WHAM (AM)

WHAM is a clear-channel talk radio station in Rochester, New York, owned by Clear Channel Communications. Its 50,000-watt transmitter is located in Chili, New York, and the station broadcasts on 1180 kHz.

The station first went on the air in 1922. While not the first station to be licensed to the Rochester market (that distinction belongs to the defunct WHQ), it is the oldest surviving station in the area. The selection of the "WHAM" call letters came from a suggestion from industrialist George Eastman (founder of the Eastman Kodak Co., based in Rochester). He helped the University of Rochester launch the station and thought the "WHAM" name would prove to be a clever marketing tool.

The station's 50,000-watt signal covers most of the eastern half of North America at night.

WHAM has ties to two of the city's television stations. It spawned the city's first station, WHAM-TV, in 1949; that station is now WROC-TV, the area's CBS affiliate. In 2005, the area's ABC affiliate, WOKR-TV, changed its calls to WHAM-TV; Clear Channel bought the station in 2002 and sold its entire television group to Providence Equity Partners in 2007; the two stations still have a news partnership.

Format

Founded by Jordan Barney working in behalf of the University of Rochester in 1922, WHAM has grown to become the dominant AM newstalk station serving Rochester and the Genesee Valley. The station was sold in the mid-1920s to Stromberg-Carlson Corporation, a maker of radio and telecommunications equipment then based in Rochester. Stromberg-Carlson expanded the station's operations and boosted its signal to 5,000 watts in 1927. It was relocated from 1080 to 1150 kHz in the overall national reorganization of the AM radio band by the Federal Radio Commission in 1928. Later, in 1933, WHAM was allowed to increase power first to 25,000 watts, then to its current 50,000 watt level. In the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement shuffling of the AM band in March 1941, WHAM changed frequency once more to its current 1180 kHz.

Like its Clear Channel sister stations, WHAM carries the standardized Clear Channel talker lineup of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Coast to Coast AM. However, these programs do not necessarily air live or in their entirety. Only the first two hours of Beck are heard, Savage's program is heard on a two-hour delay, Hannity's show is aired in the late-night hours, and most notably, WHAM is one of only a few stations that airs Limbaugh's show on a two-hour tape delay. Weekend programming includes a line of nationally syndicated shows such as Coast to Coast AM, The Mutual Fund Show with Adam Bold, Dr. Dean Edell and Kim Komando.

Its radio signals can be picked up quite strongly in portions of southern Ontario. This gives some Canadian listeners the ability to hear programs such as Limbaugh and Savage which Canadian stations cannot legally carry due to that country's laws and regulations against broadcast of what the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (Canada's official broadcast regulator) regard as racist, sexist or prejudicial "hate speech".

In addition to the syndicated programming, WHAM boasts a local morning news team, an afternoon news magazine, a midday talk show hosted by Bob Lonsberry, and a sports talk show hosted by Rochester Democrat and Chronicle columnist Bob Matthews along with a rotating co-host, among whom are Marv Levy, Chuck Dickerson and Fred Smerlas.

With Clear Channel launching simulcasts of news-talk radio stations in other New York markets (WGY-FM in Albany, New York & WSYR-FM in Syracuse, New York), it is rumoured WHAM-AM will simulcast its programming on one of Clear Channel's weaker-performing FMs in the region, dropping its music format and changing calls to WHAM-FM. However, no announcement of such plans has yet been made.

External links

• WHAM 1180 Home Page
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WHAM
• Radio-Locator Information on WHAM
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WHAM