WDBZ
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WDBZ (1230 AM) is a radio station serving
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
. The station mostly plays urban talk while also providing
urban oldies Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
and
urban contemporary gospel Urban/contemporary gospel, also known as urban gospel music, urban gospel pop, or just simply urban gospel, is a modern subgenre of gospel music. Although the style developed gradually, early forms are generally dated to the 1970s, and the gen ...
music. Owned by
Urban One Urban One, Inc. (formerly Radio One) is an American media conglomerate based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Founded in 1980 by Cathy Hughes, the company primarily operates media properties targeting African Americans. It is the largest African-Ame ...
, its studios are located at Centennial Plaza in
Downtown Cincinnati Downtown Cincinnati is one of the 52 List of Cincinnati neighborhoods, neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the central business district of the city, as well as the economic and symbiotic center of the Cincinnati metropolitan area. Original ...
and its transmitter site is in
Eden Park Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. The main stadium has a nominal capacity of 50,000, and is s ...
.


History

WDBZ is one of the oldest Cincinnati radio stations. The station was originally licensed on December 8, 1924, as WFBE, with 20 watts on 1330 kHz to John Van de Walle of the Van De Walle Music & Radio Co. at 208 West Second Street in
Seymour, Indiana Seymour is a city in Jackson Township, Jackson County, Indiana, Jackson and Redding Township, Jackson County, Indiana, Redding Townships, Jackson County, Indiana, United States, located 62 miles south of Indianapolis, and 55 miles north of Louisvi ...
. The call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. In late 1926, the station moved to Cincinnati, now owned by the Garfield Place Hotel Co. (Robert A. Casey). Following the establishment of the
Federal Radio Commission The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by ...
(FRC), stations were initially issued a series of temporary authorizations starting on May 3, 1927. In addition, they were informed that if they wanted to continue operating, they needed to file a formal license application by January 15, 1928, as the first step in determining whether they met the new "public interest, convenience, or necessity" standard. On May 25, 1928, the FRC issued
General Order 32 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 32, dated May 25, 1928, notified 164 of the over 600 existing U.S. radio stations that their applications for continued operation would be denied unless they showed that they met the FRC's "public ...
, which notified 164 stations, including WFBE, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it." However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed. On November 11, 1928, the FRC implemented a major reallocation of station transmitting frequencies, as part of a reorganization resulting from its implementation of
General Order 40 The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
. WFBE was assigned to 1200 kHz. It was the weakest of three stations in Cincinnati. Scripps-Howard Newspapers (now the
E. W. Scripps Company The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglom ...
) purchased the station in October 1935, renaming it WCPO after ''
The Cincinnati Post ''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was Product bundling, bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publi ...
''. (Scripps-Howard Broadcasting would later launch sister stations
WCPO-TV WCPO-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based E. W. Scripps Company, which has owned the station since its inception. WCPO-TV's ...
and WCPO-FM.) In March 1941, most of the stations on 1200 kHz, including WCPO, moved to 1230 kHz, as part of the implementation of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA, ; ) refers to a series of international treaties that defined technical standards for AM band (mediumwave) radio stations. These agreements also addressed how frequency assignments were d ...
. WCPO was Cincinnati's first Top 40/Rock 'n' Roll station, and was in the format from 1956 until it was sold in 1966. WCPO encountered serious competition from the stronger WSAI 1360 when that station entered the Top 40 format in July 1961. WSAI broadcast with 5,000 watts day and night, while WCPO broadcast with 1,000 watts during the day and only 250 watts at night. Some of the DJs on WCPO in the 1960s included Shad O'Shea, Mike Gavin, Bob Keith, Mark Edwards, Gary Allyn, Ron Beach and Gary Cory. Scripps-Howard sold the station to Kaye-Smith Broadcasting whose principals were entertainer
Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; ; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred ...
and business associate Lester Smith, in January 1966. On January 15, 1966, the station call letters were changed to WUBE, and almost the entire air staff was replaced. After another three-year run as a
Top-40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top ...
station under the direction of legendary programmer
Bill Drake Bill Drake (January 14, 1937 – November 29, 2008), born Philip Yarbrough, was an American radio programmer who co-developed the Boss Radio format with Gene Chenault via their company Drake-Chenault.Douglas, Susan, ''Listening In: Radio and ...
as "1-2-3-W-B", it became a
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 ...
-formatted station in April 1969. They operated the station along with their FM sister (which was renamed WUBE-FM), until the late 1970s, when they sold all their radio properties to Plough Broadcasting, then a part of the
pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
company,
Schering-Plough Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it becam ...
. After partially simulcasting with its FM sister station for years, the station changed to a
Big Band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...
/
Nostalgia Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a neoclassical compound derived from Greek language, Greek, consisting of (''nóstos''), a Homeric word me ...
format in September 1981 using Al Hamm's syndicated "
Music of Your Life Music of Your Life is an American syndicated music radio format featuring adult standards music. First created by recording executive Al Ham in 1978, the format achieved popularity in the 1980s among AM radio stations in the United States and Ca ...
" service and changed the call letters to
