Q. What happened to The Big Talker? I turned it on at 3 p.m. today and it was a different show. Was this new or planned?
A. Loyal listeners of The Big Talker radio station are hearing a different set of programs when they tune in these days. Beau Gunn, general manager of Hometown Wilmington Media, the station’s parent company, said that’s intentional.
According to TheBigTalkerFM.com, The Big Talker WLTT broadcasts at 93.7 and 106.3 FM
Hometown Wilmington Media is planning to launch Port City Daily, an online digital news platform that will air on The Big Talker, The Bone, The Penguin and Bach Radio, Gunn said.
The lineup change at The Big Talker came, Gunn said, because the group wants to be seen as a “radio station that puts the facts out there” instead of one who takes a side. The Big Talker is known as a conservative-leaning station.
“We didn’t want to cannibalize our audience, cut off half our audience,” Gunn said.
The station recently dropped conservative talk radio shows like those hosted by Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity in order to focus more on news-based programming, Gunn said. They’ve picked up programming from the American Radio News Network to replace some of those shows, Gunn said.
Gunn said the organization didn’t have a firm date planned for the launch of Port City Daily. But he emphasized that it would focus on news rather than opinion.
“We don’t want it to be perceived as conservative, nor do we want it to be perceived as liberal,” Gunn said. “We want it to be perceived as non-biased journalism.”
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Date posted: August 10, 2012
User-contributed question by:
Sam Lowe
Sounds to me like you’re doing away with another one of our rights: FREEDOM OF SPEECH. ” Opinions are not as good as knowledge, but clearly better than ignorance.” I’d rather hear opinions any day of the week than the stuff I’m hearing now. What a crazy world we live in and you’re helping to make it that way.
I have to say the StarNews had nothing to do with The Big Talker’s change of format.
They won’t have to worry about splitting their audience any further. They have 100% lost me. The idea of cutting off these programs going into an election was bad enough, but those of us who have been fans of Neal Boortz for years were denied the last few weeks of his show. I do wish they were unable to sell advertising for the new format to force them to change back.
Liberalism strikes again. Listen to all the commercials that air on this station lately. They all have.gov at the end. Homeland Security, Dept. of Education, etc., etc., are all sponsored by the ad council. I’m now a former listener. I’m with you, WA Lewis.
“free speech” doesn’t entitle anyone to their favorite programs or point of view being broadcast on a privately owned and operated radio station.
Free speech means you have the right to speak, not the right to be heard.
I wish the new programming well. It will be nice to have more news and less opinion – as I personally don’t turn on the radio to be told what to think or have my own views echoed back to me. I wish the new station well and appreciate this company trying something different.