WECK

WECK (1230 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Cheektowaga, New York and serving the Buffalo–Niagara Falls Metropolitan Area. The station airs a locally-produced and locally hosted oldies music format. The studios, offices and transmitter are located on Genesee Street in suburban Cheektowaga. WECK's programming is simulcast on three FM translator stations at 100.1, 100.5, and 102.9 MHz. The station is owned by Radio One Buffalo, LLC, headed by William Ostrander, also known as Buddy Shula.

History

Early years

In August 1956, the station first signed on as WNIA. The call letters referred to nearby Niagara Falls. The station was founded by Gordon P. Brown, who also owned WSAY (now WXXI) in Rochester, New York.  At both Brown's stations, in Buffalo and Rochester, the on-air personalities were assigned stage names.  Those names stayed the same, although the talent, typically less experienced broadcasters, came and went.  Names like Mike Melody, Tom Thomas and Jerry Jack were used for years on the stations, with different people assuming those names; one of the Mike Melodies, Roger Christian, went on to fame as a songwriter after leaving Buffalo. (The later Roger Christian who achieved more lasting fame in Buffalo radio and currently works at WECK is a different person who uses the Roger Christian name as an alias.)

In 1979, the programming shifted to a Top 40/oldies hybrid format. Original air personalities included Chuck McCoy, Jeff Reinhardt (Program Director), Mark Phillips, J.R. Russ, Barbra Lynne and part-time announcers Art Zelasko, Mike Brown, Ricky Banks, David J. Miller, Jon Park, Dr. Jim Rose and newscaster Pam Kloc. As a way to connect the station locally, the station aligned with a popular local sandwich consisting of roast beef on a Kimmelweck roll or "Beef on Weck," the station switched its call letters to "WECK," branding itself as "The Roll That Rocks."

Sale to Quid Me Broadcasting

After Brown's death, WNIA was sold to Quid Me Broadcasting, a group headed by local broadcast sales executive Chet Musialowski. Musialowski served as General Manager between (1980–1988).

Music of Your Life

In 1981, as listening to contemporary music on AM radio declined, WECK began airing Adult Standards using the syndicated "Music of Your Life" format, created by record executive and jingle writer Al Ham.  Ham had created the format in 1978 and it came to air on 200 stations across the United States.

The format consisted primarily of big hits by standards artists such as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Eddie Fisher, Perry Como, Andy Williams, McGuire Sisters, The Four Lads, The Three Suns, Peggy Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Mel Torme, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett, Nat "King" Cole, Patti Page, Doris Day, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Vaughn Monroe, Tony Martin, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, The Ames Brothers, Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, Guy Mitchell and Frankie Laine among others.  Also, groups from the Big Band era of the 1930s and 1940s were played several times an hour, which included such artists Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and Sammy Kaye among many others. The format also played a very limited selection of pop.  Most of these artists were quasi-rock and rollers such as Connie Francis, Jaye P. Morgan, Ray Charles, Pat Boone, Bobby Vinton, Jerry Vale, Vic Damone, Johnnie Ray, Matt Monro, Teresa Brewer, the Platters, Bobby Darin, Kay Starr, Sarah Vaughn, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, and others. Though most of the songs played were recorded roughly between 1940 to 1965, a few songs by later artists like Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, and The Carpenters were also heard.

The station was given a regular formula to implement.  Ham's strategy worked well. More stations joined the network during the 1980s.  Another strategy developed by Ham in the early 1980s for his national format was having recorded messages by the very stars being played, such as, "This is Perry Como, and I'd like to thank you for making us all a part of the Music of Your Life."

In the meantime, J.R. Russ was put in charge of the local implementation of Ham's format and the station maintained a live on-air staff including Jim Nowicki in mornings (and earlier, Guy Michaels), Joe Kozma, Aaron Christopher (Russ' air name), Tim White, Dave Prescott (radio name of the late Joseph Skurzewski), Lynn Dixon, Ray Rogers, News Director Bruce Allen, Dave Teresa and Sports Director Walt Hankin.

