WKBN (AM)
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WKBN (570
kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...
) is a
commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...
AM radio AM broadcasting is radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation (AM) transmissions. It was the first method developed for making audio radio transmissions, and is still used worldwide, primarily for medium wave (also known as "AM band") transmi ...
station in
Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...
. It has 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 ...
format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on South Avenue in Youngstown. WKBN is powered at 5,000 watts from 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 ...
on East Western Reserve and Beard roads in
Poland, Ohio Poland is a village (United States)#Ohio, village in eastern Mahoning County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,463 at the 2020 United States census. A suburb about south of Youngstown, Ohio, Youngstown, it is part of the Mahoning Vall ...
. By day, it operates a non-directional signal from a single tower. Due to its location near the bottom of the AM dial, as well as its transmitter power, its daytime signal can be heard at city-grade strength from
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
to
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
, and provides at least secondary coverage to
Erie, Pennsylvania Erie is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fifth-most populous city in Pennsylvania and the most populous in Northwestern Pen ...
, most of the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia, much of north-central Ohio and even a section of
Southern Ontario Southern Ontario is a Region, primary region of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. It is the most densely populated and southernmost region in Canada, with approximately 13.5 million people, approximately 36% o ...
. At night, power is fed to all six towers in a directional pattern to protect other stations on 570 AM, concentrating the signal in Youngstown and Pittsburgh.


History


Early years

WKBN was first authorized to the Radio Electric Service Co. (W. P. Williamson, Jr.) (1900–1996) at 26 Auburndale Avenue. It is Youngstown's oldest continuing operating radio station, signing on the air on September 26, 1926. It originally broadcast on 1400 kHz at 50 watts. The call letters was randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. The studios were in the basement of Williamson's home, but by the following year operations had moved to studios in the
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
Building in downtown Youngstown. The license was later held by the WKBN Broadcasting Corporation. 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 WKBN, 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. As part of the proceedings, a second Youngstown station, WMBW, was consolidated with WKBN."Federal Radio Commission order: September 1, 1928"
''Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission'' (year ending 1928), pages 161-163.
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 ...
. WKBN was assigned to 1430 kHz, sharing this frequency with WMBS. In 1941, WKBN moved to fulltime operation on 570 kHz, where it remains today.


CBS programming

Shortly after WKBN's launch, the station became a charter affiliate of the newly formed
CBS Radio Network 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 ...
, a partnership that would last until the end of the century. WKBN carried CBS's schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and
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 ...
broadcasts during the "
Golden Age of Radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...
". For many years, WKBN was one of only two radio stations licensed to Youngstown. (WFMJ, now
WNIO WNIO (1390 AM - branded 1390 The Gambler) — is an American radio station in Youngstown, Ohio with a sports talk radio format, serving as the Youngstown affiliate for Fox Sports Radio and VSiN Radio. WNIO also carries Ohio State University ...
, signed on in 1939.) The station also broadcast some shows on
Radio Luxembourg Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg). The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...
to American troops in Europe during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. On February 8, 1943,
Alan Freed Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...
started his early radio career on WKBN. He later went on to a career as a noted
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
disc jockey.


MOR and talk

As network programming moved to TV from radio in the 1950s, WKBN switched from CBS shows to a middle of the road format of popular music, news, sports and talk. As listeners increasingly tuned to FM for music, WKBN added more talk programming. By the 1990s, the music shows had ended as WKBN transitioned to all talk, with frequent news updates and sports coverage.


FM and TV stations

Warren Williamson started 98.9 WKBN-FM in 1948. At first, it
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) ...
the same programming as the AM station. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, it carried an
automated Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, mainly by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machine ...
beautiful music format. The FM station is now
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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
WMXY. He also started
WKBN-TV WKBN-TV (channel 27) is a television station in Youngstown, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside low-power Fox affiliate WYFX-LD (channel 62); Nexstar also provides certain services to ABC a ...
in 1953, which became a predominantly CBS-TV affiliate in part due to the AM station's long history with the radio network. WKBN-TV to this day has retained the CBS-TV affiliation. In 1997, the TV station was sold to Gocom, while WKBN-AM-FM would later be sold to a different owner.


