WBEN (AM)

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WBEN is a radio station serving the Niagara, Buffalo and Western New York area. The station kept its call signs in 1977 when the TV station became WIVB. It is formatted as a news/talk station. The station's name is "NewsRadio 930".

• Call sign meaning: Buffalo Evening News, which was the original station owner.
• Frequency: 930 AM
• Operating power; 5,000 watts, 24 hours a day
• Format: News/talk
• Name: NewsRadio 930
• Owner: Entercom Communications
• Signal Radius:
• Start of Operation: September 8, 1930 as WBEN (1922 as WMAK)
• Slogan: The Voice of Buffalo
• Transmitter Location: Grand Island, New York

[edit] Brief History

The station that is now known as WBEN signed on in September 1922 as the arbitrarily assigned WMAK, operating on 900 kHz. In 1930, the Buffalo Evening News purchased WMAK and changed call letters to WBEN. The station moved to its current position on the dial, at 930 kHz, in 1941 as a result of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA).

WBEN was among the most active experimenters in Buffalo radio. In 1928, then-WMAK joined with WGY in Schnectady to demonstrate television technology. In 1934, WBEN launched W8HX, the first ultra-shortwave radio station of its kind. In the early 1940s, WBEN's morning host was comedian and future national late-night television star Jack Paar (he left the station when drafted into the military during World War II, and opted not to return to Buffalo after the war). In 1946, WBEN was the first radio station in Buffalo to launch an FM radio station at 106.5 MHz and in 1948 launched what would become WIVB, the first television station in Buffalo.

WBEN-FM would later move to 102.5 and eventually become WTSS; it is still WBEN's corporate sister to this day. The 106.5 frequency is now WYRK.

WBEN long enjoyed a premier position as a full-service radio station, first under Buffalo Evening News ownership and then under the ownership and management of Larry Levite's locally based Algonquin Broadcasting Company. The station won numerous regional and statewide awards for its news and public service efforts. Levite presided over the gradual transition of WBEN from an adult contemporary format to its current news-talk format. In the early 1990s he sold the WBEN stations to Kerby Confer's Keymarket Communications organization and retired from the broadcasting business. Keymarket in turn later sold the properties to River City Broadcasting, which then merged with Sinclair Broadcasting. In 1999, Entercom Communications bought WBEN, as well as competitor WGR and most of Sinclair's other radio stations, when Sinclair decided to exit radio. Both had been hybrid news and sports talkers, so the two stations swapped personnel so that WGR became all sports and WBEN became the market's principal commercial news/talker.

In 2006, WBEN began streaming its programming on the Internet.

Portions of the above come from the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Web site.

[edit] Programming

• Buffalo's Early News, morning news program
• Tom Bauerle, midmorning talk host
• Rush Limbaugh, syndicated talk host
• Sandy Beach, afternoon talk host
• Buffalo's Evening News, evening news magazine
• Ron Dobson, evening talk host (replaced Dr. Laura Schlessinger in 2006)
• Dr. Joy Browne, syndicated talk host
• Coast to Coast AM, overnights
• Kathy Weppner, weekend talk host
• Cigar Dave, syndicated weekend talk host
• Bob Brinker, syndicated weekend talk host
• Meet the Press
• Laura Ingraham, weekend replays
• WBEN is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.

See also: List of radio stations in New York State

[edit] External links

• WBEN
• The WBEN History Page by Buffalonian Steve Cichon
• WBEN jock history (billdulmage.com)