WCBA (AM)

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WCBA
Image:wcbaam.gif
Broadcast area Corning, NY
Branding "Fox Sports 1350"
First air date 19??
Frequency 1350 (kHz)
Format Sports Talk
ERP 1,000 watts
Class C
Callsign meaning W Corning Broadcasting A
Owner Route 81 Radio
Website route81radio.com

WCBA is an AM station in the Elmira-Corning market of New York state. It broadcasts at 1000 watts day and night on 1350 kHz from studios in South Corning, NY. It is a sports talk station.

The station signed on as Corning's second AM station prior to 1967, according to the obituary for John T. Horn, the longtime disc jockey known on the air as Jack Shane.

Dean Slack bought the station in 1977 and persuaded Horn, who started his career at WCBA 10 years earlier and was then a top personality at WENY, to return. "Slack and Jack" hosted the morning show on the adult contemporary station for 12 years.

In 1988, Slack signed WCBA-FM on the air, giving WCBA an FM presence in the market. The stations were simulcast early on and often were referred to in marketing as "The WCBA stations".

Slack sold the stations in 1990 to Eolin Broadcasting Inc., which was headed by former Gateway Communications television station manager Bob Eolin, his wife Dee, and Horn. Bob Eolin replaced Slack as morning-show co-host.

By the early 1990s, WCBA had established an Adult standards format, while the FM remained adult contemporary. The adult contemporary morning show aired on both stations.

In 1997, WCBA acquired its longtime rival and Horn's former employer (after his first WCBA tenure) WCLI when Eolin Broadcasting bought the station from Sabre Communications. A year prior to that, Eolin Broadcasting had bought WGMM.

In 2001, Eolin Broadcasting bought WENY and WENY-FM from White Broadcasting. At that point, Horn had become a part owner of all of the stations for which he worked in the market. He died unexpectedly in July 2002 at his summer home on Seneca Lake.

"Bob and Dee" hosted the morning show until they sold their stations a little more than a year later to Route 81 Radio, based in Hazleton, PA.

The station recently dropped its standards format in favor of the Fox Sports Radio Network.


Radio stations in the Elmira-Corning, New York market (Arbitron #223)

FM: 88.5 | 90.3 | 91.1 | 92.7 | 94.3 | 94.7 | 96.1 | 96.9 | 97.3 | 97.7 | 98.7 | 99.5 | 100.3 | 100.9 | 102.1 | 103.7 | 104.9 | 106.1 | 107.7

AM: 820 | 960 | 1000 | 1230 | 1350 | 1410 | 1450 | 1600

New York State Radio Markets
Albany (AM) (FM) · Binghamton · Buffalo (AM) (FM) · Elmira-Corning · Ithaca · Jamestown-Dunkirk · Long Island
New York City (AM) (FM) · Newburgh-Middletown · Olean · Plattsburgh · Poughkeepsie · Riverhead
Rochester (AM) (FM) · Saratoga · Syracuse (AM) (FM) · Utica (AM) (FM) · Watertown
See also: List of radio stations in New York and List of United States radio markets