WWKB (1520 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts a sports gambling format and is one of two sports radio stations owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. in the Buffalo market. WWKB's Buffalo sister station WGR primarily broadcasts local sports programming. The studios are on Corporate Parkway in Amherst, New York. The station used the WKBW callsign from its founding in 1926 until 1986, and during various periods, previously carried pop-rock music and talk radio.
WWKB broadcasts with a power of 50,000 watts, the maximum permitted for AM stations in the U.S. It is one of two 50,000 watt AM stations in Western New York, along with WHAM in Rochester. WWKB is a clear channel station, sharing its Class A status on 1520 kHz with KOKC in Oklahoma City. WWKB uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. Its transmitter site is shared with WGR on Big Tree Road in Blasdell, New York.Radio-Locator.com/WWKB
WWKB's primary daytime signal covers all of Western New York, including Rochester, as well as the Southern Tier. It provides secondary coverage to much of Southern Ontario, including Toronto, and can be heard as far east as Kingston.
At night, to mutually protect KOKC from interference, it must direct its signal eastward. Thus, while WWKB can be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night, its signal is spotty only 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Buffalo. Local residents remain largely unaware that the antenna array is internationally famous for sending WWKB's nighttime signal to Nordic countries on a regular basis. The directional nighttime signal has resulted the station being commonly heard in parts of Finland and Sweden using special DX equipment during winter months. A group of Scandinavian radio reception enthusiasts visited to view, photograph, and measure the transmitter array.
Programming Most programming comes from the co-owned BetMGM Network, with some shows from Westwood One Sports. Audacy uses WWKB as an overflow station for WGR's sports coverage. When two teams to which WGR owns the rights are playing at the same time, the more important event usually airs on WGR, with the lesser event on WWKB.
Sports coverage National Football League on Westwood One (in season, overflow from WGR when WGR does Bills games) Select Buffalo Sabres professional National Hockey League preseason and prospect tournament games Buffalo Bandits lacrosse (in season) Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball (in season) Buffalo Bulls football and basketball (University at Buffalo, beginning 2014)
WWKB's 50,000 watt signal makes it a desirable outlet for the Buffalo's second-tier sports teams: the Buffalo Bandits have aired on the station since the 2006 season (moving from WGR where it took the place of the locked-out Sabres in 2005), Buffalo Bulls football and basketball, and, on and off, the Buffalo Bisons, who moved back to the station in April 2008.
History Early years
The station began operations, as WKBW, on October 22, 1926. It was originally licensed to Coatsworth & Diebold,"New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, October 30, 1926, page 3. but ownership was soon changed to the Churchill Evangelistic Association."Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, November 30, 1926, page 7. Founder Clinton Churchill's application to the Department of Commerce for a station license reportedly requested assignment of the call letters "WAY"; however, this call sign was already in use by a ship, the Admiral Dewey,"Commercial Ship Radio Stations", Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States (edition June 30, 1926), page 12. so the station was instead randomly assigned "WKBW" from a sequential list of available call signs. Churchill adopted a slogan of "Well Known Bible Witness" based on the call letters, and later usage referred to the middle letters "KB" as standing for "King of Buffalo", reflecting its 50,000-watt transmitting power.
WKBW was founded during a period when the U.S. government had temporarily lost its authority to assign transmitting frequencies."Federal Regulation of Radio Broadcasting" (July 8, 1926) by Acting Attorney General William J. Donovan, Official Opinions of the Attorneys General of the United States, Volume 35, 1929, pages 126-132. There were immediate complaints from the region that WKBW, on its self-assigned frequency, was badly interfering with the reception of multiple other stations."No Change in Tabernacle Radio", Buffalo Evening Times, October 26, 1926, page 10. At the end of 1926 the station was reported transmitting on a non-standard frequency of 827 kHz."Broadcasting stations, alphabetically by call signals", Radio Service Bulletin, December 31, 1926, page 18. The standard government practice was to assign stations to frequencies ending in zero.
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was formed in early 1927, which restored the U.S. government authority to assign station frequencies. This resulted in a series of frequency shifts that year for WKBW, including reassignments to 980, 1010 and finally 1380 kHz. On November 11, 1928, as a result of the FRC's General Order 40, WKBW changed to 1470 kHz, a "high power regional" frequency,"Revised list of broadcasting stations, by frequencies, effective 3 a.m., November 11, 1928, eastern standard time", Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission (for the year ended June 30, 1928), page 213. and raised its power to 5,000 watts—the first Buffalo station to increase to that level. In early 1930 WKBW, along with KFJF in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was reassigned to 1480 kHz, another "high power regional" frequency."Alterations and Corrections", Radio Service Bulletin, February 28, 1930, page 23.
