Love it or loathe it, Triangle radio listeners are getting twice as much Christmas music this year.

Two local stations this week switched to all-Christmas format, WRAL-FM 101.5 and WRDU-FM 106.1. Last year, WRAL was the only one.

As always, the quest for higher ratings drives the decision, especially with advertisers slashing spending. This is WRAL's third annual switch and last year ratings rose 38 percent among its target demographic, women aged 25 to 54, said program director Barry Fox.

"We lose a few listeners, but we gain many more," Fox said. "We were receiving a lot of calls and e-mails [this year], asking when we were going to start. Then when we made the switch, we got some complaints."

Investment banking giant Credit Suisse has sold back about half its land in Research Triangle Park after concluding that it has ample room for future expansion in its current facility.

"We can probably add another 450 people in the building," said Jim
Captain, site executive for the Switzerland-based company. Credit Suisse currently has 950 full-time workers -- a combination of employees and contractors -- in its 211,000 square foot building in RTP.

The company has sold back about 35 acres of undeveloped land plus designated "natural space" to the Research Triangle Foundation, which runs RTP. The selling price of roughly $3.2 million is the same price, on a per-acre basis, that Credit Suisse originally paid.

Medical technology company Viztek, which moved its headquarters from Florida to Garner in August, expects to hire about 20 employees next year.

The continued expansion locally is the result of rising sales and the decision to phase out the company's operations In Jacksonville, Fla., said Joe Cermin, the 10-year-old company's founder and president. Today the company has 52 employees in Garner, including 35 who were transferred from Jacksonville.

In addition to serving as its headquarters, the company's 80,000-square-foot facility on U.S. 70 also houses an assembly operation. Viztek produces software for displaying and storing images for a variety of medical devices, including X-ray, CAT scans and MRI
machines. The company, a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based 20/20 Healthcare Partners, also produces X-ray machines.

Medical-testing testing company LabCorp wants to consolidate its billing operations and could receive nearly $900,000 in taxpayer incentives if it chooses a site in Greensboro.

The Burlington-based company is reportedly considering moving its billing operations from 24 sites across the country to one location in Greensboro or in Danville, Va. The move would bring 373 jobs to Greensboro.

On Thursday, Guilford County commissioners approved giving the company $248,791. Greensboro also is offering $373,000. And the state would contribute a $275,000 grant, Dan Lynch, president of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance told the Greensboro News-Record.

The jobs would pay about $27,000 a year. LabCorp employs about 28,000 workers worldwide, including more than 1,000 in the Triangle.

North Carolina's unemployment rate rose in October to 11 percent, erasing any progress made in recent months and returning the state to the same unemployment rate it had in June.

The figures, released this morning by the N.C. Employment Security Commission, showed that the number of unemployed workers in the state rose by 4,537 in October.

The state's unemployment rate has been above 10 percent since February.

"We've had ups and downs concerning the number of people employed and unemployed, but we haven't experienced any significant changes," said ESC Chairman Moses Carey Jr.

Since this time last year, the number of unemployed workers in the state has increased by more than 174,000.

Wachovia has started replacing its ATMs in the Triangle with next-generation machines, part of the bank's transformation under the ownership of Wells Fargo.

The new, high-tech ATMs will be able to scan and add up checks without deposit envelopes, count cash deposits and remember your most frequent transactions -- and offer those options when you sign in. The ATMs also will offer six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Hmong, Korean and Vietnamese.

Wells Fargo bought Wachovia late last year and is just beginning to convert branches in other states to the new name. Branches in North Carolina aren't scheduled to change until early 2011. This state will be the last one converted because Wachovia has such a large market here, said Jack Clayton, regional president for the bank's Triangle East region.

But installing the new ATMs is part of a broader effort to integrate Wells Fargo systems and technology, and begin to make customers familiar with the brand, Clayton said.

Traffic volume at Raleigh-Durham International Airport fell again in October, as the recession and airline cuts continue to hit home.

About 808,000 passengers traveled through RDU last month, the airport authority reported today, down about 1.6 percent from October 2008.

So far this year, total volume is 7.5 million passengers, down nearly 9 percent.

Airlines have reduced flights as demand declined. But several airlines have recently announced plans to add flights at RDU as the economy recovers.

Airport officials also reported that traffic fell 0.1 percent in September from a year earlier. That revised figure reversed the slight gain that was previously reported for the month.

Just a day after Dell laid off about 400 workers at its Winston-Salem computer factory, the company reported weaker quarterly sales and profit.

Dell is slashing jobs and cutting costs to offset slowing sales. Bigger rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer are seeing sales increase.

Dell reported today that profit fell 54 percent to $337 million during the third quarter, which included the back-to-school shopping season. Sales dropped 15 percent to $12.9 billion.

The company's margin was hurt partly by $102 million used for "organizational effectiveness actions," including the October decision to close the Winston-Salem factory, chief financial officer Brian Gladden said on a conference call with Wall Street analysts.

On Wednesday, about 400 employees at the Winston-Salem plant worked their last shift, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. That plant, which open in 2005 after Dell received the promise of more than $280 million in state and local incentives, is scheduled to close in January. About 900 workers will lose their jobs once the plant closes.

The nation's biggest manufacturing site for Kellogg's snacks began laying off employees in Cary this morning as part of a corporate reorganization.

The Battle Creek, Mich.-based company is moving ahead with plans to cut $1 billion in annual costs, but spokesman Kris Charles would not disclose the number of local jobs to be cut.

"As we simplify and standardize our processes at the Cary bakery, some jobs were impacted," Charles said. "Affected employees were notified today."

Two years ago Kellogg's, the nation's biggest cereal maker, announced an expansion of 180 jobs at the Cary plant that would bring staffing there to 800 people.

The facility manufactures Keebler crakers, Cheez-It crackers, Zoo animal crackers, Austin cookies, among other products. Earlier this year the plant suspended production of all peanut butter products during an outbreak of salmonella that sickened hundreds of people.

Progress Energy wants to diversify its fuel resources to generate more electricity from wood scraps.

The Raleigh-based power company this morning put out the word to energy developers to submit proposals for building a small wood-burning power plant that would generate between 45 and 75 megawatts.

Progress would like to have the plant in operation by 2013 to help meet the requirements of a state law that calls for more green energy. The company will evaluate the proposals based on cost and other factors.