Remembering WBEN-FM 102.5

[Gregg]

WBEN-FM 102.5 went on the air as an FM station in 1946. They claim they are the oldest station on the VHF band, going on the air in 1934 as an ultra-shortwave station, before switching to the FM dial even before WWII, according to Wikipedia. For much of its early days it simulcast 930 WBEN, then aired Beautiful Music. But in 1973, WBEN-FM became an automated Top 40 station.

It had no live DJs. It called itself Rock 102. It played an automated format supplied by TM called "Stereo Rock." The format was usually two currents, followed by an announcer saying "That's Donna Summer with Last Dance. And The Rolling Stones did Miss You." Then they'd play a couple more songs, perhaps recurrents or gold. And then go to a spot break. I guess the automation machine switched between the current real, then a recurrent real, back to the current real, then to a gold real. Maybe the current real got played two times in a row sometimes.

The amazing thing was that the ratings were quite good. At some point they overtook the AM Top 40 station, WKBW. They also did better than any live announced Top 40 FM station in the market. And thanks to that 110,000 watt signal on a 1340 foot tower, you could hear them fairly clearly in Toronto. For many years, the Canadian Government didn't allow Top 40 stations on FM, saying FM should be reserved for non-repetitive, non-hit formats. Toronto residents had to get their Top 40 from AM outlets CHUM 1050 or CFTR 680. But if they wanted Top 40 on FM, they'd pull in WBEN-FM. I remember being in Toronto in the 80s and getting my hair cut while WBEN-FM played on the speakers.

WBEN-FM stayed as an automated station well after most other FM Top 40 stations in other markets had DJs. The same was true of WGFM Schenectady. They also used the same format, TM's Stereo Rock, and they also stayed automated well after all the other FM stations in the Albany market had live DJs. They were also very competitive with their FM Top 40 competition, in this case 92.3 WFLY, which featured live DJs.

Eventually WBEN-FM added live DJs in the 1980s and became WMJQ Magic 102, although it was still Top 40, not AC or Soft Rock as the Magic label usually implies. Then in the 90s they switched to Hot AC and the call letters WTSS, where it is today.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Funny to think of all the things than went into automated radio and how easy it is to do these days with computers. Making it so easy to do has kinda taken all the fun (and many errors) out of it.

We ran TM Stereo Rock at a station I worked at in Florida. The #1 reel was the currents and had 2 songs back to back. It was usually programmed coming out of the :07 stop set and maybe the :37 stop set giving 4 currents an hour. The other 3 reels were single songs, re-currents and gold if I remember correctly.

 

[TheBigA]

WKFM 104 ran the same TM package in Syracuse, and was consistently a Top 5 radio station. For a long time they were the only rock station in town, other than WOUR Utica. The obvious give-away to the automation was the single air talent, heard 24/7. He even did time checks and vague weather forecasts. It was licensed to Fulton, but I think the format ran from the co-owned AM in Watertown. Today, this frequency is home to WBBS, the top-rated country station. I think they just celebrated their 20th anniversary.

The package, as I recall, was run from a combination of reels and carts, lots of loose cues and solenoids. Very old tech.

 

[Penrod Rightout]

The former WBEN-FM Rock 102's history is at frequencies up and down the dial - initially they signed on at 92.9 mHz before moving to 106.5 at 105 kilowatts and eventually landing at 102.5 with 110 kilowatts ERP.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Seems like I remember sometime in the early to mid '60's a neighbor of ours had a GE portable FM radio and listened to Classical music on WBEN-FM.

 

[Paul_Warren]

I remember that on most analog AM/FM radio tuners, 930 AM and 102.5 FM were at about the same spot on the dial. If you were on 930 and moved the band switch to FM, it was often right on 102.5. I always wondered if that was intentional.

I fondly remember that monster signal up into Canada. I was vacationing one summer with a friend on a small island in Georgian Bay, off Lake Huron, and all the locals listened to WBEN-FM in part because it was the only station that routinely did weather forecasts for the bay!

 

[biggguy]

In Rochester, where I grew up, WBEN-FM came in like a local- actually had a button set for it in dad's 73 Ford, listening to it all over town, actually converting a few people in the process- but it wasn't the first time I'd heard it.

In the summer of 1974, I was in an Army training camp in Fort Knox, KY, and the hot station there was "Hi-95"- WQHI-FM , with a COL of Elizabethtown, (think Louisville), KY- with, of course the TM Stereo Rock package which I discovered at WBEN-FM later that summer. Later that year I remember catching 99.9 (which was WNOZ from Cortland back in those days) with, you guessed it, Stereo Rock again, and WKFM from Fulton- and every now and again playing the same tunes in the same order. (God, do I miss the Fisher compact stereo I had back then- had the best FM I've ever heard with just a pair of "rabbit ears" as an antenna- actually pulling in Cortland and Fulton from the west side of Rochester).

