At the 2016 Radio Show in Nashville, six stations made the final cut in the Marconi Awards Legendary Station of the Year category: CBS Radio’s KRLD-AM in Dallas and WINS-AM/ New York, Hearst’s WBAL-AM in Baltimore, Cox Media Group’s WBDO in Orlando, and Greater Media’s WBT-AM in Charlotte (1010 WINS went on to win that award). To be considered for Legendary Station, the NAB requires a station to have been on the air for a minimum of 25 years. WBT/Charlotte has been around for 94.
Greater Media Market Manager Rick Feinblatt considers WBT-AM the heart and soul of the city. “It’s the voice of Charlotte,” he says. “It’s always been a part of this community. This business is tough enough, tough as it’s ever been. There are challenges every day, but you just feel a certain legacy to keep this thing going and keep it live and local the way that it always has been, because people in this town deserve it.”
Feinblatt says the decision to keep it live and local is a big reason WBT has become such an important and legacy piece of the Charlotte community. He says, “First of all, it’s great to work for a company that understands and appreciates that, particularly in the world we’re all working in today. There are all kinds of news/talk stations, but if you’re not live and local — I would say respectfully to the ones that aren’t — you really are not serving your community. If you’ve got a slate of syndicated hosts, they’re not talking about the city of Charlotte every day. They are not connecting with the citizens about issues that are important to them. It does make all the difference.”
Afternoon drive host John Hancock arrived on the scene at WBT-AM back in 1990, and he says there’s no doubt about it: WBT is Charlotte’s station of record. “There’s a picture that hangs in our halls, or used to, of Edward R. Murrow sitting in front of a WBT mic,” says Hancock. “WBT has always been the voice, not only of this area, but with 50,000 watts, we literally went from Maine to Miami and Canada to Cuba. Which doesn’t mean as much today, but in its day, [University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill basketball coach] Dean Smith used to use WBT when he was recruiting kids up in New Jersey and New York because he would tell their parents that they could hear our games.
“They used WBT to get information into Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis back in the ’60s. For a guy like me, who grew up in Colorado, to end up at a 50,000 watt, threeletter- call station that started in 1922 is, in a lot of ways, the culmination of every dream I probably ever had as a broadcaster.” When something happens in the Charlotte community, Hancock says it’s just natural for WBT to swing into action. He says, “By that I mean we’ve just got a building full of people, we’ve got people in our news department that have been there for 30 some-odd years. We just know the drill, and we’re kind of like a good football team. When you’re down by 14 points, you just kind of figure out how to whittle away at it. 9/11 was a great example. It’s one thing to cover it the day that it happens, but then what do you do with the three months after that? We just have a lot of people that have spent the bulk of their careers there. You just stand back and let everybody do their jobs, because you know they will.”
Marketing Director Matt Dubois has been part of the WBT family for 19 years, and he says, aside from being the place to go for news, traffic, weather, information, and general talk about issues, WBT is an active player in the community. It’s the place you go if you want to listen to a Panthers game or a Tarheels game.
It’s also the station that provides marquee events in the city, events that, quite frankly, create traditions for people. Events like the 4th of July Sky Show, a fireworks spectacular WBT first did in 1976 as a gift to the city of Charlotte and has done every year since. And that’s not all: Dubois says, “About 10-plus years ago, we introduced an outdoor ice rink, kind of our Rockefeller Center here in Charlotte. WBT owns and operates the rink and provides that in the community every year for the holidays. When people come to these events, it’s not just “stop by and pick up a brochure and have some fun and play on a ride” or something like that. These are impactful events that happen during really important times of the year that people can cling to and really look forward to doing, each and every year.”
And Dubois also points back to 9/11, as Hancock did, as one of those days the radio station shone. As he describes it, “When 9/11 occurred, watching it all unfold here at the station, and then once it unfolded from a news event on-air and the tragedy that was involved, jumping into action and saying, ‘OK. What is it now that we can do?’
