WRHT (96.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

broadcasting a

talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

. It is

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another part ...

Morehead City Morehead City is a port city in Carteret County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,661 at the 2010 census. Morehead City celebrated the 150th anniversary of its founding on May 5, 2007. It forms part of the Crystal Coast. Hi ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, and it serves the

New Bern New Bern, formerly Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. It had a population of 31,291 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is located at the confluence of the Neuse River, Neuse a ...

and

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

areas of

Eastern North Carolina Eastern North Carolina (sometimes abbreviated as ENC) is the region encompassing the eastern tier of North Carolina, United States. It is known geographically as the state's Coastal Plain region. Primary subregions of Eastern North Carolina inclu ...

. It is owned by Inner Banks Media, with

studio A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to study or zeal. Types Art The studio of any artist, esp ...

s and offices on West Arlington Boulevard in Greenville. Most WRHT programming is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

with

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WTIB (103.7 FM) in Williamston. WRHT has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

(ERP) of 100,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s, the maximum for most FM stations in the U.S. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is on Landfill Road at Hibbs Road in Newport.

Programming

Weekday mornings on WRHT and WTIB begin with a local wake-up show, ''Talk of the Town'' with Henry Hinton and Patrick Johnson. (Hinton owns the stations.) In afternoon

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

, a local hour of talk airs at 5 p.m. with Tom & Bernie. The rest of the weekday schedule is

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

talk shows, including ''

The Glenn Beck Radio Program ''The Glenn Beck Radio Program'' is an American conservative talk radio show, hosted by commentator Glenn Beck on over 400 radio stations across America, his company's own TheBlaze Radio Network, with a live television simulcast weekdays on The ...

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'' is an American radio program hosted by former Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis and former '' America Now/The Buck Sexton Show'' host Buck Sexton. It is broadcast on over 400 talk radio stations ...

The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...

The Mark Levin Show ''The Mark Levin Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Mark Levin. History Levin began his career as a radio host in 2002 in a Sunday afternoon timeslot on WABC. WABC assigned Levin to fill in starting on June 16, 2003, after the ...

, The Dana Loesch Show'' and ''

Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...

with

George Noory George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...

''. Weekends feature programs on health, money, guns, farming and religion. Weekend syndicated shows include '' The Chris Plante Show, The Weekend with Michael Brown, The Ben Ferguson Show'' and '' Gun Talk with Tom Gresham'' as well as repeats of weekday shows. Most hours begin with an update from NCN News, with reports from

CBS News Radio CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...

History

Early years

The station

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on December 20, 1972. Its original

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...

was WMBL-FM and the frequency was 95.9 MHz. It was the FM counterpart to WMBL (740 AM), both owned by Carteret Broadcasting. WMBL-FM was powered at 3,000 watts, a fraction of its current output. In their early years, the stations

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

, middle of the road (MOR) format of popular adult music, news and sports. In 1981, WMBL-FM changed its call letters to WMBJ as "J-96" and later "Sunny 95.9". In the mid 1980s, WMBJ moved to 96.3 and became "Sunny 96.3". In the late 1980s, 96.3 changed its call sign to WRHT and became a Top 40 (CHR) music station as "96.3 The Hot FM". In the early 2000s, WRHT/WCBZ were known as "Hot 96 and 103-7".

Ownership changes

In 2003, Archway Broadcasting Group, LLC, announced its acquisition of WRHT, WCBZ, and two other Greenville market stations-- WNBR and WZBR—from Eastern North Carolina Broadcasting Company, Inc. The price tag was $6.5 million. Also that year, Archway bought WGPM and WCZI. In January 2004, WCBZ changed its call sign to WRHD. That same year while under ownership of Archway Broadcasting, the station's studios moved to

. In September 2005, both stations became "The HOT FM" again as part of their 15th Anniversary. Inner Banks Media LLC bought WRHT and WRHD as part of a cluster of stations from Archway for $4.5 million in March 2007.

Thunder Country and adult contemporary

On April 25, 2007, HOT FM moved to the weaker frequencies of WWHA-FM 94.1 (formerly WNBR) in

Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

and WWNK-FM 94.3 (formerly WGPM) in

Farmville ''FarmVille'' is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to '' Happy Farm'' and ''Farm Town''. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plo ...

. Both were the home of country "94 HANK-FM". The Country format moved to the stronger 96.3/103.7 frequencies. They became known as "Thunder Country". On March 15, 2010, Thunder Country and WTIB-FM traded frequencies. On May 3, 2010, WRHD split from the "Thunder Country" simulcast and changed its format to

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

. The station was branded as "Star 94.3".

Talk radio

On November 5, 2018, WRHT ended its country format, which moved to WNBU 94.1 FM in

. The new format was talk radio, branded as "New Talk 96.3". WRHT was teamed with WTIB 103.7 FM in Williamston. The two co-owned stations, covering different sections of Eastern North Carolina, began simulcasting a mix of local talk in the morning and syndicated conservative talk the rest of the day.

Past personalities

Air personalities previously heard on the station include Grizz Lee, Miles Brooks, Charlie, Jenny Cruz, Chase, Dylan McKay, Chris Brooks, Mad Dawg, Jazz, Clark Willis, Heather Davis, and Cody.

References

External links

* * {{coord, 34.752, N, 76.882, W, type:landmark_region:US-NC_source:FCC, display=title RHT Talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1972 1972 establishments in North Carolina Carteret County, North Carolina