I have long known that North Carolina will be key in this year’s Presidential election. A well known North Carolina businessman/broadcaster has done his part to help Obama win our fifteen electoral votes again.
Shortly after I proudly joined the staff at FM Talk 101.1 WZTK in Burlington, from its first day on the air, I was surprised to hear that company owner Don Curtis was liberal, as the station’s premiere programs of Boortz and Savage are undeniably conservative. Regardless, I was thrilled to be a dedicated employee of and a loyal listener to a strategically located, 100,00 watt FM station airing two of the most important voices in American discourse, broadcasting to millions of North Carolinians and some southern Virginians, as well. Now, eight years later, WZTK has been taken off of the air and replaced with a hip hop/pop/rap crap format, which boasts of playing fewer commercials. I’d imagine that is so, as I imagine that they can’t sell many, if any. As a daily listener to WZTK, I know that that station never missed a legally allowable commercial break, and that none of those breaks had to be filled with unpaid promos or PSA’s.
***UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!*** In another programming alteration, Curtis Media has moved to prove that I was correct in the previous paragraph. 101.1 on the FM dial is now airing a Spanish speaking Mexican music format. I can actually enjoy listening to this 101.1 in short doses....as long as there's music. But when the commercials come, they come right at you, generally in screaming Spanish and it's time to change the channel. I can't imagine that CMG is getting all that much for them, as they are SO totally targeted to one specific niche of the North Carolina population. I DO wish that I had paid better attention to teacher Temple in high school. It would be nice to know what these foreign language talkers in our homeland are saying on our "public airwaves". I'd imagine that among all of those commercials are political ads in Enspanol. I wonder what, if anything, the station broadcasts as news, religion, or the "public interest". And I wonder if my interest would make some equate me with Maj. Hoffstedder?
The stated reason for taking WZTK off of the air is that they could no longer sustain the station because of low revenues. I don’t believe for a moment that Curtis Media Group was losing money airing Boortz, Clark Howard and even Dr. Savage. I can imagine that they might have been going in the hole with their local origination programs of Brad and Britt in the morning and Alan Handleman in the afternoon. In the beginning, Krantz did offer at least some common sense conservatism to balance Whitmire’s life long liberalism. I told Brad early on that he needed to convert Britt, but it went the other direction, with Krantz turning into as much of an Obamabot as Whitmire. New competition in the market was cited as a reason for dropping the format. I can well imagine that KC and Carmen on Rush Radio in the Triangle and Triad did take a number of Brad and Britt listeners away, as Air America proved that people don’t listen to liberal radio. Though Alan’s afternoon shows were largely apolitical, when politics was the subject, Handleman was always and obviously a good time, left leaning rock and roller.
He can say what he wants about lost revenues and poor profitability, but I just KNOW that Don Curtis did what he did primarily to take the vehemently anti-Obama Boortz and Savage away from much of their regular audience in the top 50 markets of the Triangle and Triad. CMG will tell you that they still air Boortz, but here in the Triad, only two-thirds of his show is buried on a cruddy litle, no signal AM station at 10 pm, twelve hours after he’s live on the air. They might as well have kept their live 10 pm broadcast of uber liberal Alan Colmes. I am truly amazed that they didn't, as they did keep Brad and Britt broadcasting their junk journalism, though in the afternoon now. I do understand that they do broadcast Boortz live on their cruddy little AM station in the Triangle, but that's no consolation to the thousands upon thousands of Triad area Boortz daily devotees. And what Curtis has done to the North Carolinian part of the Savage Nation is unconscionable, at least from a conservative, common sense point of view.
My only question is, “Don, how much money or what ambassadorship did Obama promise you if he somehow manages to take our fifteen votes and win reelection?" My only other question is, "Are these rantings and ravings totally out of the realm of possible reality?" Maybe. I'd love to see ZTK's P&L.
Shortly after I proudly joined the staff at FM Talk 101.1 WZTK in Burlington, from its first day on the air, I was surprised to hear that company owner Don Curtis was liberal, as the station’s premiere programs of Boortz and Savage are undeniably conservative. Regardless, I was thrilled to be a dedicated employee of and a loyal listener to a strategically located, 100,00 watt FM station airing two of the most important voices in American discourse, broadcasting to millions of North Carolinians and some southern Virginians, as well. Now, eight years later, WZTK has been taken off of the air and replaced with a hip hop/pop/rap crap format, which boasts of playing fewer commercials. I’d imagine that is so, as I imagine that they can’t sell many, if any. As a daily listener to WZTK, I know that that station never missed a legally allowable commercial break, and that none of those breaks had to be filled with unpaid promos or PSA’s.
***UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!! UPDATE!!!*** In another programming alteration, Curtis Media has moved to prove that I was correct in the previous paragraph. 101.1 on the FM dial is now airing a Spanish speaking Mexican music format. I can actually enjoy listening to this 101.1 in short doses....as long as there's music. But when the commercials come, they come right at you, generally in screaming Spanish and it's time to change the channel. I can't imagine that CMG is getting all that much for them, as they are SO totally targeted to one specific niche of the North Carolina population. I DO wish that I had paid better attention to teacher Temple in high school. It would be nice to know what these foreign language talkers in our homeland are saying on our "public airwaves". I'd imagine that among all of those commercials are political ads in Enspanol. I wonder what, if anything, the station broadcasts as news, religion, or the "public interest". And I wonder if my interest would make some equate me with Maj. Hoffstedder?
The stated reason for taking WZTK off of the air is that they could no longer sustain the station because of low revenues. I don’t believe for a moment that Curtis Media Group was losing money airing Boortz, Clark Howard and even Dr. Savage. I can imagine that they might have been going in the hole with their local origination programs of Brad and Britt in the morning and Alan Handleman in the afternoon. In the beginning, Krantz did offer at least some common sense conservatism to balance Whitmire’s life long liberalism. I told Brad early on that he needed to convert Britt, but it went the other direction, with Krantz turning into as much of an Obamabot as Whitmire. New competition in the market was cited as a reason for dropping the format. I can well imagine that KC and Carmen on Rush Radio in the Triangle and Triad did take a number of Brad and Britt listeners away, as Air America proved that people don’t listen to liberal radio. Though Alan’s afternoon shows were largely apolitical, when politics was the subject, Handleman was always and obviously a good time, left leaning rock and roller.
He can say what he wants about lost revenues and poor profitability, but I just KNOW that Don Curtis did what he did primarily to take the vehemently anti-Obama Boortz and Savage away from much of their regular audience in the top 50 markets of the Triangle and Triad. CMG will tell you that they still air Boortz, but here in the Triad, only two-thirds of his show is buried on a cruddy litle, no signal AM station at 10 pm, twelve hours after he’s live on the air. They might as well have kept their live 10 pm broadcast of uber liberal Alan Colmes. I am truly amazed that they didn't, as they did keep Brad and Britt broadcasting their junk journalism, though in the afternoon now. I do understand that they do broadcast Boortz live on their cruddy little AM station in the Triangle, but that's no consolation to the thousands upon thousands of Triad area Boortz daily devotees. And what Curtis has done to the North Carolinian part of the Savage Nation is unconscionable, at least from a conservative, common sense point of view.
My only question is, “Don, how much money or what ambassadorship did Obama promise you if he somehow manages to take our fifteen votes and win reelection?" My only other question is, "Are these rantings and ravings totally out of the realm of possible reality?" Maybe. I'd love to see ZTK's P&L.
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