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WBBR (1130 kHz) is a Class A clear-channel AM broadcasting radio station licensed to New York, New York. It serves as the flagship station of Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg L.P.'s radio service. The station offers general and financial news reports 24-hours a day, along with local information and interviews with corporate executives, economists, and industry analysts.
WBBR broadcasts with 50,000 watts, the maximum authorized power for AM stations, from a four-tower antenna array located in Carlstadt, New Jersey. A single tower is used during the day, at night, power is fed to all four towers in a directional pattern to protect KWKH in Shreveport, Louisiana, the other Class A station at 1130 AM. Even with this restriction, it can be heard across much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada, but is strongest in the Northeast. Studios are located at 731 Lexington Avenue ("Bloomberg Tower") in Midtown Manhattan.
WNEW debuted February 13, 1934, as "New York's newest radio station", and with new call sign representing its city of license, NEWark, NEW Jersey. The station had rights to 6/7ths time, with the other 1/7th time assigned to WHBI. "WNEW Takes Air With Radio Review", Broadcasting, February 15, 1934, page 8. WNEW was known for its popular adult music selection as well as its staff of radio personalities (including Martin Block, Dee Finch, Gene Rayburn, Gene Klavan, Al "Jazzbo" Collins, Ted Brown and William B. Williams), as well as for developing modern morning radio. In addition to its music and entertainment programming, WNEW featured an award-winning news staff and became "The Voice of New York Sports" for its coverage of New York Giants football team as well as the New York Rangers hockey and New York Knicks basketball.
WNEW was acquired in 1934 by advertising executive Milton H. Biow and watch manufacturer Bulova, under the name The Greater New York Broadcasting Company. It also acquired the Manhattan studios at 501 Madison Avenue which had been constructed for the recently failed Amalgamated Broadcasting System. New York socialite Bernice Judis was hired as WNEW's first general manager, making her a rare female executive during the "Golden Age of Radio". The call sign remained the same, to represent "the NEWest thing in radio". The new owners moved the license to New York City, though for all intents and purposes it had been a New York City station since its launch.
As an independent radio station, WNEW lacked the funds larger networks National Broadcasting Company, Columbia Broadcasting System and Mutual Broadcasting System used to produce daily programming, such as comedy shows, soap operas, game shows and dramatic programs. However, Judis was not discouraged, and welcomed the opportunity to develop her own schedule of innovative programming that included creating the first all-night radio show, dubbed Stan Shaw's Milkman's Matinee, and cultivating a line-up of popular morning radio show personalities. In 1935, WNEW pioneered the concept of a disc jockey when staff announcer Martin Block needed to fill time between news bulletins during his coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping trial of Bruno Hauptmann. Block did not have access to a live orchestra to play music during the breaks as most network stations did, so he played records instead. Soon afterward, he piloted a 15-minute experimental show called the Make Believe Ballroom, during which he played records from popular bands and singers, posed as a live performance in an imaginary ballroom. During Block's tenure as host of Make Believe Ballroom, the show attracted 25% of the listening audience in New York City. The show continued in sporadic runs until the station's end in 1992.
In 1936, as the popularity of recorded music grew, WNEW was the defendant in a lawsuit initiated by bandleaders Paul Whiteman, Sammy Kaye and Fred Waring. They claimed that the playing of records on radio broadcasts was undermining performers' network contracts, which often called for exclusive services. The court ruled that WNEW, after purchasing each record, was allowed to broadcast it regardless of the resistance from artists. WNEW's victory subsequently authorized radio stations across the country to start playing recorded music and brought about the modern radio programming landscape.
As of January 1, 1940, WNEW was licensed on 1250 kHz for 2,500 watts by day, and 1,000 watts at night. "List of Radio Broadcast Stations, by Frequency" (January 1, 1940, edition), Federal Communications Commission, page 44. On March 29, 1941, the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) went into effect, which moved the stations on 1250 kHz to 1280 kHz, with WNEW now authorized for 5,000 watts both day and night. "Assignments of United States Standard Band Broadcast Stations Listed By Frequency", page 1433.
In 1942, Judis set up a broadcast desk at the New York Daily News and WNEW became one of the first stations to carry hourly newscasts, something that would become commonplace in the industry over the next fifteen years. The station ended its association with the Daily News in 1958 and went on to build its own news department with 13 reporters and writers.
Through the 1950s and 1960s, WNEW's programming was largely based on a personality-driven format, with a line-up of DJs who were ground-breaking at the time. Comedian Dee Finch teamed up with Gene Rayburn, and later Gene Klavan, on the long-running morning show Anything Goes. It often playfully mocked its own advertisers, who in turn were still eager to have their products touted on the popular show.
During this time, pop music was dividing between rock and roll and popular standards. Some stations moved to a predominantly rock and roll format and became known as "Top 40" stations, where the best-selling songs were played frequently, while others played popular adult standards, along with the softer hits from the current charts, earning the name "Middle of the Road" or MOR for short. DJs Ted Brown, Al "Jazzbo" Collins and William B. Williams helped define the MOR musical character of WNEW, lending their own "professionalism and elegance" to popular standards music.
