WNED-FM (94.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) is a

non-commercial A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that does not, in some sense, involve commerce, at least relative to similar activities that do have a commercial objective or emphasis. For example, advertising-free community ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

. WNED-FM offers a classical music

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

. It is owned by the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association (formerly the Western New York Educational TV Association),

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name, is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is a "fictitious" business name. Registering the fictitious name w ...

Buffalo Toronto Public Media. The organization also operates

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

Channel 17

WNED-TV WNED-TV (channel 17) is a PBS member television station in Buffalo, New York, United States. It is owned by the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association (doing business as Buffalo Toronto Public Media) alongside NPR member WBFO (88.7 ...

and FM 88.7 WBFO (which offers a

news/talk Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

format and programming from

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

). While WNED-FM airs no commercials, it does conduct periodic

pledge drive A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interval ...

s on the air to seek donations for the station. WNED-FM has local hosts in most day-parts, including weekends. Programming on WNED-FM is

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

on WNJA 89.7 FM in Jamestown, New York for listeners in Southwestern New York and some parts of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. WNED-FM's studios and offices are at Horizons Plaza on Lower Terrace in Buffalo, and the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

is off Zimmerman Road in

Hamburg, New York Hamburg is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 56,936. It is named after the city of Hamburg, Germany. The town is on the western border of the county and is south of Buffalo. Ham ...

. WNED-FM and TV also maintain an office in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

for listeners and contributors in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Superpower status

WNED-FM is a

grandfathered A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from t ...

"Superpower" Class B FM radio station, operating at 94,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s. WNED-FM is one of three Buffalo superpower FM stations: 92.9

WBUF WBUF (92.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Buffalo, New York. Its studios are located at the Rand Building in Downtown Buffalo, with its transmitter on Elmwood Avenue in North Buffalo. WBUF is owned by Townsquare Media and broadc ...

, 99.5

WDCX-FM WDCX-FM (99.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Buffalo, New York. The station airs a brokered religious radio format. WDCX-FM is owned by Kimtron, Inc., a division of Crawford Broadcasting. Its studios are located in the Allentown ...

and 102.5

WTSS WTSS (102.5 FM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York, branded as ''Star 102.5''. It airs a hot adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December. It is owned and operated by Audacy ...

. Under current U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules, Class B FM's are not allowed to exceed 50,000 watts ERP. WNED-FM at one time broadcast at 105,000 watts; however in 2012, it increased its antenna height due to "structural modifications" to the tower, at which time it also reduced its power. WNED-FM's signal extends into Canada; as such, the station has listeners in Toronto and around the Niagara Peninsula of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. However, WNED-FM may be difficult to tune in the

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

area, due to adjacent-channel interference from CHKX-FM 94.7.

History

WNED-FM first signed on as a commercial radio station on June 6, 1960, with the

call letters In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...

WEBR-FM. It was a sister station to

WEBR WEBR (1440 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station. Licensed to Niagara Falls, New York, United States, the station serves the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area from studios in Buffalo. The station is currently owned by William Yuhnke, ...

(which at the time was at AM 970, a frequency now occupied by repeater

WDCZ WDCZ is an American radio station in Buffalo, New York broadcasting at 970 kHz. WDCZ has not originated any programming of its own since 2012. The station operated as a commercial station from its launch in 1924 until 1975, then operated as ...

). On September 24, 1971, WEBR-FM was renamed WBCE; on May 21, 1973, it became WREZ, before returning to the WEBR-FM call sign on April 21, 1975. In 1975, the Western New York Educational TV Association bought it and AM 970 WEBR, turning both stations into non-commercial operations. On August 14, 1976, 94.5 was renamed WNED-FM, and the following year began offering a classical music format with Peter Goldsmith becoming music director there until his retirement in October 2009 (he died the following year). WNED-FM, along with sister stations WBFO and WNED-TV, began collectively referring to themselves as "Buffalo Toronto Public Media" on February 4, 2020; concurrently, WNED-FM amended its own branding from "Classical WNED 94.5" to "WNED Classical". While the rebranding in part reflected WNED-TV's significant Canadian viewership and financial support, WNED officials told ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It recently sold its headquarters to Uniland Development Corp. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by W ...

'' that the organization's radio stations have minimal listenership in Canada. In 2017, in honor of the station's 40th anniversary, it created the Top Classical 40 voted by the listeners who picked Dvorak's '' Symphony No. 9'' on top. In October 2020, the station created its first ever ultimate Classical Top 100 playlist voted by the listeners with

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's '' Symphony No. 9'' taking the top spot, a title it retained for two consecutive years (2021 and 2022).

Local programming

WNED-FM has an extensive music library, which allows the station to produce local programming for most of its broadcast day. It collaborates with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by JoAnn Falletta, who has her own weekday morning feature ''JoAnn's Classical Corner'') and other local ensembles as well as local school music departments.

HD Radio

WNED-FM operates in HD Radio. Its HD2

subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compressi ...

, which prior to November 2021 had carried a simulcast of WBFO, carries the JazzWorks network feed. JazzWorks had previously been heard on WBFO's subchannel before it launched an

adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, 2 ...

feed in its place in 2021.Adult Alternative Bridge Built In Buffalo
Radioinsight - November 23, 2021

Repeater

References

External links

* * *
List of "grandfathered" FM radio stations in the U.S.
{{Classical Radio Stations in New York NED-FM Classical music radio stations in the United States NPR member stations Radio stations established in 1960 1960 establishments in New York (state)