In March 1941 WKBW inaugurated a new transmitter plant south of Buffalo in the town of Hamburg, increased power to 50,000 watts around the clock and shifted to its current "clear channel" frequency of 1520 kHz as a result of North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement, with the provision that as "Class I-B" stations, it and its Oklahoma City counterpart, now KOMA, had to maintain directional antennas at night to mutually protect each other from interference."Assignments of United States Standard Broadcast Stations Listed by Frequency", page 1442.
From the 1920s until the mid-1940s WKBW was affiliated with CBS Radio. Later it switched to the NBC Blue network and its corporate successor ABC, running as a conventional full service network affiliated station also offering local news and music programming. The station later broadcast a wide variety of ethnic, country and western and religious programming when not carrying network offerings, including pioneer rock and roll and rhythm and blues shows launched in the 1950s by disk jockey George "Hounddog" Lorenz, later founder of pioneer FM urban station WBLK. Stan Barron served as the station's sports director in this era.
Top 40 era On July 4, 1958, a few months before companion station WKBW-TV (channel 7) was launched, WKBW radio abandoned its adult approach and was converted into a personality-driven full service Top 40 music radio station, featuring foreground personalities, a tight playlist of current hits and an aggressive local news department, which it continued to program with great success for over 20 years."KB goes Kaboom with Futuresonic Radio!" by Martin Biniasz (buffalobroadcasters.com) It was one of the first stations to present traffic reports in cooperation with police and state and local authorities. Churchill sold WKBW-AM-TV to Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1961, earning a handsome return on his original investment of 35 years earlier.
During the exclusive Monkees "Sleepy Jean"/"Daydream Believer" broadcast in 1967, a recording was made in Sidi Yahia, Morocco.I Heard it on the AM Radio-WKBW heard in Morocco-1967audio file of WKBW playing "Sleepy Jean"/"Daydream Believer"-1967 On Halloween Night 1968, writer Dan Kriegler and then-program director Jefferson Kaye (later the voice of WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, co-owned with WKBW-TV in 1971) commemorated the 30th anniversary of Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds by re-making the infamous broadcast, updating the storyline and changing locations to make it significant to Buffalo listeners. Kaye (the voice of NFL Films) did another equally well-received remake of "War of the Worlds" in 1972 using a revised script and some new cast members including Jackson Armstrong and newsmen Jim McLaughlin and Joe Downey. Both versions have been recorded and collected by aficionados of classic radio programming.
During the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, WKBW became a major force in pop radio over the East Coast. KB had a 50,000-watt transmitter (the maximum power allowed) at their transmitter site in Hamburg. This high power blanketed the entire eastern U.S. with Top 40 music every night, and the station actually had a better signal at night in the western Boston suburbs than Boston's own Top 40 station, WMEX, located at 1510, right next door to WKBW. Disk jockeys included future Price Is Right announcer Rod Roddy, Dick Biondi, Danny Neaverth, Jack Armstrong, Joey Reynolds, Steve Mitchell, Bud Ballou, Norm Marshall, Tom Shannon, and the Amazin' Jim Quinn. Art Wander served as news director from 1956 to 1958, followed by Irv Weinstein from 1958 to 1964; Stan Barron, a holdover from the pre-rock and roll era, handled sports until his departure in 1965. Mike Joseph, later creator of the Hot Hits format, was a major off-air contributor to the station's approach to the "Futursonic" Top-40 format.
Beginning in the late 1960s, WKBW devoted a nightly hour of programming to underground music with its "Mixed Bag" block, one of the few commercial AM stations to embrace the freeform format; it was highly unusual for a 50,000-watt AM station to embrace the format that had theretofore been largely an FM and noncommercial phenomenon.Schlaerth, J. Don (February 12, 1969). "Underground Music Comes to the Surface." Buffalo Evening News. In 1969, WKBW became the first radio station to air cuts from The Beatles' unreleased Get Back album. The recordings had been compiled from material The Beatles recorded in London in January 1969, the same sessions that would be used in The Beatles' Let It Be album, released in May 1970. Although WKBW was the first station to air the "Get Back" tapes, WBCN in Boston would be better known for playing them, as its broadcast of the tapes was preserved on a high-quality reel, which spawned several widely circulated bootlegs of The Beatles.
A recreated example of WKBW as an early 1960s-era pop radio station can be found on Ron Jacobs' "Cruisin' 1960" (Increase Records INCR 5–2005). This recreation features Dick Biondi and includes several classic rock and pop songs of that era, contemporary commercials, and DJ patter.
The 1980s and 1990s The station continued with the Top 40 format until 1981, when, facing the emergence of FM competition, the station evolved to more of an adult contemporary format. By 1983, they leaned toward rock and roll oldies while still playing AC songs. They also added talk radio shows in the evenings by 1984. On June 15 of that year, WKBW began broadcasting in C-QUAM AM stereo.