Long-time general manager Bernice Judis left WNEW in 1959, and was replaced by John Van Buren Sullivan, who started the station's affiliation with the New York Giants football team in 1960. Since home games were blacked out on television, as much as 60% of the New York radio audience relied on WNEW for play-by-play game coverage. WNEW later aired Mets, Rangers and Knicks games, as "The Voice of New York Sports" for more than 30 years.
By the mid-1960s, contemporary artists like Bobby Vinton, Connie Francis, Wayne Newton, Steve Lawrence, Andy Williams and Dinah Washington were added, as well as softer songs by rock artists like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Association, The 5th Dimension and Petula Clark were heard. The station also played a couple of big band songs from the 1930s and 1940s per hour. Beginning in 1965, WNEW cut back on big bands, playing them only occasionally. The station also cut back on standards artists, airing them about four times each hour. The airstaff was ordered to stop playing standards and big bands from their own personal collections and were ordered to remove them from the station. WNEW focused more on soft rock and played more charting hits on the Adult Contemporary music charts.
With FM radio taking a larger share of young listeners, WNEW as an AM station opted to return to its roots in pop standards in 1976, reinstating Milkman's Matinee on overnights. In October 1979, Make Believe Ballroom was reinstated in middays. Initially, the station mixed in additional big bands and standards in with the AC format. In 1980, WNEW slowly began reducing AC hits. Later in the fall, the station went to all big bands and standards with the exception of morning and afternoon drive times. Million Dollar Weekends also became strictly Standards and Big Bands. In January 1981 WNEW converted to big bands and standards 24 hours a day and deepened the selection of songs.
By 1981, WNEW focused on album cuts by standards artists. The morning show focused on more hit based easy listening standards with some big bands mixed in. Middays played music from the 1930s and 1940s, with a mix of big bands and crooners. Afternoons concentrated on a mix of deep cuts by vocalists along with some big bands. Late nights featured traditional jazz. On overnights, WNEW launched a jazz show in 1986, blending traditional, modern and smooth jazz.
WNEW was separated from its television sister station in March 1986, when WNEW-TV and Metromedia's other television outlets came under the ownership of Fox Broadcasting Company, then owned by 20th Century Fox and controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Two years later in 1988, WNEW went through a major ownership change as Metromedia sold the station to Westwood One for $22 million. Westwood One then sold a half-interest to media entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman for $11 million, while retaining operational control.
Even with new additions to programming such as Larry King's overnight radio show, the station's ratings continued to decline. Westwood One was forced to cut costs and downsize staff in an effort to attract potential buyers. By 1988, WNEW began to focus on bigger hits by standards artists. The music focused more on 50s and 60s easy listening artists. In 1990, WNEW began mixing in soft hits by baby boomer pop artists such as Neil Diamond, The Carpenters, The Righteous Brothers, Carole King, Barry Manilow, Lionel Richie and Linda Ronstadt. Late in 1991, WNEW backed off this type of music and focused again on traditional standards artists. WNEW continued cutting staff and local news in an attempt to remain profitable.
After Larry King, beginning at 2:00 am. Saturday, WNEW began simulcasting WYNY for three days. The station broke away only for New York Giants football, Talknet, and Larry King. On December 15, the sale of WNEW to Bloomberg became final, with the station continuing to simulcast WYNY until 4:00 pm. After airing the Perry Como Christmas Special, shows from Talknet, and the first hour of Larry King, the station signed off at 11:59 pm. The airing of The Larry King Show ended abruptly and the pre-recorded voice of engineering director Alan Kirschner was broadcast, stating: "At this time, 1130 WNEW New York will leave the air forever. Thanks for your support over the years. This is WNEW, New York."
At the transmitter site, engineer Rene Tetro then turned off the transmitter for two minutes, switching to the new feed from the Bloomberg offices. The station signed back on the air at 12:01am, with the new call sign WBBR, and began simulcasting WQEW (1560 AM), then owned by The New York Times. In anticipation of the end of WNEW, WQEW had begun broadcasting a standards format some two weeks earlier. Over the next several weeks, WQEW asked listeners to 1130 to switch to 1560. The simulcast ended at 5 am on January 4, 1993, when WBBR's business news format debuted.
In October 2000, WBBR announced a shift from business news to a general all-news radio format, competing against WHSQ (880 AM) and WINS (1010 AM); a fourth all-news station, WKDM (1380 AM), offered a Spanish-language version of the format. Ahead of this shift, WBBR, which had largely operated off of a hard drive since its 1993 launch, moved to a live presentation from 6am to 6pm; it also hired several former WCBS and WINS staffers, with morning drive being co-anchored by former WCBS anchor Ben Farnsworth. Bloomberg also gave out 1.2 million radios to promote the station. Following the shift, WBBR's ratings remained below that of WINS and WCBS; in November 2001, Bloomberg announced the station would return to an emphasis on business news, though it denied the move had any connection to Michael Bloomberg, the company's owner, becoming New York City's mayor. By March 2002, WBBR's programming during non-market hours began to emphasize talk radio, with hosts that included Caroline Baum, Ellis Henican, Jim Cramer, and Ed Koch.
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