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WEBN (102.7 FM) – branded as 102-7 WEBN – is a commercial
mainstream rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...
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 radio ...
licensed to
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, serving
Greater Cincinnati The Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The area ...
. Owned by
iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
, WEBN serves as the FM flagship for the
Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network The Cincinnati Bengals Radio Network is an American radio network consisting of 37 radio stations which carry coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals, a professional football team in the NFL. WCKY/Cincinnati (1530  AM), WEBN/Cincinnati (102.7& ...
; and the home of radio personality Christopher "
Kidd Chris Christopher Derek Foley, commonly known as KiddChris. (AKA Foley / Cobra / The Chris) (born 1974) is an American radio host. He has hosted radio shows in several cities since 1998. The radio show originated in his hometown of Syracuse, New York. ...
" Foley. The WEBN studios are located in Cincinnati, as is the station transmitter. Besides a standard
analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an ana ...
, WEBN broadcasts over three
HD Radio HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for an in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. It generally simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD Radio is used ...
channels, and is available online via
iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast and radio streaming Computing platform, platform owned by iHeartMedia. It was founded in August 2008. , iHeartRadio was functioning as the national umbr ...
. WEBN-HD2
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, simultane ...
s over local
translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...
s W264BW Norwood (100.7 FM) and W292CO Middletown (106.3 FM), while WEBN-HD3 simulcasts over W272BY Cincinnati (102.3 FM).


History

When it initially went on the air on August 31, 1967, it was owned by Frank Wood Sr., a Cincinnati attorney. WEBN broadcast classical music daytimes and an all-night jazz program. The night programming was managed by a bank of 10½-inch Scully reel to reel tape machines in an early instance of station automation. However, in the late evening hours of Saturdays and Sundays it also broadcast a program hosted by Frank's son and EBN's 1st-ever DJ Frank Wood Jr. or known by his on-air name as Dr. Michael Bo Xanadu, that show was called "The WEBN's Jelly Pudding Show". The show featured many album cuts by both popular and somewhat obscure artists, other than the recognized hit songs or radio edits, tagged "rock, jazz, folk and ragas." The program and its music proved to be so popular that the station eventually made this album oriented rock show the bulk of its programming, much to the chagrin of Frank Sr. himself. However, it honored its roots as a classical music station by broadcasting classical music on Sunday mornings from 8:00-noon with Frank Wood Sr. as the host. This proved to be one of the station's most popular programs until Wood retired from the air on June 30, 1985. But perhaps the most distinctive feature of the program was Frank's weekly tradition of always playing a very long work which he preceded by announcing that the length of the work would give him enough time to eat a pie from
Graeter's Graeter's is a regional ice cream chain based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1870 by Louis C. Graeter, the company has since expanded to 50 retail locations selling ice cream, candy and baked goods in the Midwestern United States. It further di ...
, a popular Cincinnati ice cream parlor that specializes in ice cream pies, confectioneries, and other baked goods. After Frank Sr.'s retirement (and way before he died in 1991), the classical program continued for a few years with new host Larry Thomas and later began to include new age music. Its time was shifted to 6-10 a.m. and the show was eventually dropped in the late 1980s. In its early days, WEBN broadcast from a bright blue old house in Cincinnati's west-side Price Hill neighborhood at 1050 Considine Ave. referred to on-air as "Price's Mountain". Anyone at any time 24 hours a day could visit the station and walk right into the studio and home and watch on-air personalities broadcast their programs. Visitors were right in the studio as the DJs performed live. The house wasn't hard to spot - it had what appeared to be a cocker spaniel sitting in an old barbershop chair on the front porch. The taxidermied dog had been Frank Wood, Sr.'s pet named Miles Duffy. Frank Sr. being basically a one-man show when he began the station, decided to name "Miles Duffy" as WEBN's program director to give the impression that WEBN had more employees and his so called on-air "staph" than just himself. This joke continued officially for some years even as the station continued to grow. In 1973, WEBN moved to the eastside's Hyde Park Square referred to on air as "Hyde's Meadow". In 1988, the station moved to the neighborhood of Mount Adams (this time calling it "Frog's Mountain" joining with several other stations purchased in recent years by its corporate parent Jacor Communications. In 1999 Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel. Finally in 2004, all Cincinnati Clear Channel stations moved to the northern suburb of Sycamore Township. WEBN continued to call its location "Frog's Mountain". By 2006 WEBN was added to the
Nielsen BDS Broadcast Data Systems (also known as BDS or Luminate BDS), is a service that tracks radio, television and internet airplay of songs. The service, which is a unit of MRC Data, is a contributing factor to North American charts published by co-owned ...
Active Rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...
panel only to revert to
Mainstream Rock Mainstream rock (also known as heritage rock) is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations in the United States and Canada. Format background Mainstream rock stations represent the middle ground between classic rock and active rock ...
the following year. Radio personality Maxwell Slater Logan (Benjamin Bornstein), perhaps best known for his time at Cleveland rock station
WMMS WMMS (100.7 FM) – branded ''100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard'' – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock s ...
as host of ''
The Maxwell Show ''The Maxwell Show'' was a hot talk radio show which aired weekday afternoons on Cleveland rock station WMMS (100.7  FM). The show began in April 2004, and over the next five years, grew to become the Cleveland radio market's #1 afternoon p ...
'', spent time at WEBN in early-to-mid 1990s under the on-air name Max Logan. Bo Matthews (Alex Gutierrez), formerly the program director at WMMS and a regular contributor to ''The Maxwell Show'', took over as the WEBN program director on January 7, 2014. Matthews also served as vice president of programming for iHeartMedia's entire Cincinnati radio cluster before exiting the company in 2017.


