WRBZ

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WRBZ
City of license	Raleigh, North Carolina
Broadcast area	The Triangle (North Carolina)
Branding	Sports Radio, 850 the Buzz
Frequency	850 kHz
Format	Sports radio
Audience share	1.2 (Fa'07, R&R[1])
Power	10,000 watts day 5,000 watts night
Class	B
Facility ID	888
Transmitter Coordinates	35°48′4.00″N 78°48′51.00″W / 35.8011111, -78.8141667
Former callsigns	WNAO (1947-1959), WKIX (1959-1994), WYLT (1994-1995)
Affiliations	Fox Sports Radio, Westwood One
Owner	WRBZ, Ll
Sister stations	WDNC
Webcast	listen live
Website	850thebuzz.com

WRBZ (850 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Sports radio format. Licensed to Raleigh, North Carolina, USA, the station serves the Research Triangle, North Carolinaarea. The station is currently owned by Wrbz, Ll and features programing from Fox Sports Radio and Westwood One.^[2]

WRBZ was the second flagship station of the Carolina Hurricanes when the team moved there from Hartford, Connecticut, in 1997, WPTF was the first Flagship station. It now carries Duke University Football and Basketball games, Carolina Panthers Football games, select East Carolina University Football games, the Roy Williams and Butch Davis shows, and several other seasonal play by play games.

Unlike sister station WDNC which relies more on network programming from ESPN Radio, WRBZ's lineup consists almost entirely of locally produced sports talk local programming from Adam Gold, Joe Ovies, David Glenn, and Morgan Patrick (the Sports Pig). Jim Rome's weekday afternoon show and network programming from Fox Sports Radio on weekend afternoons and daily overnights rounds out the lineup.

Notable personalities include the morning show cast, Adam Gold, Joe Ovies, and Tony Rigsbee

[edit] History

WNAO radio, which signed on in 1947, was owned by the News and Observer newspaper. As of 1948, WNAO was an ABC radio affiliate. WNAO-FM was added in 1949. The Raleigh-Durham market's first TV station, WNAO-TV, signed on at Channel 28 in 1953 but went off the air in 1959. In 1958, Hugh Holder bought the radio stations and renamed them WKIX and WKIX-FM.^[3] The FM continued to air the AM station's programming (due to a limited nighttime signal on the AM) until it became easy listening WYYD in the 1970s.

WKIX was originally a top 40 radio station owned by Southern Broadcasting and serving the Raleigh market. Called 85-WKIX, the station was one of the most successful top-40 outlets in the country from the 1950s through the late 1970s when FM began to dominate the music formats.

WKIX was home to some legendary names in North Carolina radio including Charlie Brown, Dale Van Horn, Pat Patterson, Russ Spooner, Gary Edens, Tommy Walker, Rick Dees, and others.

WKIX changed format to Country in the summer of 1981 and became the first significant country station in the Raleigh market. After several years of ratings success, WQDR (94.7 FM) changed to country and shortly after, WKIX went oldies.

From 1990 to 1995 the format was satellite adult standards with some talk shows and sports programming. The letters changed to WYLT in 1994 when the co-owned FM station traded letters with the AM.^[4] The station went all-talk in 1995 but gradually added more sports programming^[5] before becoming an all-sports radio station in April 1998.

WRBZ celebrated 10 years in the sports radio format on April 10, 2008, with a special guest hosting appearance by The Fabulous Sports Babe, who has largely been in retirement since 2001.^[6]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• WRBZ official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WRBZ
• Radio Locator Information on WRBZ
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WRBZ

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