WBAP () is an
AM news/talk radio station
licensed to
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...
, and serving the
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. WBAP is owned by
Cumulus Media and broadcasts with from a
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...
site in the northwest corner of
Mansfield. Its programming is also simulcast on
WBAP-FM (93.3) in
Haltom City.
WBAP is a
Class A clear-channel station, using a
non-directional antenna. Its nighttime signal can often be heard throughout the Southern, Central, and Midwestern states and Northern Mexico, while its daytime signal provides at least secondary coverage from
Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Oklahoma, most populous city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat ...
to
Austin. WBAP is one of the oldest radio stations in Texas, dating back to
1922, when stations in Texas were still given
call signs beginning with "W" instead of "K".
Emergency preparedness
WBAP and sister station
KSCS are responsible for activation of the
North Texas Emergency Alert System
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...
when
hazardous weather alerts,
Disaster area declarations, and
child abductions are issued.
During a severe weather event on October 10, 2021, WBAP lost power along with much of its listening area. Brad Barton and several spotters had to broadcast its EAS and coverage via their 4G phones.
Station history
Early years
WBAP began broadcasting May 2, 1922. It transmitted at a wavelength of 360 meters (about 833 kHz). It changed to 400 meters (750 kHz) in August 1922. The station shared time with Dallas stations WFAA and
WRR. It was the first station in the United States to have an audible logo signal similar to the
NBC chimes, the WBAP
cowbell.
According to President
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
, the station's call letters stood for "We Bring A Program", although in reality, the call letters were assigned sequentially, without any special meaning.
On May 15, 1923, the Federal Radio Commission expanded the broadcast band, and WBAP and WFAA moved to 476 meters (about 630 kHz).
Another expansion moved WBAP to 600 kHz effective June 15, 1927, and this frequency was shared with
WOAI in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
. On
November 11, 1928, WBAP moved to 800 kHz, and on June 1, 1929, WFAA also moved to 800 kHz, sharing time (and
NBC Red Network affiliation) with WBAP.
Station owner
Amon G. Carter was unhappy with having to share time on 800 kHz with WFAA. Carter Publishing purchased KGKO in
Wichita Falls (570 kHz) and moved it to Fort Worth as an affiliate of the
NBC Blue network (which became
ABC), and more importantly as a second frequency to be used when 800 kHz was not available. The sale was approved by the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
September 24, 1935. On March 29, 1941, as a consequence of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), WBAP and WFAA moved one last time, to 820 kHz.
Carter eventually sold half of KGKO to
A. H. Belo, owners of WFAA and the ''
Dallas Morning News''. On April 27, 1947, KGKO was replaced by a second shared frequency between WBAP and WFAA.
TV and FM stations
On September 29, 1948, WBAP pioneered television service in Texas with the opening of the state's first video outlet,
NBC-TV network affiliate WBAP-TV on channel 5. A year later, WBAP added an FM station on 100.5, WBAP-FM. It moved to 96.3 MHz in 1955 and today is co-owned
KSCS.
The dual frequency sharing arrangement between WBAP and WFAA continued through the 1950s and 1960s, with the stations switching frequencies several times a day. When WBAP changed frequencies, it signaled the change with a cowbell, which became widely associated with the station. Even though the stations swapped frequencies several times each day, the network affiliations remained constant: NBC network programming stayed on 820 kHz and ABC network programming stayed on 570 kHz. This frequently proved confusing for announcers and listeners alike.
820 AM
On May 1, 1970, the unique dual split-frequency lives of WBAP and WFAA ended when WBAP paid $3.5 million to WFAA in exchange for sole occupancy of 820 kHz (and the NBC affiliation). WFAA took on 570 kHz (and the ABC affiliation), but with only 5,000 watts full-time.
Once the frequency-sharing with WFAA ended in 1970, both stations were free to program musical formats, and WBAP began programming a
full service country music
Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
format. It also gained the added benefit of 820's clear-channel signal; previously WFAA controlled it during these prime nighttime hours.
Also around this time, the FCC began to scrutinize
ownership of broadcast stations and print media in the same market with the tightening of its rules, which disallowed new radio and/or television combinations with newspapers while grandfathering existing instances. Carter Publications' ownership of the ''
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company.
History
In May 1905, Amon G. Car ...
'' and WBAP-AM-FM-TV was one of three which existed in the Dallas/Fort Worth market. However, Carter voluntarily ended the cross-ownership issue in January 1973, when it announced the sale of all its Fort Worth media interests. WBAP and its FM sister (now known as
KSCS), and the ''Star-Telegram'' were packaged to
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. It was eventually acquired by The Walt Disney Company and re-branded i ...
for $64.5 million.
LIN Broadcasting
LIN Media was an American holding company founded in 1994 that operated 43 television stations. All except one were affiliates of the television in the United States#Major broadcast networks, six major U.S. television networks. One of the re ...
paid $35 million to acquire WBAP-TV, whose call letters were changed to
KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the NBC television network through its NBC Owned Television Stations division alon ...
. The sales became final in the summer of 1974.
After a series of network affiliation changes in the late 1970s among WBAP, KRLD and WFAA, WBAP switched affiliations to
ABC.
All-talk format
WBAP changed to an
news/talk format on October 25, 1993, calling itself "News/Talk 820". It was also the radio
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
radio station of the
Texas Rangers baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
team, airing the play-by-play, pre-game and post-game broadcasts.
Morning show host Hal Jay celebrated his 25-year anniversary with WBAP by organizing a charity fund-raising event for Cook Children's Hospital ("Hal Jay's Celebrity Roast"). Among those who attended were
Baseball Hall-of-Famer Nolan Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. (born January 31, 1947), nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Ryan pitched for the New Yo ...
and syndicated radio talk show host
Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...
.
