More than six months after Radio One moved WBT’s news-talk programming from its legacy 1110 AM frequency to 107.9 FM, the future of the Carolinas’ first commercial radio station is still unclear.
At the end of 2025, the station’s owners shifted the format to FM, promising an announcement on the AM signal “soon.” Since then, 1110 AM has aired only an instrumental music loop and a recorded message directing listeners to the new FM home. The powerful 50,000-watt “clear channel” signal continues to legally identify as WBT.
“I think they are probably doing the best they can locally with the cards they’ve been dealt, but their silence leaves everyone out here to draw conclusions on our own,” Caudle said. “I heard the land was for sale… I started thinking we need to save something.”
Caudle emphasized he is not trying to block any sale, only to protect a piece of local radio history. Several prominent Charlotte radio personalities, including John Hancock, Sheri Lynch, and Arroe Collins, have signed the petition.
First licensed in 1922, WBT was the Carolinas’ original commercial radio station. Its strong AM signal was once heard from Miami to Maine. The station’s transmitter site is now marketed as a “garden multifamily development opportunity” in south Charlotte. (Hat Tip To WCNC-TV)