Q. What happened to WLTT AM 1100 licensed to Carolina Beach that used to be talk and old school favorites? You can barely pick them up now in town and when you do it sounds like a Spanish format.
A. The Carolina Beach-based radio station has gone through a series of owners, call letters and formats since it first signed on the air in 1989.
More positive change is imminent, said current station owner James Utley.
WLTT AM 1100 is currently a 10,000-watt daytime-only station that “has some talk on it, some Spanish and some music,” Utley said.
The 10,000-watt signal strength explains why it is difficult to pick the radio station up in Wilmington and areas away from Carolina Beach.
Utley said that by the end of July, WLTT will switch to the FM dial and will be a 24-hour station that can be heard in Wilmington and beyond.
The AM station “is a daytime-only signal. It’s a directional signal and most of its signal is (in) Carolina Beach, the city of license. When you are on the edge of the signal, it’s a very low frequency. When you’re in Wilmington, it’s likely on the fringe of the signal,” said Mary Davis, business manager of Sunrise Broadcasting in Wilmington, which sold the station several years ago and continues to operate six other stations in the Wilmington market.
Utley said WLTT will continue its news talk and Hispanic programming format. But the station will soon switch over to 107.1 on the FM dial.
The WLTT transmitter is located off Governor’s Road Southeast in Winnabow. Because 1180 AM is Class D station on a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A station WHAM in Rochester, New York, WLTT must sign off between sunset and sunrise daily to avoid interference. The switch to FM will make the radio station accessible to more listeners, Utley said.
The change should take place by the end of July. Utley said more information will be released soon.
RELATED LINKS:
Who was the first band to play live on Wilmington radio?
Date posted: July 24, 2018
User-contributed question by:
Henry
Talk to us!
Have a comment about this post or know more about the answer? Use this form to let us know. Note that all comments are moderated and must be approved before they are posted, although you may see your own comments the first time you post them.