| WBEN | |
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| Broadcast area | Buffalo |
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| Branding | "News Radio 930 WBEN" |
| Slogan | The Voice of Buffalo |
| Frequency | 930 kHz |
| First air date | September 1922 |
| Format | News radio |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | W Buffalo Evening News (was owned by the Buffalo Evening News (No longer the Evening Newspaper) |
| Former callsigns | WMAK (1922-1930) |
| Owner | Entercom Communications |
| Website | WBEN.com |
WBEN is an AM radio station serving the Niagara, Buffalo and Western New York area. The station retained the WBEN callsign after its co-owned TV station, WBEN-TV, was sold separately to become WIVB in 1977. Its transmitter is located in Grand Island, New York. Its radio signals can be picked up quite strongly as far as Toronto, Ontario.
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History
The station that is now known as WBEN signed on in September 1922 as the arbitrarily assigned WMAK, operating out of Lockport, New York at 833 kHz. The station later moved to Tonawanda (broadcasting at 1130 kHz there) and then Buffalo, landing on 900 kHz as a result of General Order 40. In 1930, the Buffalo Evening News purchased WMAK and changed the call letters to WBEN. In 1941, the station moved to its current position on the dial, at 930 kHz, 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 Schenectady to demonstrate television technology, the result of which was the first ever American television station, now known as WRGB. In 1934, WBEN launched W8XH, 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 the United States to launch an FM radio station at 106.5 MHz, and in 1948, it 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 its competitor WGR, and most of Sinclair's other radio stations, when Sinclair decided to exit radio. Both had been hybrid news and sports talkers, and the two stations swapped personnel, so that WGR became all sports, and WBEN became the market's principal commercial news/talk station.
To those who are willing to download and install a special 5 megabyte software program WBEN offers streaming of its programming from the internet.
For a brief period in late 2006, WBEN was the highest-rated radio station in Buffalo, New York, and also the highest-rated news/talk station in America, according to Arbitron. (This is likely due to a bump in listenership from the
- Portions of the above come from the Buffalo Broadcast Pioneers Web site.
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
- Sean Hannity, syndicated talk host (broadcast on tape delay, replaced Dr. Joy Browne in June 2008)
- Jim Bohannon, syndicated talk host (added 2009)
- 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
- Buffalo Bisons Baseball, Sunday games only (in season)
- NFL Football, in Season
- Ron Dobson (fill in host, formerly 7pm - 10pm weeknight host)
- Larry Hunter (fill in host)
- WBEN is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network.
News department
- John Zach (Early News)
- Susan Rose (Early News)
- Chris Johnson (Early Morning Sports)
- Dave Debo (Morning Reporter)
- Randy Bushover (Producer/Business Reporter)
- Barbara Burns (Mid-Day Reporter)
- Steve Cichon (Mid-Day Reporter/Anchor)
- Tom Puckett (Evening Anchor)
- Tom Connolly (Overnight Anchor)
- Kevin Kuchta (Weekend Morning Anchor)
- Neil McManus (Weekend Anchor)
- Steve Schnepf (Weekend Anchor/Traffic Reporter)
- Justin Swain (Weekend Anchor/Traffic Reporter)
- Rachel Kingston (Weekend News)
See also
External links
- WBEN
- The WBEN History Page by Buffalonian Steve Cichon
- WBEN jock history (billdulmage.com)
- Query the FCC's AM station database for WBEN
- Radio Locator Information on WBEN
- Query Arbitron's AM station database for WBEN
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
