Blizzard of '77

[Philip_Airtime]

I decided to start a new thread, rather than reply to Mike Radnowski's post in the Dan Neaverth discussion, because what I have to say has nothing to do with Dan. Indeed, Dan and the rest of the KB crew did great work. But the legendary storm also created a new player in the radio news market in the late 1970s -- WEBR. The station had been purchased by Western New York Public Broadcasting the previous year. The all-news format was operating for just a few months when the storm hit. And the young, aggressive team of reporters at WEBR -- combined with such veteran talent as John Gill and Jack Mahl -- made their mark with non-stop coverage. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to hear it live. I wasn't in Buffalo at the time. But I heard tapes later on. The Blizzard made WEBR. I remember hearing that WEBR had the largest audience of any public radio station in the country in the late '70s. Granted, NPR was just getting started itself back then, and most public radio stations had very small audiences. And WEBR was more like a commercial all-news outlet like WINS or WCBS than a public station. But, man, did it sound gound! I'm sure our friend, Al Wallack, might be able to shed more light on those days at WEBR. I always wanted to work there but never did. But I just wanted to point out that just as the Blizzard of '77 allowed KB to shine, the storm also introduced WEBR to a whole new audience.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

I decided to start a new thread, rather than reply to Mike Radnowski's post in the Dan Neaverth discussion, because what I have to say has nothing to do with Dan. Indeed, Dan and the rest of the KB crew did great work. But the legendary storm also created a new player in the radio news market in the late 1970s -- WEBR. The station had been purchased by Western New York Public Broadcasting the previous year. The all-news format was operating for just a few months when the storm hit. And the young, aggressive team of reporters at WEBR -- combined with such veteran talent as John Gill and Jack Mahl -- made their mark with non-stop coverage. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to hear it live. I wasn't in Buffalo at the time. But I heard tapes later on. The Blizzard made WEBR. I remember hearing that WEBR had the largest audience of any public radio station in the country in the late '70s. Granted, NPR was just getting started itself back then, and most public radio stations had very small audiences. And WEBR was more like a commercial all-news outlet like WINS or WCBS than a public station. But, man, did it sound gound! I'm sure our friend, Al Wallack, might be able to shed more light on those days at WEBR. I always wanted to work there but never did. But I just wanted to point out that just as the Blizzard of '77 allowed KB to shine, the storm also introduced WEBR to a whole new audience.

There's a link to an aircheck of the Blizzard of 77' in another thread, but it can also be heard here:
www.rockradioscrapbook.com