History
Early years
WIBX began broadcasting on December 5, 1925. [6] Its call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs, and the station was originally owned by Grid Leak, Inc., a local radio dealer. The company put the station on the air to provide programming for customers who bought radios. WIBX's facilities were housed at the store. The following April, Grid Leak transferred the station to a subsidiary, WIBX, Inc., and a month later a new studios were opened at the Hotel Utica. [6] Initially operating at 1460 kilocycles, WIBX moved to 1280 kHz in late 1926, and then to 1260 kHz in April 1927. [6] Among Central New York radio stations, only WSYR is older, going on the air in 1922.
The Boston Store acquired the station in early 1928, a move intended to keep WIBX in Utica. That April, the station was taken over by John C. Drummond. [6] The Federal Radio Commission moved WIBX to 1200 kHz on November 11. On December 1, the station moved its studios to the First National Bank Building. [6] The Buffalo Broadcasting Corporation, which operated several stations in Buffalo, New York, including WGR, WKBW, and WMAK, acquired WIBX in August 1929. In March 1931, the station was sold to a partnership of Percy B. Brown and Scott Howe Bowen. [6] Bowen soon acquired Brown's stake; his family would maintain ownership for nearly five decades. [6]
CBS Affiliation
On October 14, 1934, WIBX became a network affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). [7] Through the Golden Age of Radio, the station carried the CBS network's line up of dramas, comedies, soap operas, game shows, sports and big band remotes, as well as newscasts.
WIBX remained a CBS Radio Network affiliate for 76 years. [8]
Power Increase
The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) moved WIBX to 1230 kHz on March 29, 1941. [6] However, on this frequency, the station remained at low-power, 250 watts, as had been the case at 1200 kHz [6] ). That meant it could not be easily heard in nearby Rome at night, leading the Rome Sentinel to apply for a 5,000-watt station serving both cities in 1946. [9] Afraid that the new station, which eventually became WRUN, would prove more attractive for CBS, WIBX sought to upgrade to its own 5,000-watt facility. [10]
On May 2, 1947, the Federal Communications Commission granted WIBX a move to 950 kHz from a transmitter site in Whitesboro, New York, with the new facility going on the air in early 1948. [6] The 1230 frequency was relocated to nearby Little Falls, and would return to the air in 1952 when WLFH (now WIXT) signed-on. The WIBX studios would relocate to Whitesboro as well in the early 1960s. [6] An FM sister station at 98.7, WIBQ (now WLZW), was added January 1, 1974. [11] [12] An earlier WIBX-FM at 96.9 FM first signed on in October 1946, but left the air during the early 1950s, when few people owned FM radios. [6]
Sportswatch
WIBX included in its line up the sports program Sportswatch, which debuted in the 1950s and included among its numerous hosts Bill O'Donnell, Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, Tim Roye, Bob Papa, Jim Jackson, and Mike Haynes. Sportswatch ended its run in January 2013. [13]
All-Talk Format
The Bowen family sold WIBX to Marathon Communications in 1979. [6] Soon afterward, the station's longstanding full service middle of the road format began evolving away from music in favor of increased news, talk, and sports programming. After REBS, Inc. acquired WIBX in 1985, music programming was dropped entirely, outside of the station's Sunday morning Polish language program, Polonaise. [6] Maritime Broadcasting bought the station in 1988. [6] The station was then sold to 950 Communications Corporation in 1992, [14] to Forever Broadcasting in 1996, [15] and to Regent Communications (the predecessor to Townsquare Media) in 1999. [16] Regent moved its Utica-area stations to studios in Marcy, New York, in 2003. [6] WIBX ended its long affiliation with CBS on February 28, 2011, when it joined Fox News Radio.
In 2015, WIBX reached an agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Mission Broadcasting, whose stations are managed by Nexstar under shared services and local marketing agreements, to share programming, allowing Nexstar-owned Channel 33 WFXV to simulcast WIBX's morning show starring Bill Keeler, while WIBX began simulcasting Mission-owned WUTR Channel 20's 6 p.m. newscast. [17] Citing closed-captioning expenses, WFXV dropped the simulcast of Keeler's show on January 4, 2016, but reinstated it May 9, 2016. [18] [19] Keeler's show was dropped again in 2022 when WFXV began simulcasting Morning in America from corporate sibling NewsNation, but WIBX continues to simulcast WUTR's 6 p.m. newscast.
