| City of license | Buffalo, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Buffalo-Niagara Falls |
| Branding | AM 1400 Solid Gold Soul |
| Frequency | 1400 kHz |
| Format | Urban Oldies |
| Audience share | 1.0 (Sp'08 P2, R&R[1]) |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 56104 |
| Former callsigns | WXBX (1990-1991) WGKT (1991-1993) |
| Affiliations | ABC Radio |
| Owner | Entercom Buffalo License, LLC |
| Sister stations | WBEN, WGR, WWKB, WTSS, WKSE |
| Website | Official website |
WWWS (1400 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Rhythmic Oldies format. Licensed to Buffalo, New York, USA, the station serves the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. The station is currently owned by Entercom and features programing from ABC Radio.[2][3]
Contents |
WWWS went on the air in 1934 as WBNY, and has featured an assortment of famous radio personalities including John Otto, Danny Neaverth and Casey Kasem. During its tenure the radio frequency has featured numerous callsigns (most notably WYSL, which was the station's calls through the mid-1980s) and disparate formats, ranging from Beautiful Music to Top 40 to heavy metal, to its present format of "Solid Gold Soul".
In the 1960s and early 1970s the station was owned by top 40 format innovator Gordon McLendon, whose ownership caused many of its personalities to use the station as a springboard to national or international prominence. In a particularly singular example of the station's wide impact, in 1962 dj Ron Baxley after recommendations from WYSL's then-owner, Gordon McLendon, became programme manager for the offshore pirate radio station Radio Nord, beaming broadcasts to Stockholm, Sweden. Radio Nord was financed by McLendon (well known for helming legendary Top 40 stations in the continental U.S. such as KLIF in Dallas, Texas and WAKY in Louisville, Kentucky) and Clint Murchison of Dallas, Texas. Meanwhile back in Buffalo, young personalities who would later become prominent on radio and television in the upstate New York region, including Kevin O'Connell, George Hamberger and Jim McLaughlin, got their first foothold in Buffalo (then a top-20 radio market) at WYSL. The station's ability to develop emerging talent made it competitive in the immediate Buffalo city and inner-ring suburban area despite a weak signal, especially when compared with 50,000 watt format rival WKBW, which could blanket upstate New York by day and the eastern seaboard of North America by night.
(The WYSL calls would end up on a news-talk station in rural Livingston County, serving the nearby Rochester metro area, in 1987, not long after the Buffalo station dropped the call sign.)
In the 80s, this channel was known as 14Rock.
The frequency is perhaps most infamously known for a one-year period (from Sept. '90 to Sept. '91) when it operated as 14X Rebel Radio. Under the call letters WXBX, the station broadcast a mix of hard rock and heavy metal just before Grunge music began to dominate the airwaves. Ted Shredd, the afternoon drive DJ on 14X, would go on to work at WEDG (103.3 The Edge) as part of the popular "Shredd and Ragan" show. In 1991 the station began simulcasting sister station WUFX (which would become WEDG), and in 1993 the call letters changed to WWWS.
WWWS runs a Urban oldies/soul music format. It has a local jock, "The Doctor" James Cornelius, in the afternoons, and features Walt Love's syndicated programs on weekends.
The WWWS call letters, which stand for "W-3 Soul", were once used by a station in Saginaw, Michigan, now WTLZ. The station aired a similar format to the current WWWS.
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||