In a format where gray hair is practically a brand identity, 93 WIBC is doing something different. Program Director David Wood has helped turn one of Indianapolis radio’s most storied stations into one of the younger-skewing news-talk stations in the country. It didn’t happen by accident.
Wood’s been at it for a while. He’s been with 93 WIBC for 14 years. When he took over, he saw something that others might have missed — moving to FM hadn’t modernized the station. It had exposed how old it sounded.
“One of the things that I always thought is that actually being on FM in some ways exposed how old the radio station sounded,” Wood said. “So I set out to make sure that it sounded like a more modern FM station. Hiring great talent, having incredible news, being where people are from the standpoint of social media, being online, video, and things like that — keep us relevant.”
That 25-54 performance has become a calling card. It’s rare in news-talk, and Wood knows it. Being on FM helps. But the bigger driver, he argues, is a deliberate philosophy about what kind of people belong behind the microphone.
“Here’s what I say when I hunt for talent: I’m looking for entertainers, not advocates,” Wood said. “That’s the result we’ve got. It doesn’t mean that the talent can’t advocate for things, but understand that in radio, the storytelling and entertainment come first, along with the credible information.”
That distinction matters more than it might seem. Conservative talk radio is crowded. Listeners have endless options — podcasts, satellite, streaming. Wood knows 93 WIBC can’t just be another outlet delivering the same message in the same tone.
“You can get conservative politics alone anywhere — on other stations, in podcasts, on Fox News on SiriusXM, if that’s what you want a steady diet of,” he said. “But as a local radio station that really wants to reflect back to the audience, people aren’t talking about politics all the time themselves. I think that’s what attracts people to us — we do have a lot of personality.”
The lineup reflects that thinking. Tony Katz, Hammer & Nigel, Casey Daniels — they don’t sound like the same show wearing different clothes. That’s intentional. Wood describes it like programming a music station.
“All of our shows sound very different, but there are common threads through it,” he said. “Obviously, conservative politics is the common thread that runs all the way through the station. What I always say is you need to jump back and forth over that line with content, meaning you don’t get too far away from it. But it gives you permission to do other things, because you know you’re always going to come back to it. It’s sort of like a music station where you’ve got your core sound and then other music on either side of it.”
He sees the individual shows as proof of concept. Tony Katz is cerebral and intense. He also makes people laugh. Hammer & Nigel lean into comedy. They’re also sharp and opinionated.
“Tony is known as being intense, and it’s a high-information type of show,” Wood said. “But he’s also a very funny guy, a very good storyteller, and better at making use of audio in unique ways than you might expect. On the other hand, Hammer and Nigel are very funny, but at the same time very well informed, with strong opinions — and they don’t always agree.”
Wood even cited a telling piece of listener feedback. It captures exactly what he’s going for.
“There’s somebody I used to work with who would say, ‘I don’t agree with 90% of what Tony Katz says, but I love to listen to him, because he makes arguments that are well-reasoned and not just screaming or Democrat bad.’ It’s like, ‘I want to hear what he has to say.’ And on top of that, you just really enjoy his personality.”
That entertainer-first approach extends beyond the main hosts. It reaches into every corner of the station — including traffic.
“Because you can get traffic on your phone, if you don’t have a big personality doing your traffic, what’s the point?” Wood said. “We bring a lot of entertainment, even in the places where it may not be thought of as an entertainment daypart.”
There’s also a local pride component that runs deep. The call letters are nearly 90 years old. Several members of the staff grew up listening. That heritage shapes how Wood thinks about responsibility — especially when severe weather rolls through central Indiana.
“Most of the time, if we do something wrong, nobody dies,” he said. “If we get that wrong, there’s a chance somebody could die. So we’ve got to get it right.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