One question though. I read somewhere that WPXY in Rochester actually had Stereo Rock as well, but I never recall hearing it there. Did they actually have it, and if so, when?

 

[Mike Brewer]

One question though. I read somewhere that WPXY in Rochester actually had Stereo Rock as well, but I never recall hearing it there. Did they actually have it, and if so, when?

It wasn't "Stereo Rock" but a similar-sounding competitor's format. That was in the early 1980s and it was eventually shelved for live DJs.

 

[Yeziknoradio]

So now today, Buffalo's Jack FM has no DJ's and they're somehow bringing in great numbers...(?)

 

[average_listener]

One minor nit to pick. The tower was actually 946 feet high with the FM antenna sitting atop the tower, making the structure 1059 feet overall. Unusual that the TV antenna would be below the FM. Of course being 2700 feet above sea level helped a lot, too.

aL

 

[chas108]

WKFM 104 ran the same TM package in Syracuse, and was consistently a Top 5 radio station. For a long time they were the only rock station in town, other than WOUR Utica. The obvious give-away to the automation was the single air talent, heard 24/7. He even did time checks and vague weather forecasts. It was licensed to Fulton, but I think the format ran from the co-owned AM in Watertown. Today, this frequency is home to WBBS, the top-rated country station. I think they just celebrated their 20th anniversary.

The package, as I recall, was run from a combination of reels and carts, lots of loose cues and solenoids. Very old tech.

IIRC the "single air talent" was John Carucci.

I was there Fall '82 just after Magic 104.7 went live. John was the PD. Can't remember the AM Drive guy who went 6A-Noon. John was Noon-6 and Gary Dunes was 6-Midnight with Jeff Ledsome overnights. I did weekends. The studio had Technics home tables with stylii so bad they could cue-burn albums. Full turn required to reach speed. All the automation and cart decks went thru one pot. Nice King Klipsch speakers, however.

Processing was VERY open...too open IMO.

That Fall, they'd hired a crew to paint the cinder block building...well they flushed out the brushes in the toilet located just off the main control room. For months the smell of turpentine filled the studio every time you'r flush the toilet.

Then somebody tossed a pot of old coffee outside the front door on a frigid winter morning...with the wind (or as I call it, permawind) blowing into the building. A 4-foot by 6-inch brown stain, just to the right of the main door on this freshly painted building, greeted visitors thereafter.

South of Syracuse, Burbach switched WNOZ/Cortland to a clone of its K104/Erie...OK100 (and You Got It!!). Bill Shannon signed the station on stating "We've blown the Nose!" CE Chuck Leavens had the processing dialed in, in a way I've rarely heard before or since. I still have cassettes of those early days.

One day I heard OK100 middayer Jeff O'Brien promote music "coming up over most of this station"...(remember when the TV networks used "over most of these stations?")

OK-100 didn't come into Syracuse so I stole the line and used it on my next show.

The GM, Don DeRosa (air name W. Kevin Stone - he also did fill-ins) wasn't so amused. He immediately hotlined me to remind me that WKFM is NOT "this station!"...yada yada yada...

Fortunately Jeff Ledsome had some contacts with Burbach and said it would be a great training ground. Which it was. Many of us who worked at OK100 ended up in Top 25 markets.

As for WKFM...I believe they were sold sometime in 1983 after 93Q flipped to Top 40.

Hard to imagine an entire swath of the country with no live Top 40 back then. But that was indeed the case. Glad I was there when they went live.

 

[TheBigA]

IIRC the "single air talent" was John Carucci.

I think the original voice was from TM in Dallas. That may have evolved to a local body at some point, especially after 95X signed on.

 

[chas108]

IIRC the "single air talent" was John Carucci.

I think the original voice was from TM in Dallas. That may have evolved to a local body at some point, especially after 95X signed on.

I only heard it in 1982, and I think they went live in September. All I know about the earlier days is how they trumpeted themselves as being "green" because they used transmitter heat to heat the building. Mysteriously missing from that print piece (which exists somewhere in my attic) is how they had to use electric space heaters in several rooms - including the AM studio (WOSC?) - on really cold days. I found the handout somewhere around the building and saved it.

 

[MediaBoy4Radio]

WYSL-FM 103.3 was Buffalo's first FM top 40 voice. I can remember the thousands of fan letters received from Canadian listeners.

 

[theengineer]

I remember WBEN-FM had a guy who did the overnight tracks that called himself the "PSA King" and made a big deal about reading the public service stuff...