WBT (1110 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by Urban One, with studios and offices located off West Morehead Street, just west of Uptown Charlotte, co-located with the city's CBS affiliate, WBTV.
WBT's broadcast towers are three of only eight operational diamond-shaped Blaw-Knox towers in the United States. The station broadcasts 50,000 watts around the clock as the only Class A clear-channel station in the Carolinas. Its transmitter site is located in south Charlotte, off Nations Ford Road. A single non-directional antenna radiates the transmitter's full power during the day. Its daytime coverage is not nearly as large as those of other 50,000-watt stations, due to the Carolinas' poor ground conductivity; some outer suburbs such as Statesville, Shelby, and Salisbury only get a grade B signal. Despite this, it provides at least secondary coverage as far north as the eastern Piedmont Triad, as far west as the eastern portion of the Upstate, as far east as the Pee Dee and as far south as the Columbia suburbs. Under the right conditions, it can be heard well into the more mountainous areas of the Carolinas, as well as the Sandhills. At night, all three towers are used in a directional pattern that limits its signal toward the west, to avoid interfering with KFAB in Omaha, Nebraska, the other Class A station on the frequency. Even with this restriction, it can be heard across much of the eastern half of North America with a good radio."Photos | Inside WBT's secret studio, WCNC Staff and WCNC.com (WCNC), 9:04 PM EST November 7, 2013. For many years, WBT boasted that at night it could be heard "from Maine to Miami".
Since January 8, 2026, the station has suspended regular programming and run a repeating message saying its former programming has been transferred to WBT-FM at 107.9 FM.
History Formation As with many early radio stations, there is a limited amount of information about WBT's origins. Wesley Wallace's 1962 review of the history of North Carolina radio reported being frustrated "by the absence or inaccessibility" of information, noting that "Broadcasters have been too busy acting in the present tense to take much thought of the past; hence they have discarded much of the memorabilia of broadcasting's earlier days".The Development of Broadcasting in North Carolina, 1922-1948 (PhD dissertation) by Wesley Herndon Wallace, Department of History, Duke University, 1962, page ii.
WBT was first licensed as a broadcasting station on March 18, 1922.As of March 10, 1922, 8 days before WBT was licensed, the Department of Commerce reported that there were 67 authorized broadcasting stations, including, in the South, WGH in Montgomery, Alabama. ("List of stations broadcasting market or weather reports (485 meters) and music, concerts, lectures, etc. (360 meters), (March 10, 1922)" Radio Service Bulletin, March 1, 1922, pages 13-14.) However, the station traces its history to earlier broadcasts made in a joint effort by Fred Laxton, associated with General Electric, Earle J. Gluck,Gluck was later a partner in competitor WSOC, and was the first president of WSOC-TV when it launched in 1957. a Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company engineer and Frank Bunker, a Southern Bell Telephone Company employee. During World War I a ban was in place that suspended amateur radio transmissions. In late 1919, the ban was lifted, and all three became licensed radio amateurs. Most amateurs at this time used spark transmitters that could only transmit the dots-and-dashes of Morse code, however, Laxton managed to acquire a scarce vacuum tube from General Electric, which made audio transmissions possible."WBT Third Broadcasting Station to be Licensed", Charlotte Observer, March 20, 1927, Section 3, page 6.
The three decided to set up a transmitterSome newspaper accounts state that the call sign for Laxton's home amateur station was either 4BX ("Mayor Gets Wireless Message From Harding", Charlotte Observer, February 22, 1921, page 4) or 4CL ("WBT Third Broadcasting Station to be Licensed", Charlotte Observer, March 20, 1927, Section 3, page 6). However, official government station lists report that these call signs were actually assigned to individuals in other communities. As of June 30, 1920, Laxton's station is listed in the annual government report as 4DD, located at 905 Realty Building in Charlotte, with Frank L. Bunker assigned 4CE at 734 East 4th Street, and Earle J. Gluck assigned 4CQ at 1418 East 7th Street. ("Amateur Stations: Fourth District", Amateur Radio Stations of the United States (Edition June 30, 1920), page 59.) The November 1920 issue of QST magazine also stated that Laxton's call sign was 4DD. ("The Operating Department", (Roanoke Division), QST, November 1920, page 30). in an abandoned chicken coop located behind Laxton's home at 2462 Mecklenburg Avenue, with a microphone line running to the home's living room.Wallace (1962) page 60. Laxton's daughter later remembered being drafted as a child to repeatedly count into the microphone for the early test transmissions."First Broadcast Recalled" by Dick Banks, Charlotte Observer, April 9, 1967, page 5-A. These initial transmissions eventually were expanded into the playing of phonograph records, which resulted in enough interest from local amateurs, as well as technically advanced members of the general public, that a regular schedule of broadcasts was established. In late 1920, the station was issued an Experimental radio station license to Fred Laxton, located at his home address, with the call sign 4XD."QST's Directory of Calls" (Fourth District), QST, January 1921, page 53."New Stations: Special Land Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, June 1, 1921, page 3. The "4" in 4XD's call sign indicated that the station was located in the 4th Radio Inspection district, while the "X" signified that it was operating under an experimental station license.