Ham's syndicated music format was a big hit with of Buffalo's large adult population. WECK grew from a "no show" in the ratings at the time of the format change (on 4/4/81) to an all-time high of #4 in the market in late 1983. The trade publication "Inside Radio" touted the headlines: "WECK takes town by storm" and "WECK skyrockets into contention." Radio and Records designated WECK as a "Fastest Mover" up the ratings ladder.

The 1,000-watt station garnered a 7.2 share of 12+ all listeners, beating most FM, and every area AM station (including 50,000-watt WWKB) except #1 WBEN. The Radio and Records Directory also listed WECK as #4 in the entire U.S. in Average Quarter Hour listening (AQH) among stations with similar formats.

After several years of success airing Ham's format, the ownership decided to create a locally-produced version of the adult standards format. The station used the station's collection of music from previous owner Gordon Brown, yielding a 2,000-plus library of titles. The station continued licensing the "Music of Your Life" name, but it shifted from the more familiar songs of the "Music of Your Life" format to a much larger playlist produced in-house. The station's ratings declined with that strategy, because while the station expanded the playlist to a point where much of it was unfamiliar to the audience.

CBS ownership

Quid Me Broadcasting sold the station to CBS Radio in 1988. WECK continued with a nostalgia music format, but became satellite automated, maintaining only a live, local show in morning drive. Portions of the station's programming came from the Music of Your Life network, although the station switched to Westwood One's Adult Standards satellite feed for a time.

The station was sold to Regent Communications along with the rest of the CBS Buffalo radio cluster in 2006. In February 2006, WECK abruptly dropped the standards format. In an attempt to capitalize on the success of sister station WYRK and "own" country formats in the market, WECK switched to the Jones Radio Network classic country format.

From 2005 to 2008, the station aired Buffalo Bisons baseball games, with the Bisons buying air time from the station for their broadcast.

Culver Communications era

On November 5, 2007, Dick Greene, owner of WLVL in nearby Lockport, New York, announced that he had purchased WECK for $1.3 million through his company, Culver Communications. On March 12, 2008, Greene launched a new talk radio format, mixed with local and syndicated programming. WECK made headlines with the hiring of Buffalo radio veterans Harv Moore and Tom Donahue to host its morning show. However, just six months after the switch, Moore was released and replaced by local actress Loraine O'Donnell, who was subsequently terminated in June 2011. Brad Riter and Nick Mendola, former personalities at WGR, were also added to the staff, as was former politician Bill O'Loughlin.

WECK acquired the broadcast radio rights to the University of Buffalo Bulls football and men's basketball games for the 2008 season. In 2009, the station acquired the Buffalo-area rights to New York Yankees baseball through the 2011 season. WECK dropped the rights to the UB Bulls athletics teams and they were picked up by WHLD Niagara Falls in the spring of 2013.

Early programming during the talk era included a show by WLVL host Scott Leffler, a tradio service, a news block hosted by Tom Schuh, and a one-hour midday block of local brokered programming. WGRZ news was simulcast during WECK's talk radio era. Syndicated programming on WECK toward the end of its talk run included ''The Laura Ingraham Show'', Dennis Miller, ''First Light'' and Fox Sports Radio.

On July 12, 2011, Greene ended the talk format. With former operations manager director Tom Schuh rehired as a consultant, WECK returned to the adult standards music format. For its first two years after returning to the music format, WECK's music blend leaned toward a MOR approach, branded as "The Breeze;" among its personalities was WGRZ weather anchor Kevin O'Connell, who voice-tracked afternoon drive until 2012.

Joshua Gregory, also known as Mark Henry, was also a former talk show host, producer, and reporter at WGR and WBEN before joining WECK. He was the last remaining talk show host on the station. His paranormal call-in/interview program aired on Sunday evenings from 2010 to 2013.

In 2013, after WHLD (which was carrying a pure adult standards format at the time) shifted to sports talk, WECK rebranded to its then-current "Timeless" format and reformulated its playlist to reflect an adult standards approach.

