Charlotte Radio: John Hancock Gets Ready For PM Drive At WBT

John Hancock

Grins, a little black cat destined to play a role in Charlotte radio history, pulled into town in 1990 in the back seat of an old, white Honda Prelude bearing the Florida vanity tag ON AIR.

She was in her usual spot – in a kitty crate surrounded by all the worldly possessions of John Hancock.

According to Mark Washburn at The Charlotte Observer, Grins had accompanied Hancock for nearly two decades on his nomadic radio career, Colorado to Texas to Colorado again to Arizona (that job lasted six weeks) to California (six months) to Pennsylvania to Florida to Charlotte.

Now Hancock had landed a morning spot at WBT-AM 1110 AM/99.3FM, among the nation’s oldest and most prominent stations, and the question was: How long would this gig last?

“I was not received well when I got here, not at all,” says Hancock.

“It was pretty brutal for the first nine months. We didn’t have phone screeners then, and people would call in and say, ‘I hate you, go back where you came from.’ ”

It was Grins who turned things around, Hancock says. When he had to put her to sleep because of feline leukemia, he told his listeners how he felt about her loss.

“My voice got shaky. For some reason, that turned the corner here. I think people were saying, ‘He’s still a jackass, but he cried about his cat.’ ”

Hancock is now 60 and the Charlotte gig goes on. Aside from an ill-fated morning stint at WEND-FM (“End” 106.5), he’s been at WBT in one time slot or another for more than 20 years, the longest-serving full-timer at the station.

He started doing evenings a week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001. This week general manager Rick Feinblatt announced that on July 16, Hancock would be returning to afternoon drive-time, a slot he occupied in the late ’90s.

Jason Furst, WBT’s new program director, says afternoon ratings have been generally flat for some years. He says he thinks Hancock might just be the magic.

“John’s a superstar over here. He’s the most dynamic, most recognized name on the station. John’s real,” Furst says.

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