WBBF

WBBF (1120 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Buffalo, New York. It broadcasts with a power of 1,000 watts, but it is a daytimer, required to sign off at sunset. AM 1120 is reserved for Class A clear channel station KMOX in St. Louis, Missouri. WBBF programming was previously carried on FM translator station W262CM at 100.3 MHz in Buffalo; that translator has since been reassigned to WECK. WBBF is owned by Cumulus Media and, since returning from being knocked off the air in 2019, has simulcast classic hits-formatted sister station WHTT-FM as Classic Hits 104.1.

WBBF
CityBuffalo, New York
Broadcast areaBuffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area
Frequency1120 kHz
BrandingClassic Hits 104.1 WHTT
SloganBuffalo's Classic Hits
Programming
FormatClassic hits (simulcast of WHTT)
Ownership
OwnerCumulus Media
(Radio License Holding CBC, LLC)
History
First air date
1947
Former call signs
WWOL, WHTT, WMNY
Call sign meaning
Buffalo BuFfalo
Technical information
ClassD
Power1,000 watts day only
Links
WebcastListen live
Websitewhtt.com

The WBBF call sign is perhaps better known and remembered in Upstate New York for its long association with a Rochester radio station, now known as WROC AM 950. It was Rochester's main Top 40 radio station and its ratings leader from the late 1950s through the mid-1970s.

History

The station now known as WBBF signed on in 1947 as WWOL. In 1954, it got an FM counterpart, 104.1 WWOL-FM (now WHTT-FM). During the 1990s, the station simulcast WHTT-FM as WHTT. The station was sold to Mercury Communications in the 1990s and changed its format to a brokered programming business format, using the call sign WMNY.

The WBBF call letters were used on several radio stations in nearby Rochester for over fifty years, including stations now known as WROC, WBZA and most recently, WFKL, which dropped the call sign in early 2005. Then-WMNY picked up the WBBF calls shortly thereafter.

The station had been a part of the Totally Gospel Radio Network from September 1996 until December 2006. Totally Gospel Network moved to a stronger 24-hour signal in Western New York on sister station 1270 WHLD as well as other stations across the U.S., including FM station WFWO in 2010.

In 2007, a Spanish-language Christian music and talk station was launched by Totally Gospel Radio Network. All of the Spanish-language programming on WBBF which was initially produced by the Totally Gospel Radio Network was sold to Assemblia Iglesia, a local Hispanic ministry headed by Pastor Sam Rivera.

When Cumulus Media switched WHLD from adult standards to CBS Sports Radio early in 2013, the company planned to move the former WHLD format to WBBF, but important people in the Spanish speaking community wrote to Cumulus about the station's value to the people. The ministry's programming remained.[1]

The original Totally Gospel Radio Network format returned to the airwaves on WBBF-AM in January 2016 during drive times with a blend of Urban Gospel and Hispanic Christian programming throughout the week. Totally Gospel Network returned as the primary format on WBBF as of September 2017.

WBBF went silent July 16, 2019 and resumed broadcasting December 20. It has again simulcast WHTT as temporary programming since the AM station returned to air, identified only in station identification.

References
  1. Kwiatkowski, Jane (2013-01-14). "Hispanic radio station fights for its survival". Buffalo News. Retrieved 2013-01-24.

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