WCHL to Reconnect With Chapel Hill

Village Companies sold WCHL-AM to the Curtis Media Group in 1996 because it was operating about a dozen media outlets, of which WCHL-AM was the smallest. Village Companies has since changed its name to VilCom and sold most of its companies and is able to focus on WCHL-AM.

WCHL-AM was paired with WDNC-AM, Durham's local radio station, when it was sold to CMG.

Phil Zachary, the vice president of CMG, said the partnership of WCHL-AM and WDNC-AM hurt both parties in terms of their coverage and their ability to reach listeners in respective towns. "Durham and Chapel Hill have one thing in common, and that's (N.C.) 15-501," he said. "By putting them together it didn't give them a chance to grow, get back to their roots."

Zachary said WCHL-AM should never have been moved from Chapel Hill but now that it is back in town it can reconnect with the community. "It will establish itself as the local hometown radio station, which will be a very good thing for the community," he said. "It's a small station, and, like small newspapers, it needs to be very ingrained in the community."

As of Aug. 30, CMG retained ownership of WCHL, but VilCom is in charge of general operations. Jim Heavner, president of VilCom, said he wants WCHL-AM to be the source citizens look to for news about the community. "Our goal is to return WCHL to its previous importance as the reference point for everyone who wants to know what's happening in Chapel Hill and Carrboro," he said.

Heavner said that to be a constant reference point, radio stations must have an affiliation with a national network, and that in about a week he will know whether that association is with ABC, NBC or CBS.

Heavner said the station will be more accessible to the community by being located in Chapel Hill, and, in turn, the WCHL-AM staff will be able to reach out to the community. "In order for the station to serve the community best, it needs to be headquartered in Chapel Hill," he said.

Heavner said that on either Nov. 25 or Dec. 1, WCHL-AM will change its format to be an all-news and talk station.

People who were in the area before WCHL-AM moved to Durham will remember the station's past style and welcome its return, Heavner said. "If the early responses are any indication, the return of WCHL will be warmly greeted by people who knew what it was before."

And to attract new listeners, Heavner said VilCom will plan significant promotion efforts. "I think it will be the kind of station whose listeners will grow by word of mouth." WCHL-AM will be located at the Campus on VilCom Circle in Chapel Hill as of Nov. 1.

If WCHL-AM was still paired with WDNC-AM, Zachary said, it would not be able to focus all its attention on serving the Chapel Hill community. "It was not going to get back to its focus," he said.

"Chapel Hill deserves to have its own radio station, its own voice and its own perspective," he said. "It's in a better position to do that being physically located in Chapel Hill."

The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu.