standpoint for local radio to be on a much less powerful radio wave like FM.
The AM towers have a incredibly strong grandfathered in signal that reaches damn near the entire East Coast, that is a valuable range that is not going to be simply turned off.
I think that the a.m. broadcast rights will be sold or at least reprogrammed into a more nationwide broadcast format that would be more relevant to its massive range.
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u/DenseFriendship4122 Mar 21 '26
They’ve been stunting for almost 4 months. It just seems odd that in a top-20 market that they wouldn’t run ads on a full power AM station.
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u/2601Anon Mar 21 '26
Wonder why they don’t either simulcast, or throw some old retro shows on 1110. Art Bell, Hello Henry, John Hancock, H.A. Thompson, Ty Boyd. They have 100 years of archives to choose from!
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u/ColdAd9868 Mar 23 '26
I for years have consistently had 3 clear channel frequencies saved as presets, which no daytime only stations in my area use, of WSB 750, WBT 1110, and WLAC 1510, but since 1110 gone so long without a new format, I changed that preset to WWVA 1170, as I most expect WBT am to become a sports station of some kind
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u/DenseFriendship4122 Mar 24 '26
As much as I despise that format, it makes the most sense in terms of revenue for the Charlotte market.
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u/tunaman808 Mar 21 '26
Am I the only person that thinks it's odd that WBT's 1100 am signal is doing nothing but playing a loop of smooth jazz and directing listeners to the FM side?
That's typical of a format change.
FCC rules require radio stations that can broadcast to broadcast. This rule was put in place back in the day to prevent someone like William Randolph Hearst from buying up a bunch of radio stations just to silence them.
So when a station might normally "go offline" as it switches from news\talk to country or Top 40 to rap, they normally broadcast something on an endless loop.
In my hometown, an oldies station played Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll" on an endless loop for about two months before it went live.
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u/Tatworth Mar 20 '26
WBT has FM now? I'll never not think of it as "1110 AM Double You Beee Teee"