WWKB
WWKB (1520 AM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts a sports gambling format and is owned and operated by Audacy, Inc. It is one of two sports radio stations owned by Audacy in the Buffalo radio market, with WGR primarily broadcasting local sports programming. The studios are on Corporate Parkway in Amherst, New York.
- Buffalo, New York
- United States
- Buffalo, New York
- United States
1520 kHz
The Bet Buffalo
- Audacy, Inc.
- (Audacy License, LLC, as Debtor-in-Possession)
October 1926
WKBW (1926–1986)
- 827 kHz (1926-1927)
- 980 kHz (1927)
- 1010 kHz (1927)
- 1380 kHz (1927–1928)
- 1470 kHz (1928–1930)
- 1480 kHz (1930–1941)
Nod to previous WKBW call sign
34383
A
50,000 watts unlimited
Listen live (via Audacy)
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.[2]
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 the outskirts of Stockholm on a regular basis. The directional nighttime signal has resulted the station being commonly heard in parts of Sweden during winter months. A group of Scandinavian radio reception enthusiasts visited for conference at a Camp Road motel, to view the transmitter array, apparently to photograph and measure it.
History[edit]
Early years[edit]
The station began operations, as WKBW, in late October 1926. It was originally licensed to Coatsworth & Diebold,[3] but ownership was soon changed to the Churchill Evangelistic Association.[4] 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,[5] 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.[6] There were immediate complaints from the region that WKBW, on its self-assigned frequency, was badly interfering with the reception of multiple other stations.[7] At the end of 1926 the station was reported transmitting on a non-standard frequency of 827 kHz.[8]
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,[9] 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.[10]
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.[11]
During the 1930s, WKBW shared a CBS affiliation with then-sister station WGR, and in the 1940s, was affiliated with 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.