For the first time in 34 years, the Daytona 500 wasn't on the FM dial in Charlotte last weekend.
Motorsports are moving this year from WSOC-FM (103.7), their home since 1976, to sports station WFNZ-AM ("Fan" 610).
Charlotte, the heartland of NASCAR, without a strong FM signal for the races?
It's another sign of the fast-changing media landscape, particularly regarding sports programming.
While motorsports have dedicated fans, the ratings have been dipping in radio along with a three-year slide for TV. This year's Daytona 500 TV ratings were off about 15 percent from last year, though there were two long viewer-bleeding delays while the track was repaired.
And a new challenge for radio is the personal people meter, which will be introduced in Charlotte this year. Racing is one of those formats that doesn't do as well under the new measuring devices.
"It was a business decision" to move the races to AM, says D.J. Stout, WFNZ's operations manager, one he says he's thrilled with. His station has added Tar Heels sports and the Bobcats broadcasts, and he says NASCAR belongs there, too.
"I just wish the race didn't have a two-hour delay because of potholes," he says.
"It's a sports station," says Bill Schoening, market manager for CBS Radio's Charlotte stations, which include both WSOC-FM and WFNZ-AM. "It'll allow a further connection between the talk shows and the broadcasts."
David Hyatt, president of Concord-based Motor Racing Network, says he was surprised by the switch "with the racing industry based here."
Most of MRN's affiliates are FM stations, with about 450 stations carrying Sunday cup races during the season.
Nationally, there have been concerns at some stations about what the new personal people meters will mean for race ratings, but he says he thinks with proper promotion motorsports will continue to thrive on radio.
Cheryl Knight, director of affiliates for MRN, says WSOC-FM was the No. 1 station in Charlotte on Sunday afternoons during racing, according to Arbitron figures.
MRN has talked to other Charlotte stations about picking up the coverage, but no one was prepared this season. "My biggest hope is that WSOC will come around and put the cup races back on the FM," Knight said. "We'd like to continue the relationship for years to come."
Racing won't entirely disappear from WSOC-FM. May and October races at Charlotte Motor Speedway will still be carried on the station. Race fans on the northern end of the city can also get racing from WTQR-FM (104.1) out of Greensboro.
Station still on standby
Technical problems are delaying the debut of WZGV-AM ("The Groove" 730).
Lanny Ford, general manager of the station that will feature classic hits of the late '60s to early '80s, had hoped to have WZGV on the air in early February. Now it looks like it will be early March.
"Weather messed us up some with construction delays," said Ford. Now tests on the transmitter in Belmont are being conducted. Ford says he's just awaiting FCC approval to launch.
Media movers
News 14 Carolina anchor Heather Childers has left the Time Warner Cable channel after eight years. That leaves chief meteorologist Jeff Crum and sports director Mike Solarte as the last of the original on-camera workers at News 14 there since for the station's launch in 2002. ...
Natalie Pasquarella moves up from the WSOC (Channel 9) morning newscast to 10 p.m. anchor on sister station WAXN (Channel 64) and will also co-anchor Channel 9's "Eyewitness News at 5:30 p.m." with Blair Miller beginning at the end of March. "They told me they thought I was a great fit for the shows, and I think I said 'yes' immediately ... I thought, wow, I get to sleep in until 8 in the morning now," says Pasquarella, who was anchor in her native Steubenville, Ohio, before moving to Channel 9 in 2008 ...
Replacing Pasquarella on the morning and midday news will be Robyn McGlohn, formerly morning anchor at the NBC affiliate in Huntsville, Ala. ... Former Channel 9 anchor Kim Brattain will travel to Haiti next month with the Charlotte-based charitable group A Hand Up for Haiti. A medical team will spend a week in the countryside, and Brattain will send video blogs and develop a documentary ...
Bonita "Bo" Griffin, the S.C. native best remembered locally as a host of "Blue Ribbon" on the old Turner South network, died of intestinal cancer at age 51 ... From the Facebook site "Friends and Fans of Jon Robinson," where news of the former TV anchor's struggle against drug addiction is posted: "We feel we have a responsibility to report that Jon left the 'Refuge' treatment program in Ohio over the weekend. He apparently went on a binge but has checked himself in to the detox center in Mecklenburg County and promises to get into another treatment program. Anyone who knows about addiction treatment knows it often takes several tries to stick." ... That was Monroe's Jason Looney playing a bell clerk in this week's episode of the CW's "One Tree Hill."
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