WMLX WMLX (103.3 FM "Mix 103.3") is a commercial radio station licensed to St. Marys, Ohio. It airs an adult contemporary format. Its studios and offices are located on West Market Street in Lima, Ohio Lima ( ) is a city in Allen County, Ohio, ...
. In 1984, Schering-Plough divested its radio division and sold the 1230 AM and 105.1 FM frequencies (along with its other seven stations around the country) to DKM Broadcasting headed by former
Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
executive, James Wesley, and formed with the backing of investment firm DKM (
Dyson Kissner-Moran Dyson may refer to: * Dyson (surname), people with the surname Dyson * Dyson (company), a Singaporean multinational home appliances company founded by James Dyson * Dyson (crater), a crater on the Moon * Dyson (operating system), a Unix general-pur ...
), for the initial purpose of acquiring the Plough Broadcasting radio properties. Until December 15, 1984, the 1230 AM frequency broadcast at 1,000 watts during the day and 250 watts at night, which made its nighttime audience reach extremely limited. On this date, 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 ...
(FCC) granted DKM the ability to broadcast the 1230 frequency at 1,000 watts 24 hours a day. Incidentally, for many years the 1230 frequency broadcast from a tower located on top of a 5-story building on the eastern edge of downtown
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
and was partially inhibited by the hillside of Mount Adams, Ohio which rose right behind and to the east of the building. (The current tower site is in Eden Park on a former Cincinnati Police communications tower.) On January 1, 1985, the call letters changed to
WDJO WDJO (1480 AM) is a radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio that airs an oldies format. The station is the Cincinnati affiliate for the Ohio State Sports Network. WDJO 99.5, 107.9 FM & 1480 AM (as it is branded) is owned by Robert T. Nolan, throu ...
and the station adopted an
oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...
format. In 1986, both WDJO and WUBE-FM were sold to American Media Inc. On January 17, 1990, the station's format changed to a simulcast of sister country station WUBE-FM. The station held on to the WDJO call letters to keep them from going to another broadcaster who may have wanted to do an FM oldies format. (An FM oldies station did emerge that month as
WGRR WGRR (103.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Hamilton, Ohio, and serving the Cincinnati metropolitan area. It broadcasts a classic hits radio format and is owned by Cumulus Media. Its studios and offices are on Montgomery R ...
.) The WUBE call letters appeared on 1230 AM for the first time in almost ten years on March 16, 1990. During this time, the station aired a few seasons of
Cincinnati Cyclones The Cincinnati Cyclones are a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team is a member of the ECHL. Originally established in 1990, the team first played their games in the Cincinnati Gardens and now play at Heri ...
hockey and some other weekend sports programming separate from the FM. In 1991, American Media sold the stations to National Radio Partners, which eventually changed its name to Chancellor Media and was later known as AMFM Inc. AMFM eventually merged with Clear Channel in 2000. On December 29, 1994, 1230 AM became All-Sports as "The Score." It swapped programming with sister station WKYN 1160 (which later became WBOB) on March 25, 1996. (Despite the move, some Bengals play-by-play aired on 1230 at that time, as WUBE & WUBE-FM were the official flagship stations of the Bengals from 1997-1999.) After the move, WUBE aired a " modern standards"-based music format called "Retro Radio", but in January 1998, this was dropped in favor of returning to sports, simulcasting some programs with WBOB to make up for individual signal deficiencies on both stations. The stronger 1160 AM was known as "BOB", while 1230 AM was known as "BOB 2", in a vein similar to
ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
and
ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially ...
cable networks. The station was sold to Blue Chip Broadcasting in 2000 as part of the AMFM/Clear Channel merger, while WBOB was sold to
Salem Communications Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and wha ...
. In addition, sister WUBE-FM was sold to Infinity Broadcasting. Blue Chip then launched the "Buzz" format consisting of urban talk programs on August 23, 2000, and the call letters WDBZ were adopted at the same time. The format was changed to "Community and Inspiration" - a mix of talk and gospel music - in late 2008. The "Buzz" moniker was later dropped in favor of identifying using the WDBZ call letters. After a long LMA, Radio One took official ownership of WDBZ in 2007. On December 4, 2015, WDBZ changed their format from talk to gospel, branded as "Praise 1230". On January 5, 2017, WDBZ adopted sister
WOSL WOSL (100.3 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station licensed to Norwood, Ohio. The station is owned by Radio One (company), Radio One, and airs an urban oldies-leaning urban adult contemporary format. Its studios are located at Centennial Plaz ...
's
urban oldies Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
format and rebranded as "Soul 101.5" (in reference to translator W268CM (101.5 FM)); concurrently, WOSL shifted to
urban AC Urban adult contemporary, often abbreviated as urban AC or UAC, (also known as adult R&B,) is the name for a format of radio music, similar to an urban contemporary format. Radio stations using this format usually would not have hip hop music on ...
). With the change,
Tom Joyner Thomas Joyner (born November 23, 1949) is an American radio personality, host, philanthropist and former musician. Joyner is the former host of the nationally syndicated '' The Tom Joyner Morning Show'', and also founder of Reach Media Inc., the ...
would move back to WDBZ to host mornings (as WOSL added
Russ Parr Russ Parr (born 1959 in California) is an American radio DJ, film director, writer, actor and television personality known for such television shows as '' Rock 'N' America''. Career Parr began as a Production Services Director at ABC TV. Russ ...
in that timeslot), while WOSL midday personality Emanuel Livington was added for the same daypart on WDBZ, and Fredd E. Redd was added for afternoon drive. On May 13, 2019, WDBZ changed their format back to urban talk, branded as "The Buzz".


Previous logos


References


External links

*
FCC History Cards for WDBZ
(covering 1927-1980 as WFBE / WCPO) {{coord, 39, 06, 50, N, 84, 29, 32, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Radio stations established in 1924 DBZ Talk radio stations in the United States Urban One stations