Early advertising

The attitude also extended to actual advertising. Ad time on WEBN was extremely desirable to local merchants, but the station wasn't about to permit the staid and often amateurish production values that often permeated American radio. The majority of local spots were WEBN produced, and bore the same outrageous wit and audacity that the station was known for. And, as it had already promoted non-existent events, the station advertised products by "Brute Force Cybernetics" also the name of the corporate holding company as well for the rumored call letters of the station too. Brute Force Cybernetics featured a logo of three monkeys based on the theme "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." Among the BFC "products" for which the station broadcast tongue-in-cheek "ads" were: * "Boogie Mat" (a small rug; anyone who steps on it will begin to boogie uncontrollably) * "Cultured
Truffle A truffle is the fruiting body of a subterranean ascomycete fungus, predominantly one of the many species of the genus ''Tuber''. In addition to ''Tuber'', many other genera of fungi are classified as truffles including ''Geopora'', ''Peziz ...
Franchises" * "Encephalographic Printout Device" (attach the electrodes to your head before going to sleep and the device will record the brilliant insight you otherwise remember having had just before you woke up and forgot what it was) * "Negative-Calorie Cookies" (eating them actually burns calories) * "Portable Hole" (apply it to a surface, peel off the plastic backing, make your stash or whatever, then remove) * "Precognitive Scanner" (place it behind your ear, and it will read the speech center in your brain and emit a warning beep to prevent you from uttering "faux pas, Freudian slips, and ill-timed obscenities") * "Stereo-Vision" TVs (a television mounted on a short track that bounced back and forth so quickly as to simulate 3D) * "Voice Equalization Ampules" (wrapped in cotton and filled with
helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
or
sulfur hexafluoride Sulfur hexafluoride or sulphur hexafluoride (British spelling) is an inorganic compound with the formula SF6. It is a colorless, odorless, non- flammable, and non-toxic gas. has an octahedral geometry, consisting of six fluorine atoms attached ...
; break the ampule and inhale the gas to raise or lower the
timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
of your voice, respectively) These spots were picked up by some other stations, such as Chicago's
WDAI WDAI (98.5 FM, "98.5 Kiss FM") is a mainstream urban radio station licensed to Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and serves the Grand Strand area. The Cumulus Media outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast ...
in its progressive/underground days c. 1971. Other spots were for the "White Rose and Lilac Virginity Restoration Clinic", ''"WEBN's Tree Frog Beer"'' Starting 1st with ''"The Sleezy People's Beer"'' and then years later with ''"It doesn't taste like much but it sure gets you there"'', and a spoof on the Rambo movies entitled "Sambo: Real Blood Part Four" featuring an african-american superhero driving a rescue Cadillac and yelling "Hey Chin Ho, Ronnie Reagan says you can kiss his white butt!" before a jet fly-over drowns out the last word. A crossover between these spots in fantasy and reality occurred in 1972 when Hudepohl Beer allowed some of its product for the Cincinnati area to be wrapped in faux labels for ''"WEBN's Tree Frog Beer, The Sleezy People's Beer"'', Tree B. Frog and his best friend Tyrone Z. Dragonfly soon became household mascots for the station. The station markets t-shirts and sweaters with the station's mascot Tree B. Frog for August just before the annual fireworks, as well for December with a holiday version. The tag line for Brute Force Cybernetics was "The company that creates a need and then fills it." The station began referring to itself with monikers and slogans like, ''"RRRRRRIBBIT!"'', ''"Radio That Makes You Feel Good!"'', ''"For Something Different On Your Radio..."'', ''"Lighten Up!"'', ''"A Different Kind Of A Radio Station"'', ''"The Rock 'N' Roll Station"'', ''"The Classic Rock 'N' Roll Station"'', ''"Rockin' Stereo!"'', ''"Cincinnati's Undisputed Champion Of Rock 'N' Roll!"'', ''"The Last Great Untamed Radio Station In North America"'', ''"WEBN Rocks Cincinnati!"'', ''"Good, Clean, Fun!"'', ''"Turn Us On, Tune Us In, And Crank It Up!"'', ''"Frog 'Em!"'', ''"It Must Be WEBN!"'', ''"Go Rock Yourself!"'', ''"Shut Up And Rock!"'', ''"It's Not Just The Size, It's The Frequency"'', ''"OutFrogRageous!"'', ''"No Pussies Allowed"'', ''"Cincinnati's Rock Station And The Home Of The Kidd Chris Show!"'', ''"Step Aside Small Change!"'', ''"WEBN, The Lunatic Fringe"'', and the 1988 version ''"The Lunatic Fringe Of American FM"'', these 2 slogans come from
Red Rider Red Rider, later known as Tom Cochrane & Red Rider, is a Canadians, Canadian Rock music, rock band popular in the 1980s. While they achieved significant success in Canada, the band never had a song in the top 40 in the United States, although "L ...
's song
Lunatic Fringe Lunatic fringe is a term used to characterize members of a political or social movement as extremists with eccentric or fanatical views. Theodore Roosevelt is widely credited with having popularized the term, which he used with gusto: "There is ap ...
.