Morning host Tom Donahue and Sunday polka music host Ron Dombrowski (who also hosts shows for WXRL during the week and WBBZ-TV on television) continued on WECK, with most other hours covered by the syndicated America's Best Music. In late January 2016, WECK acquired the local broadcast rights to ''Delilah'', the nationally syndicated love-song host who spent the previous two decades on WJYE. The station also aired Canisius College men's basketball.

Sale to Radio One Buffalo

Buddy Shula, an account executive, and air-personality with Entercom, filed with the FCC and announced his intent to purchase WECK and translator 102.9 FM on March 10, 2017. The sale closed May 3, 2017, at a purchase price of $550,000. Among the station's first moves was to hire Dan Neaverth, the longtime market fixture and former morning host at WKBW and WHTT-FM, for a Friday afternoon on-air position. Neaverth remained with the station until 2020.  John Zach, previously WBEN's morning co-host from 1998 to 2016, joined WECK as news director and morning news anchor in July 2017; along with Zach's hiring, the station's national news updates switched from Fox News to CBS News. Zach left the station in February 2018. Steve Cichon filled the position for several months until he departed to focus on his teaching position and was succeeded by Tony Magoo.

Other additions included former WYRK and WHTT-FM morning host Gail Ann Huber as morning co-host, longtime WKBW-TV voice-over artist and air personality, Jon Summers for late mornings, and former WJYE morning host and Program Director Joe Chille for afternoon drive time. The station also re-hired Harv Moore as midday host. Glenn Topolski arrived from WYRK to play a dual role as WECK as program and music director. Former WGR and WKBW radio personality Tom Donahue continued as morning show co-host. WECK shifted from adult standards to a 1960s-centered oldies format, which also played oldies from the '50s and '70s.

In the summer 2018 ratings, WECK climbed to a top ten in Buffalo ratings.

In late April 2018, the FCC granted the station another translator, W263DC (100.5 FM), as a second Metro signal for WECK. The 100.5 translator is licensed to Tonawanda, to enhance coverage in northern suburbs of Buffalo.

In March 2019, WECK added a mobile application for Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, along with voice-activated devices.

Roger Christian, who had spent 43 years at the station now known as WTSS from 1976 to 2019), was hired shortly after his departure from WTSS; Christian was hired as a weekend and fill-in personality. Christian was named morning host in October 2019, later moving to middays after Summers and Moore departed the station.

Donahue returned to the station in April 2020 after a brief time in Texas.

In early March 2020, the FCC granted the purchase of translator W262CM from Cumulus Media for $50,000. The sale closed March 11, 2020. The FCC also granted this translator to be moved from Buffalo to suburban Lancaster at 250 watts. The translator changed frequencies from 100.3 to 100.1 MHz and adopted the call-sign W261EB.

In July 2021, WECK added weather forecasts from WGRZ. In August and September 2021, WECK placed a 3-way tie for #9 in Buffalo, 12 plus, tying 50,000-watt WEDG and WMSX. WECK also ranked #7 in average quarter hour listening in Nielsen July, August, and September 2021.

In October 2021, the station underwent a total rebranding, led by Great Lakes Media, a station acquisition and advisory group, headed by CEO Tom Langmyer and COO Mitch Dolan.  Under Great Lakes Media, the station shifted to a more-focused oldies format (dropping classic hits songs from the late 70s and 80s), with an emphasis on localism and local content from the station's live and local personalities. Joe Chille, who had left the station for a brief stint at his former home on 96.1, returned to WECK to host the afternoon drive program, starting October 4, 2021. Rebranded by Great Lakes Media as "BIG WECK," and positioned as "Buffalo's OLDIES Station," the station now plays popular hit songs from the 60s and 70s with a few quintessential oldies from the late 50s and early 60s. After a successful run working with Great Lakes Media, Shula
decided to return to programming the station.

References

External links

Official website

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{{Oldies Radio Stations in New York

ECK
Oldies radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1956
1956 establishments in New York (state)