WZTK

WZTK

City of license	Burlington, North Carolina
Broadcast area	Greensboro/Raleigh/Fayetteville, North Carolina
Branding	FM Talk 101.1 WZTK
Slogan	"You listen... you get smarter"
Frequency	101.1 MHz
First air date	2004
Format	News/Talk, Jazz
ERP	100,000 watts
HAAT	363 meters
Class	C0
Facility ID	9080
Transmitter coordinates	35°56′31″N 79°26′33″W
Callsign meaning	W Z TalK
Former callsigns	WPCM (1978-1998) WKXU (1998-2004)
Owner	Curtis Media Group
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	fmtalk1011.com

WZTK (101.1 FM) is a news/talk radio station in Burlington, North Carolina. It serves the Triad and Triangle areas, which includes cities such as Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Durham, and Fayetteville. In addition the signal goes well north of Danville, Virginia. The outlet, which is owned by Curtis Media Group, claims to have the largest FM radio signal in all of North Carolina, operating with an ERP of 100 kw. The reason for that FM radio signal claim comes from Curtis Media, due to the population covered by the station's signal. The transmitter is located on Bass Mountain in the Cane Creek Mountains in Alamance County.

History

WBBB-FM signed on at 101.3 in the late 1940s as a sister station to WBBB in Burlington, North Carolina. After moving to 101.1, the station became easy listening WNCB. Starting in 1978, WPCM was "Country 101" radio station.

During the 1990s, the station paired up with WKIX in Goldsboro, North Carolina and targeted listeners in the Raleigh market. At one point, the call letters were changed to WKXU. For a time, this station played classic country.

WZTK morphed into its current news/talk incarnation on July 6, 2004. The first live voices heard on the "new" station were those of Brad Krantz and Britt Whitmire, who are still in place. Previously, the station had been a country music station, calling itself Kix 101.1. WZTK's sister AM station WPCM (920 kilohertz), previously known as WBBB, simulcasted the FM's talk programming until the summer of 2005, when it went back to its previous beach/oldies format.

Programming

ABC News Radio is broadcast on the hour 24/7. Listeners hear a variety of talk shows including Michael Savage, Alan Colmes, as well as financial advice from Clark Howard, and local/state issues. Their morning drive-time show "Brad and Britt" is a local hit with regular impersonations of Dan Rather, Rick Dees, Dr. Phil, J. Strom Thurmond and Rush Limbaugh.

FM Talk 101.1 is not a 24 hour news/talk station; in fact, the station offers smooth jazz on the weekends. WZTK was an affiliate of Jones Radio Networks's Smooth Jazz satellite-delivered format until the format was discontinued on September 30, 2008. Smooth jazz continues to air on WZTK without announcers, with the music programming still provided by Jones Radio/Dial Global.

The station is also an affiliate of the Carolina Panthers Radio Network and carries Wake Forest University football and men's basketball.

The smooth jazz format has enjoyed success as a part-time offering in North Carolina, and it was once used as a full-time format on two Raleigh stations that carried the "Wind" moniker, although not at the same time. WMAG in Greensboro and WBAV in Charlotte also use the smooth jazz format on the weekends.

On February 14, 2007, WZTK's parent company, Curtis Media, closed a purchase of WSJS, WMFR, and WSJS's simulcast partner WSML. This gave Curtis a monopoly on the news/talk format in the Triad (and for all practical purposes, in the Triangle, as well) until WPTI and WRDU switched to the format in January 2010. Both WMFR and WSML joined newly-acquired WCOG to form Triad Sports Radio later that year.

External links

• FM Talk 101.1 WZTK official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WZTK
• Radio-Locator information on WZTK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WZTK