Local artists

WEBN was always passionate about promoting local artists. Also, the concept of national artists (who happened to be in town for shows) performing live in the radio studio began at WEBN. As part of WEBN's commitment to promoting local artists, it began issuing a series of records featuring local artists, each designated a "WEBN Album Project," beginning in 1976. Proceeds from sales were donated to charity. The album projects featured exclusively local artists performing original songs. The album projects focused primarily on rock performances, but featured a wide range of different styles, including folk, jazz, and novelty songs. Popular local bands such as The Raisins and Wheels had cuts on WEBN album projects. WEBN often gave airplay to songs on the album projects. Eleven different WEBN album projects were released in the 1970s and 1980s.


Fireworks show

WEBN also presents the
Cincinnati Riverfest The Cincinnati Riverfest (officially the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks) is an annual festival that takes place on Labor Day weekend on the Ohio River at Cincinnati. It has taken place annually since 1977. The highlight of the event, the fire ...
annual fireworks display, a spectacular exhibition on the Riverfront, on Labor Day weekend in conjunction with
Cincinnati Bell Cincinnati Bell, doing business as Altafiber (typeset as altafiber), is a regional telecommunications service provider based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It provides landline telephone, fiber-optic Internet, and IPTV services through its ...
and Rozzi's Famous Fireworks. The seventeen-year agreement with Toyota came to an end in 2007. The show is set to music broadcast by the station. The first WEBN fireworks show happened in 1977 as a one-time celebration of the station's tenth birthday, but it was so well-received that it has been repeated every year since under the auspices of the station's "Committee for Aesthetic Public Spectacle." The event routinely draws over 500,000 people to the Cincinnati Riverfront. The event has been broadcast live on local TV stations since 1984 when
WXIX-TV WXIX-TV (channel 19) is a television station licensed to Newport, Kentucky, United States, serving the Cincinnati metro as the market's Fox affiliate. It is owned by Gray Television alongside low-power Cozi TV affiliate WBQC-LD (channel 25 ...
aired the fireworks. In 2008, the show was broadcast in high definition for the first time on
WLWT-TV WLWT (channel 5) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on Young Street, and its transmitter is located on Chickasaw Street, both in the ...
. It was untelevised in 2015 when WXIX did not renew the contract, but the fireworks show returned to television in 2016 via
WKRC-TV WKRC-TV (channel 12) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS and The CW. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to MyNetworkTV affiliate WSTR-TV (channel 64) under a loca ...
. The event was held in a secret location in 2020 due to COVID-19. It took place at
Kentucky Speedway Kentucky Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Sparta, Kentucky, which has hosted ARCA, NASCAR and Indy Racing League racing annually since it opened in 2000. The track is currently owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Before 2008 J ...
.