Changes in ownership
On June 12, 2007, WBAP was one of many
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...
/ABC Radio stations sold to
Citadel Broadcasting
Citadel Broadcasting Corporation was a Las Vegas, Nevada-based broadcast holding company founded and developed by Larry Wilson. Citadel owned 243 radio stations across the United States and was the third-largest radio station owner in the count ...
. That same year, WBAP transmitted iBiquity
HD Radio
HD Radio (HDR) is a trademark for in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio broadcast technology. HD radio generally simulcast, simulcasts an existing analog radio station in digital format with less noise and with additional text information. HD R ...
(digital) during the daytime and when not airing sports programming, until abruptly ending the "HD" digital transmission in early December 2008. Because the license to broadcast digital "HD Radio" is perpetual, the station could resume digital broadcasts at any time.
For many years, WBAP was the flagship station for
Dallas Stars
The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The Stars ...
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
team, but relinquished the rights beginning in the 2009–2010 season, as on January 16, 2009, the Dallas Stars named
KTCK as its new flagship station for the next 5 years. With Cumulus Media's 2011 acquisition of Citadel, WBAP and KTCK became
sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement.
Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...
s.
FM simulcasts
Sister station KPMZ (later WBAP-FM, now
KTCK-FM) started
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...
ing WBAP on 96.7 FM, March 15, 2010. Although broadcasting on a
rimshot signal, management said that WBAP-FM provides "crystal-clear FM fidelity" for their listeners within 96.7's coverage area.
On October 7, 2013, Cumulus announced the discontinuation of the WBAP simulcast on 96.7 FM. It switched call letters to KTCK-FM as a simulcast of the
sports radio
Sports radio (or sports talk radio) is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sport, sporting events. A widespread programming genre that has a narrow audience appeal, sports radio is characterized by an often-low comed ...
programming on co-owned KTCK. Dan Bennet, the vice president/market manager of Cumulus, said he had "seen no ratings increase since adding the FM". Bennett added, "WBAP at 820 AM still covers 114 counties in the day and has been heard in up to 38 states at night and early morning before the sun comes up. WBAP at 820 is one of the biggest radio signals in America." The WBAP simulcast moved to the second HD Radio channel of
KPLX.
In 2015, WBAP ended decades of
ABC News Radio
ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...
affiliation and changed its national news feed to
Westwood One News. On August 31, 2020, after the shutdown of Westwood One News, WBAP switched its national news affiliation to
Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
History
In 2003, ...
.
WBAP's programming returned to FM on January 3, 2024, when the station began simulcasting on
KLIF-FM 93.3, replacing the 1990s/2000s hits-formatted "Hot 93.3".
WBAP Announces Launch of 93.3 Simulcast
- ''RadioInsight'' (published January 2, 2024)
Current programming
WBAP-AM-FM air both local and nationally syndicated shows. Weekdays begin with the ''WBAP Morning News'' anchored by Ernie Brown, Carla Marion and Hal Jay. That's followed by Casey Bartholomew in late mornings and Texas native James Parker in afternoon drive time
Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...
. In early evenings, '' The Mark Levin Show'' from Westwood One airs. '' The Joe Pags Show'', from Compass Media Networks
Compass Media Networks is an American radio network. The company launched in January 2009.
It is owned by former Westwood One CEO and former COO of Connoisseur Media, Peter Kosann. The company focuses on radio and offers representation and m ...
, took over the late weekday evening time slot in February 2025.
Weekends include syndicated programs from Chris Plante, Rich Valdés and Ben Ferguson, along with shows on money, cars, home improvement, real estate, hunting and the outdoors. Paid brokered programming also airs. Most hours on weekdays start with local news at the top of the hour, while nights and weekends, an update from Fox News Radio
Fox News Radio is an American radio network owned by Fox News. It is syndicated to over 500 AM and FM radio stations across the United States. It also supplies programming for three channels on Sirius XM Satellite Radio.
History
In 2003, ...
is heard.
WBAP is the flagship station
In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...
of Westwood One's nationally syndicated overnight program '' Red Eye Radio'' (formerly ''Midnight Trucking Radio Network''), that traces its roots to Bill Mack's overnight show from 1969. Hosts Eric Harley and Gary McNamara are heard live locally weeknights, with "Best Of" programs heard weekend overnights.
Prior to Citadel's takeover of the station in August 2007, talk show host Mark Davis's program was a full three hours, (9 A.M. to Noon). As a result, Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator who was the host of ''The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nati ...
, Sean Hannity
Sean Patrick Hannity (born December 30, 1961) is an American conservative television presenter, broadcaster and writer. He hosts ''The Sean Hannity Show'', a radio syndication, nationally syndicated talk radio show, has hosted a Hannity, sel ...
and Mark Levin were all forced to air on a one-hour tape delay. However, with Citadel's ownership of the station, Davis's show was both cut in length and shifted back by a half-hour, to carry the top-rated talkers live. Davis departed the station in March 2012 when a contract agreement could not be reached.
In the fall of 2010, WBAP began an agreement with Texas Christian University to air live play-by-play of TCU Horned Frogs football
The TCU Horned Frogs football team represents Texas Christian University (TCU) in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Horned Frogs play their home games in Amon G. Carter Stadium, which is located on the ...
and TCU Horned Frogs men's basketball. The station carried every game of the undefeated football team in that first season.
See also
* List of initial AM-band station grants in the United States
List of initial AM-band station grants in the United States reviews the first standard radio broadcasting stations that were authorized in the United States.
This review begins with the introduction of the broadcasting service in the United S ...
References
External links
*
FCC History Cards for WBAP
DFW Radio Archives
DFW Radio/TV History
{{Clear Channel AM
1922 establishments in Texas
Clear-channel radio stations
Cumulus Media radio stations
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1922
μ