The growing interest in radio led to the December 1921 founding of the Southern Radio Corporation, located in the Realty Building, to sell radio parts and equipment. The initial officers were Fred Laxton, president, J. B. Marshall, vice president, and Frank Bunker, commercial engineer in charge. It was also announced at this time that the company planned to installed a transmitter and rooftop antenna at the Realty building, to be used for "sending out concerts, big speeches and other entertainment to those who own home outfits within a radius of 200 miles [320 km] from Charlotte"."Radio 'Phone Station Here", Charlotte Observer, December 21, 1921, page 13.
Early years
Initially there were no specific standards in the United States for radio stations making transmissions intended for the general public, and numerous stations under various classifications made entertainment broadcasts. However, effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, the regulators of radio at this time, adopted a regulation that formally created a broadcasting station category, and stations were now required to hold a Limited Commercial license authorizing operation on wavelengths of 360 meters for "entertainment" broadcasts or 485 meters for "market and weather reports" (833 and 619 kHz)."Miscellaneous: Amendments to Regulations", Radio Service Bulletin, January 3, 1922, page 10.
The Southern Radio Corporation was issued a "provisional" broadcasting station license, with the randomly assigned call letters WBT, on March 18, 1922, which authorized broadcasts on the 360-meter entertainment wavelength."New Stations: Commercial Land Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, April 1, 1922, page 2. Limited Commercial license, serial No. 341, issued March 18, 1922, to the Southern Radio Corporation for broadcasting on 360 meters (833 kHz) for a three-month period. (A 1927 Charlotte Observer account claimed that "the station became duly licensed and authorized in December, 1920, with the call WBT" and "was the third licensed station in the world" ("WBT Third Broadcasting Station to be Licensed", Charlotte Observer, March 20, 1927, Section 3, page 6), but contemporary accounts do not support either of these claims.) WBT made its first broadcast four days later on March 22. The next day's Charlotte Observer reported that: "Erected by the Southern Radio corporation of this city and attached to the Realty building, this station, officially designated as WBT, operating on a 360-meter wavelength, this station will arrange musical concerts, addresses on various subjects and will give nightly programs for the benefit of approximately 20,000 receiving stations within a hearing radius. The first program was given last night and several stations in this section are known to have picked up the Victrola music broadcasted." This article further described the "wireless telephone broadcasting station" as "the first station that has been erected and put in active operating condition in the Carolinas. A station [WLAC] has been erected at State college in West Raleigh, but it did not work properly and it will probably be a few weeks before it will be in a position to do any broadcasting." On April 11, following a successful inspection by the Fourth Radio District inspector, Walter Van Nostrand Jr on April 4, 1922, the license's "provisional" qualifier was removed.
In October 1925, Fred Laxton sold the Southern Radio Corporation to the Carolina States Electric Company for approximately $50,000, while retaining control of WBT."Southern Radio Sells Out Here", Charlotte Observer, August 29, 1925, page 3. However, the next month, the station was sold to Charlotte Buick automobile dealer C. C. Coddington,"Radio Station Held For City", Charlotte Observer, September 16, 1925, page 20. who would promote both the radio station and his auto dealership with the slogan "Watch Buicks Travel". The station was moved to the top of the Coddington building, although Coddington later moved the transmitter site to farm property he owned on Nations Ford Road in south Charlotte, where it remains today."Phenomenal Growth of Radio Broadcasting in Charlotte", Charlotte Observer, August 26, 1928, Section 3, page 7.
On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the Federal Radio Commission's General Order 40, WBT was assigned to a "clear channel" frequency of 1080 kHz, which gave it exclusive national nighttime use of that frequency. In 1929, C.C. Coddington sold WBT to the two-year-old CBS Radio Network. In subsequent years, a series of power increases raised the station's from 5,000 watts to the maximum permitted: 50,000 watts. The 50,000 watt transmitter was dedicated on August 12, 1932.
CBS Radio Russ Hodges, later famous as the radio voice of the New York/San Francisco Giants, was WBT's sports editor in the late 1930s, leaving in 1941 for Washington, D.C.
During the Golden Age of Radio, WBT carried the CBS schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts to listeners in the Carolinas and at night, around the Southern United States. One musical program was "Arthur Smith and the Crackerjacks". Smith, best known for writing the song that became the Deliverance theme "Dueling Banjos", went to work at WBT at age 20 at the invitation of station manager Charles Crutchfield. He played guitar and fiddle for musical programs on WBT before getting his own show. Crutchfield believed that Charlotte, not Nashville, could have ended up being the country music capital because of the station's early "Briarhoppers" and "Carolina Hayride" shows, which may have inspired The Grand Ole Opry.Tom Minehart, "Country's Capital Could Have Been Charlotte", Chicago Tribune, November 19, 1985.