Current programming


HD2: The Project 100.7/106.3

On August 16, 2012, translators W264BW Norwood (100.7 FM) and W292DT Mt. Auburn (106.3 FM) began simulcasting the
alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
format on WEBN-HD2 as "The Project 100.7 / 106.3". As of January 2014, W292DT identifies as W238BJ and broadcasts at 95.5 FM; WEBN-HD2 itself continues to simulcast over 106.3 FM, now via translator W292CO Middletown. Although FM translators in the
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
are generally not permitted to originate their own programming, the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
has recently allowed FM translators to simulcast the programming of both AM stations and HD2 digital subchannels. In effect, this allows radio companies to create additional analog stations, like W264BW, outside the traditional path established by the FCC. W264BW provides limited coverage to southern and central parts of
Greater Cincinnati The Cincinnati metropolitan area and also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area, or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area centered on Cincinnati and including surrounding counties in the U.S. states of Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The area ...
. On April 24, 2012, W264BW owner EMF Broadcasting, Inc. leased the translator to Clear Channel. Over W264BW, Clear Channel opted to simulcast the
hot adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
(hot AC) format heard on the HD2 subchannel of Cincinnati area station
WKFS WKFS (107.1 FM, "Kiss 107.1") is a radio station in the Cincinnati, Ohio market, licensed to nearby Milford. It broadcasts a contemporary hit radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia. The WKFS studios are located in Cincinnati's Kenwood Town Cent ...
(107.1 FM). Branded "100.7 The River", WKFS-HD2 and W264BW aired content from Today's Mix, a national format on the
Premium Choice The majority of programming syndicated by iHeartMedia is distributed through its subsidiary, Premiere Networks, owned by the company since 1999 and purchased by antecedent Jacor in 1997. However, several music and talk shows originated on iHeartM ...
network. On August 16, 2012 W264BW began simulcasting WEBN-HD2. On May 29, 2013 CincyMusic.com announced a partnership with WEBN-HD2 to begin a weekly radio show called th
CincyMusic Spotlight
"Cincinnati has such a rich music scene. The Project already champions amazing local acts like Walk The Moon, Foxy Shazam, 21 Pilots and Cinema Sleep in regular rotation. The Sunday Spotlight will give us a chance to expose even more of the talent Cincy has to offer, and provide local bands the platform to make it to the next level. As we were developing plans to showcase local music, it only made sense to turn to the foremost experts at CincyMusic.com to be the engine of that exploration" (Chris Williams Program Director, The Project 100.7 / 106.3)


HD3: 102.3 The Beat

WEBN-HD3 launched on December 18, 2014; the digital subchannel also began simulcasting over Cincinnati translator W272BY (102.3 FM). Branded "102.3 The Beat", WEBN-HD3 initially aired a
classic hip-hop Classic hip hop is a music radio format focusing primarily on hip hop music from the 1980s, 1990s, and the early to mid-2000s. Although stations with such a format date back as far as 2004, the format was first popularized in October 2014, after ...
format promoted as "throwback hip hop and R&B". On March 7, 2016, the station shifted to a current-based
mainstream urban Mainstream may refer to: Film * ''Mainstream'' (film), a 2020 American film Literature * ''Mainstream'' (fanzine), a science fiction fanzine * Mainstream Publishing, a Scottish publisher * ''Mainstream'', a 1943 book by Hamilton Basso Mu ...
format while keeping the "Beat" branding; this made it a direct competitor to
WIZF WIZF (101.1 FM) is an urban contemporary radio station licensed to Erlanger, Kentucky, serving the Cincinnati area. The station is owned and operated by Urban One. It broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 2,500 watts. Its studios are l ...
101.1."102.3 The Beat Shifting To Urban"
from Radioinsight (March 3, 2016)


References


External links


102.7 WEBN
* ;WEBN-HD2
The Project 100.7/106.3
* * * * ;WEBN-HD3
102.3 The Beat
* * {{Authority control 1967 establishments in Ohio Mainstream rock radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations Radio stations established in 1967 EBN