Sports Talk in the Triad is on its way out the door…WSJS, the Sports Talk radio station for the Triad, is making a move on June 6…No more full-time Sports Talk on 600 AM WSJS….No more Adam Gold, from 12 Noon till 3pm each day…No more Dan Patrick in the mornings…Packer(Mark) and Durham(Wes) are moving out…The Sports Hub, has reached it cap/limit…A new ownership group has taken over WSJS radio/600 AM, and they are looking to take WSJS back to the past…Back to the days when WSJS was a News-Talk Station….
Josh Graham will still be driving you home in the afternoons with his sports talk show called, “The Drive”, but as for the whole day of broadcasting at WSJS/600 AM, they are pretty much going Back to the Future, or the Future is Going Back…Back to the old days of News-Talk radio, with the sports just being a very small piece of the radio pie…
No more Adam Gold, and I don’t know about you guys and girls, but I have been listening to that time slot, on WSJS for probably 10-15 years…That was the key slot…That is where the demo/demographics really started to shine, beginning with the David Glenn Show, and rolling right on through to the Adam Gold Show…This was excellent programming that did a super job of filling the early afternoon time slot, and you could use this time period to be your listening companion, while you were doing your work from home, or maybe while you were eating your lunch from home…The Noon to 3pm slot was also good air time for your mind and ear-filling soul, if you were on the roll, riding around town in your car, taking care of the trips, and key stops for business purposes that are the musts that have to be done on a daily basis, as you fulfill your regular daily routine/chores…
David/Dave Glenn and Adam Gold were there for us, for the past several years, and it was a good fill of Sports Talk, and sports opinions…But, the Adam Gold Show is gone, Dan Patrick and his show are gone, Durham and Packer have been sent a packing, and ESPN Radio will be NO MORE on WSJS, the Triad’s new News-Talk-Sports radio station….
It is a money move for the most part…WSJS figures that they can recoup the old Winston-Salem/Forsyth county listening audience….They want to go after the older crowd, that listens to the radio airwaves for local news and talk, and a ton of political platforming….WSJS will sell any hour that they can get a company or business to sponsor, so if you have\own Joe’s Garage, and you have $1,000 bucks to spend, and if want to be on the air on WSJS, you are on the air my friend….But, you better get there quick, they are hoping to sell out the 9am-10am hour each Monday-Friday with as many Joe’s Garages and Mega Money Makers hours that they can…And they will also go with the same plan on Saturday mornings, after the Saturday Morning Yard Sale from 6-8am, and if you have a Real Estate Ready to Roll Radio Show, on the go for WSJS, and if you have that $1,000 dollars in hand, you are on the air my friend…
That is the bottom line for radio and all businesses in general….Got to sell as many spots/commercials as you can, and you have to sell the hour information blocks, to make the cash register ring…If you are not bringing in the advertisers, then eventually the station will be tweaked, and the format change will be placed on the table…
WSJS was purchased recently by Truth Broadcasting, and Stu Epperson Jr./’Little Stu’, and Truth Broadcasting is a bottom line radio company…Sell the spots/commercials, or get in the line, that is headed out the back door….WSJS Sports, as a Sports Talk Station, had some very good programs, and some good teams that played their games, and had those games broadcast on WSJS Sports…But, when it came to the bottom line, WSJS Sports could not sell enough advertising to make the new and larger Cash Register ring…WSJS worked hard, but not hard enough, and now the new ownership will be changing their stuff…
Radio again is a business, whether it be Sports, Talk, News, Gospel, Rock, Country, Religion, Hispanic, Adult Contemporary, or other formats, you have to be making money, and the station income has to satisfy the owner, and if the owner is not pleased/happy, the bossman/owner is going to make some changes…And that is what we have on our hands/ears, with the changes coming to the former Sports Talk WSJS radio, and the shifts in programming that will be soon be evident on the new News-Talk-Sports radio(WSJS)…
WSJS is making some changes, and those new changes will take effect on Monday June 6…
(I was fortunate to do/broadcast local Sports Talk here in Greensboro for 15 years, and those 15 years, included stops at three different radio stations.)
When you first start doing the radio gig, you go in thinking I will be right here doing this, at the same radio station, for the rest of my life, but with radio being truly a business, that is not going to happen…
Congrats and keep hanging tough to Josh Graham, for keeping his spot in the afternoons on WSJS from 3-6pm, but one has to wonder how much longer Josh will be able to hang with this new format, and how long it will be before Josh Graham pulls up his stakes, and heads back to a full-time Sports Radio station…With his overall talent and abilities, he should be able to move up and on, to a larger market in the not so distant future….Again, Good Luck to him, as he sinks his teeth further into this new relationship with the new ownership company, and who can possibly tell how long it will be before Josh Graham will be saying, Bon Voyage….(You could see a Josh Graham ending up at a WFNZ(610 AM) in Charlotte, or at a 99.9 The Fan, in Raleigh.)
To get the full scoop on what’s happening over at WSJS, and we do believe that WSJS can once again have financial success in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth county market, but we/I don’t see them becoming a true factor in the Triad Market, unless the Joe’s Garages, and the Making the Money Multiply Mobile Cash-O-Mats start popping up everywhere, in and around the Triad…
And as promised before we took off on another trail, here is the scoop on the changes, and what is going on at WSJS Radio/News-Talk-Sports(WSJS/600 AM)…..
from a recent copy of the Winston-Salem Journal:
from Fran Daniel at WS Journal, in the May 27 edition….CLICK HERE to see on the online photos that accompany this article/post…..
WSJS 600-AM is changing its format and will focus on local news and sports, Truth Broadcasting, the station’s owner, said Wednesday.
The station has been all sports since 2016. The new format starts June 6.
Now, new owner Stuart Epperson Jr. is returning WSJS to a local news-talk-sports format.
Jeffrey Griffin will be behind the microphone as the host of “Triad Today,” from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays.
The radio station’s mid-day programs will include conservative news-talk programs from Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade, along with Todd Starnes and Charlie Kirk.
“The Drive” with Josh Graham will remain in place from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, and JJ Jefferay is set to host “The Yard Sale” from 6 a.m.-8 a.m. on Saturday. Westwood One-CBS Sports and local programs will complete the evening and weekend broadcast schedule.
Truth Broadcasting said the station’s long-standing relationship with Duke University will continue, as will its commitment to providing high school football coverage in North Carolina.
Sporting events such as NCAA basketball and football, the College World Series, the NFL and The Masters will still be available to listeners.
“It’s an incredible thrill, as well as a responsibility, to return the voice of the people to WSJS,” said Michael Carbone, Truth Broadcasting’s chief operating officer, in a press release.
“A local talk station belongs to the listeners — our neighbors — to share their thoughts, their favorite things, favorite teams, their passion for the Triad, their celebrations, their issues, their dreams. We will restart that conversation and let the voices of the city color our days again.”
Tom Hamilton, market manager for WSJS, said the station enjoyed providing the Triad with a 24/7 sports. But he said that “so much was lost with our connection to the Triad community with little to no live and local talk, news features, guest host hours, award-winning talk shows and more.
“Now, we’ve remedied that. Just wait until you hear it!”