“We were one of the first to start the red, white, and blue ribbon campaign. I remember personally driving up to Baltimore from Charlotte because there was a company there that had a supply of ribbon that we needed, and we ended up raising over a quarter of a million dollars, tying ribbons to antennas on people’s cars over the course of a week. We took that money and donated it to the United Way, knowing we were helping someone further away from us. The fact that this community came through with that amount of money in such a short period of time really showed their passion. When WBT asks people to help out, the people listen.”
He goes on, “We had a similar situation with Hurricane Katrina. I think we raised
$150,000 during a similar kind of campaign and got it down there to help people. Those are national events. You could also bring it down to a local event — 10 years ago, we had two officers killed in the line of duty here. WBT jumps into action. It’s great because you watch us cover the news first, you talk about the news second, and then you react to it by seeing how you can get the community involved. We were part of one of the longest funeral processions I’ve ever been a part of, and one of the most emotional things that I had ever seen, and raising money to help the families of the officers that were killed.
“Last year, when Columbia, South Carolina had all the floods in 24 hours, we collected over 200,000 water bottles, which we then loaded into trucks ourselves, drove down there, and distributed them to churches, community groups, and government centers that needed water.”
Both Market Manager Rick Feinblatt and Dubois state that one of the biggest reasons, in addition to the legendary call letters, that WBT has been so successful is its long-running local talent. Feinblatt calls them “rock stars.” “They are,” he says. “John Hancock could go back and just give you a list of all the people that, when they were on this radio station, made a difference to people that were living in Charlotte. They have all been associated with WBT for at least 10 years, and their unique ability to connect with the city of Charlotte is what separates them from the competition. Everybody has had a connection to this station for a long time. In my mind, it makes all the difference.”
Dubois says the listeners always want to know about the people behind the microphone, “whether they’re asking about Bo Thompson in the morning or Keith Larson orJohn Hancock.” He says, “They crack you up sometimes because they usually listen more than we do. They will say things like, ‘I heard John Hancock said this,’ and you have to kind of think through it and say, ‘Yeah, I guess he probably did.’
“They’re listening all the time. If they’re not asking about the talent that’s currently on the air, a lot of times they refer to their history and say, ‘Yes, I remember listening to Ty Boyd in the morning, 30 years ago when I was a kid,’ or, ‘I remember listening to Henry Bogan at night.’ They’re very passionate, and they treat us like family. So when they talk to us, they are essentially asking us, ‘How is our family doing?’”
And Feinblatt certainly understands how important that family feeling can be for local advertisers. “Because of the talent we have, we have the ability to do an awful lot of live reads,” he points out. “Unlike ratings, which come and go, local clients don’t do live reads on a radio station — because they’re more expensive than just spots — unless they work. We have had multiple clients on this radio station with talent for five years, 10 years, or more than 10 years, doing live endorsements. They’re only doing it for one reason. Because it works.
“It’s gratifying to hear clients say, ‘It’s the only station I’m on. I’m on it for one reason: because it rings my cash register.’ Again, it doesn’t happen unless you have live talent. And it doesn’t happen if you don’t have live talent that are connected to the community. You know, when people hear John Hancock talking about something, particularly an endorsement, that means something to them.”
To that end, Hancock makes a point that many radio hosts around the country could learn from. He believes the relationships he has with clients are what radio is all about. “I think it’s everything,” he says. “To some extent, some of my best relationships are with clients. I guess we could get into a debate on whether radio is about ratings or revenue. I happen to believe it’s more about revenue now than it is ratings. From that standpoint, I think it means everything has to be hands-on with the clients. They’re the ones picking up the freight.
“But you also get personal relationships. I had a dentist that I’d do commercials for call me a couple of weeks ago about another advertising venue that was pitching him, and he was interested, but he wanted my opinion. I consider that to be an honor for him to relish what I would say in that regard. I think it’s everything, especially in this day and age.”
Being nominated as a Marconi Legendary Station means so much to the entire staff at WBT, and perhaps especially to John Hancock. He says, “It means a lot to me, that we might have a chance to win that thing, because there are so many WBT-ers and people who have worked for WBT off the air that are still alive, that still live here in Charlotte, and to me it would be an acknowledgement of their efforts, combined with present-day efforts of our keeping an AM radio station pertinent for a long, long time.”
