{"id":753618,"date":"2026-07-10T00:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753618\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T00:38:19","slug":"petition-seeks-to-preserve-historic-wbt-am-transmitter-site-in-charlotte-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/753618\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition Seeks To Preserve Historic WBT AM Transmitter Site In Charlotte. | Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

Months after Radio One\u2019s news\/talk WBT shifted its signature news\/talk programming to the FM band, uncertainty continues to surround the future of the station\u2019s longtime 1110 AM frequency and its historic transmitter property. That uncertainty has sparked a grassroots campaign by local radio supporters seeking to preserve part of the site, WCNC-TV reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Radio One shifted WBT\u2019s programming to the FM dial at the end of 2025<\/a>, saying it was \u201cthrilled to elevate WBT to the FM dial\u201d and promising to announce future plans for 1110 AM. Since then, the AM signal has carried an instrumental music loop along with recorded messages directing listeners to the station\u2019s FM frequency.<\/p>\n

The lack of information has fueled speculation among longtime listeners, including radio weather reporter Johnny Caudle, who recently launched a Change.org petition<\/a> seeking to preserve part of the station\u2019s historic transmitter property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that they are probably doing the best they can locally with the cards that they\u2019ve been dealt, but their silence leaves everyone out here to draw conclusions on our own,\u201d Caudle told the TV station. \u201c[We] try to connect the dots and figure out what they\u2019re doing and what\u2019s going to happen to the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caudle said reports that the transmitter property could be sold prompted him to take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard the land was for sale and knowing the radio background industry the way I do, I know that that probably means the towers are going down and the place is going to be bulldozed and redeveloped,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I started thinking we need to save something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The petition, launched July 1, is not intended to halt a sale of the property, Caudle said, but rather to encourage preservation of its historic features.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not trying to stop the sale, not trying to stand in the way of the buyer, not to try to take anybody\u2019s rights away,\u201d Caudle said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to preserve something.\u201d<\/p>\n

First licensed in 1922, WBT is recognized as the Carolinas\u2019 first commercial radio station. Although its programming now airs on FM, the 1110 AM facility continues to legally identify as WBT and remains one of the nation\u2019s relatively few 50,000-watt clear-channel AM stations. Its powerful nighttime signal historically reached listeners across much of the eastern U.S., with the station once promoting coverage \u201cfrom Miami to Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The station\u2019s reach also gave it strategic importance during the Cold War. WBT Chief Engineer Jerry Dowd said the federal government reinforced the transmitter site so it could continue operating during a national emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theory behind this was that should there be an \u2018event,\u2019 this would be protected and we would be able to broadcast from it,\u201d Dowd said.<\/p>\n

The transmitter complex on Nations Ford Road includes three broadcast towers on approximately 19 acres. A commercial real estate firm is marketing the property as a potential multifamily residential development. Mecklenburg County tax records value the site at nearly $3.5 million. The main facilities building, constructed in 1932, also contains a Cold War-era fallout shelter installed in 1963.<\/p>\n

The TV station\u2019s report says the AM station continues broadcasting its promotional loop. Radio One and the property\u2019s real estate broker have not publicly outlined plans for the frequency or the transmitter site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Months after Radio One\u2019s news\/talk WBT shifted its signature news\/talk programming to the FM band, uncertainty continues to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,7056,216,3],"class_list":["post-753618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}