WEBR

WEBR (1440

By day, WEBR transmits with 1,000 watts of power, using a non-directional antenna pattern. At night, to avoid interfering with other stations on 1440 AM, power is reduced to 55 watts. The transmitter is on Buffalo Avenue (NY State Route 384) in Niagara Falls, near South Hyde Park Boulevard.^[3]

History

As WJJL

On December 21, 1947; 76 years ago (1947-12-21), the station

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Canadian native Thomas Talbot worked for Laux as a salesperson at the station. Eventually, Talbot became sales manager and then owner of WJJL, which was incorporated as the Niagara Frontier Broadcasting Corp. He also owned

Talbot began one of the first radio “two-way” telephone talk shows in the United States in the early 1950s, which was called Party Line. There was an eight-second delay in order to avoid potential problem calls.

The mid-morning show was named Viewpoint in the 1960s and continues to be hosted by longtime Niagara Falls fixture and former news director Tom Darro.^[4]

Talbot died in 1976, and the station was taken over by his widow, Norma Talbot.

An 18-year-old aspiring country musician named Ramblin' Lou Schriver was one of the station's early on-air personalities. In 1970, he bought his own station, WXRL 1300 AM, in Lancaster, New York.^[5]

In WJJL's heyday, the station was locally programmed for Niagara Falls with a full line-up of live, local personalities. An active news department covered Niagara Falls and the surrounding

The station aired a number of live ethnic and specialty programs on weekends. They included the Spanish language Ecos Borincanos program aimed at the Puerto Rican community, which enjoyed a 40-year run, along with the Italian Mattinata D’Oro and Pit Stop for auto-racing fans. Later, Casa Rico, the nation's longest running Italian language program, moved to WJJL, and it continues today on WEBR, renamed "Italian Gold" with Tony Occhiuto as host.

Former personalities

WJJL was a launching pad for many future top talents. These include former News Director and Viewpoint host Dave McKinley, later an

The Talbot family sold WJJL to M.J. Phillips, who owned the station from the 1990s until 2020 and operated it as an oldies music station. Unlike other oldies stations, WJJL maintained its focus on 1950s and early 1960s music throughout Phillips's ownership, resisting the format drift to classic hits that most other oldies stations experienced. In the 21st century, Phillips encountered financial problems (for a time he was listed as a debtor in possession of the WJJL license) and frequently tangled with a vexatious litigant named Joann who made repeated false filings with the FCC in a failed attempt to wrest control of the station from Phillips.^[6]

After WJJL's Niagara Falls offices and studios were destroyed in a fire in 1999, Phillips moved the station to West Seneca, a Buffalo suburb, which is 30 miles from Niagara Falls.

In 2009, WJJL's morning show began broadcasting from a satellite studio in the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in Niagara Falls.^[7] WJJL also carried a daily talk show by former mayor Vince Anello, following Anello's 2011 release from prison for corruption, which continued after the format flip to WEBR until Anello's 2021 death.^[8]

From 2000 to 2009, WJJL broadcast weekly games of the City of Buffalo Public School's Harvard Cup football league. The Harvard Cup championship was traditionally played on Thanksgiving. WJJL continued its weekly coverage of Western New York High School Football with a “Game of the Week,” focusing on the teams of the former Harvard Cup League. The games featured Rich Kozak as play by play man with Hall of Fame Coach Art Serotte as color analyst. Roger Weiss served as guest analyst and half-time host and “Dr.” John Pluta was the sideline reporter. The broadcasts also featured Sean Bruso and Chuck Dockery. The broadcasts helped to foster the Harvard Cup Hall of Fame and HarvardCup.com as the first dedicated website devoted exclusively to high school coverage on the Western New York area. ^[9]

As WEBR

Adult standards and MOR period

In 2020, Phillips sold the station to William Yuhnke, who re-launched the station's online presence and began streaming the station on the Internet.

WEBR's music playlist initially focused on traditional pop, classic jazz, occasional beautiful music instrumentals, vocal harmony groups, and selections from the Great American Songbook. The station broadened the playlist in 2021, adding more soft rock, doo-wop and adult contemporary selections. Another revamp of the playlist, dubbed the "Summer Sound of the City," came with the station's first anniversary in 2021, reviving a different set of jingles from the original WEBR and placing an even greater emphasis on soft oldies, with California sound and yacht rock titles. In January 2022, WEBR brought back the Great American Songbook and traditional pop playlist on Sunday evenings, an arrangement that lasted one year.

Addition of FM translator

In February 2023, WEBR acquired the FM translator that had previously belonged to WLVL (which Yuhnke had acquired at the same time)^[20] and flipped to a more explicit classic hits presentation, while maintaining some of its MOR leanings. Venturoli was named program director later that spring; Venturoli then added Mike Jacobs as the new afternoon host, replacing Wahl.^[21]

References