WHBY (1150
AM) is a
commercial radio
Commercial broadcasting (also called private broadcasting) is the broadcasting of television programs and radio programming by privately owned corporate media, as opposed to state sponsorship, for example. It was the United States' first model ...
station
licensed to
Kimberly, Wisconsin
Kimberly is a village in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,320 at the 2020 census. The village is east of Appleton. It is a part of the Appleton, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Kimberly was orig ...
, that serves the
Green Bay and
Appleton-
Oshkosh areas. The station is owned by Woodward Communications and it airs 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. They may feature monologues, dialogues between the hosts, interviews ...
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 broadcasting, ...
. WHBY's studios and microwave transmitter are located on East College Avenue in Appleton.
By day, WHBY is powered at 20,000 watts. At night, the power increases to 25,000 watts. WHBY uses a
directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...
with a six-
tower array
A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...
to protect other stations on
1150 AM from interference. The
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 ...
is in
Neenah
Neenah ( ) is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River approximately northeast of Oshkosh and southwest of Green Bay. Neenah's popul ...
, on
Wisconsin Highway 76. Programming is also heard on
FM translator
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...
s in
Appleton,
Oshkosh and
Wrightstown.
Programming
On weekdays, WHBY has local news and talk shows in morning and 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 ...
, and part of middays. The rest of the schedule is made up of
nationally syndicated programs: ''
The Ramsey Show with
Dave Ramsey
David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...
,
Our American Stories with Lee Habeeb, Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis,
Coast to Coast AM with
George Noory
George Ralph Noory (born June 4, 1950) is an American talk radio, radio talk show host. Since January 2003, Noory has been the weekday host of the late-night radio talk show ''Coast to Coast AM''. The program is radio syndication, syndicated to ...
'' and ''
This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal''. Most hours begin with an update from
CBS Radio News
CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. It ...
.
Specialty shows are heard on weekends, focusing on health, money, the outdoors, home repair, cars, movies and travel, along with repeats of weekday programs. Weekend shows include ''
The Tech Guy with
Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the former host of ''The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology a ...
, Ron Ananian The Car Doctor,
Travel with Rudy Maxa'' and
classic radio shows on Saturday evenings. Sports broadcasts include
Westwood One NFL and NCAA broadcasts,
Milwaukee Brewers
The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. The Brewers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Di ...
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 ...
and
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
Badgers football and basketball as well as local high school sports.
History
Early years
The station was initially licensed to
St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin on 1200 kHz. The call letters, WHBY, were randomly assigned from a sequential list. Its
sign-on
A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonwealth countries exce ...
the air on April 5, 1925 featured two test programs: a morning sermon, and evening musical entertainment. Regular weekly programming began on April 8. WHBY's license allowed it to broadcast at all hours.
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, which notified 164 stations, including WHBY, 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."
["Appendix F (2): Letter to and list of stations included in General Order No. 32, issued May 25, 1928"]
''Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1928, Together With Supplemental Report for the Period From July 1, 1928 to September 30, 1928'', pages 146-149. However, the station successfully convinced the commission that it should remain licensed.
WHBY stayed at 1200 kHz after the implementation of
General Order 40 in 1928, designated as a local station, with 100 watts of power. In the 1930s, WHBY was authorized to broadcast at 250 watts by day, 100 watts at night. Its studios were in the Berlin Building in Green Bay. It moved to 1230 kHz with 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 ...
(NARBA) on March 29, 1941.
In 1975, Woodward Communications acquired WHBY. The station added more talk, sports and news programming, while reducing music shows.
Move to 1150 kHz
On September 16, 1991, the staff of both WHBY and WYNE (AM 1150) were informed that Woodward Communications, parent of WHBY, would be purchasing WYNE from Fox Valley Broadcasting, Inc. for a price of $965,000. The purchase would allow WHBY to move from 1230 kHz, and to increase its broadcast power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts, using WYNE's existing transmission equipment. The sale allowed WHBY to join
WNAM as the only other Fox Valley AM station broadcasting with 5,000 watts of power at that time.
The purchase was approved by the FCC as part of a larger initiative to reduce the number of AM radio stations competing for signal strength. The cutover (which moved WHBY to 1150 kHz and ended the existence of WYNE) occurred at 7:45 a.m. on December 19, 1991.
AM 1150 is a
Regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
broadcast frequency.
AM transmitter and FM translators
In 2004, WHBY applied to build a new six-tower site on what was then
U.S. Route 45 (and today is Wisconsin Highway 76) in the Town of Vinland. The new antenna array allowed the station to increase its power further, to 20,000 watts (daytime) and 25,000 watts (nighttime).
In November 2016, WHBY added its first FM translator, W278AU, serving Appleton on 103.5 MHz. In November 2017, two more translators were added, both at 106.3 MHz: W292FA serving Oshkosh and W292DR serving Wrightstown and southern sections of
Brown County.
References
External links
FCC History Cards for WHBY*
WHBY - The Inception And Early History Of The Voice Of The Fox River Valley
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{{Milwaukee Bucks Radio Network
HBY
News and talk radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1925
1925 establishments in Wisconsin
Outagamie County, Wisconsin