Changes in ownership

On January 22, 1999, the Williamson family sold WKBN and WKBN-FM to
Jacor Communications Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion. Jacor Communicat ...
, earning a handsome return on their investment of 73 years prior. WKBN had been one of the few stations in a market of Youngstown's size that was still under family ownership. Jacob, however, did not own the stations very long. Only three months later, on April 29, 1999,
Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or 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 founded by ...
completed its $6.5 billion purchase of Jacor and its 454 stations, including WKBN and WKBN-FM. In September 2014, Clear Channel Communications became iHeartMedia, Inc.


Programming

WKBN has one local talk show on weekdays, Ron Verb during 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 ...
. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of
nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...
conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...
shows, mostly from co-owned
Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an American media company, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, for which it currently serves as its main original radio content distribution and production arm. It is th ...
: ''
The Sean Hannity Show ''The Sean Hannity Show'' is a conservative talk radio show hosted by Sean Hannity. The program is broadcast live every weekday, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. The show is produced in the New York City studios of radio station WOR and is transmitt ...
,
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show ''The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show'' is an American radio program hosted by former Fox Sports Radio personality Clay Travis and former '' America Now/The Buck Sexton Show'' host Buck Sexton. It is broadcast on over 400 talk radio stations ...
, The Michael DelGiorno Show,
Armstrong & Getty ''Armstrong & Getty'' are the hosts of ''The Armstrong & Getty Show,'' a nationally syndicated morning drive radio show hosted by Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. The talk show format is a mixture of libertarian and conservative political commentary, ...
, The Joe Pags Show,
Coast to Coast AM ''Coast to Coast AM'' is an American late-night radio talk show that deals with a variety of topics. Most frequently the topics relate to either the paranormal or conspiracy theories. It was hosted by creator Art Bell from its inception in 198 ...
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 ''This Morning: America's First News'' (formerly ''The Wall Street Journal This Morning'') is a two-hour radio news/talk program hosted by Gordon Deal and Jennifer Kushinka, who replaced long-serving co-host Gina Cervetti on January 2, 2015. I ...
''. Most hours begin with world and national news from
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 ...
. On weekends, specialty programs on money, health, home improvement, technology, cars, veterans, real estate and the outdoors are heard, as well as repeats of weekday shows. Weekend syndicated shows include ''
At Home with Gary Sullivan ''At Home with Gary Sullivan'' is a weekly home improvement talk radio program hosted by Gary Sullivan. The program is distributed by Premiere Networks Premiere Networks, Inc. (formerly Premiere Radio Networks, shortened as PRN) is an Amer ...
'', '' Rich DeMuro on Tech'', '' The Weekend with Michael Brown'', '' Somewhere in Time with Art Bell'' and '' Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham''. Some weekend hours are paid
brokered programming Brokered programming (also known as time-buy and blocktime) is a form of broadcast content in which the show's producer pays a radio or television station for air time, rather than exchanging programming for pay or the opportunity to play spot com ...
. The station also carries
Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. Since , the team has played its home gam ...
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 ...
games and 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 ...
for
Youngstown State Penguins football The Youngstown State Penguins football team represents Youngstown State University in American college football. Youngstown State currently plays as a member of the NCAA at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known a ...
and
basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
.


Former staff members

* Jack Berch began his radio career at WKBN. He went on to have '' The Jack Berch Show'', which ran at various times on four networks (1935–1954). *
Alan Freed Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout Nor ...
began his radio career at WKST in New Castle, Pennsylvania. before moving on to WKBN in Youngstown, Ohio. He went on to become a disc jockey on stations such as 850 WJW
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
and 1010 WINS New York City. Leo Mintz, owner of Record Rendezvous and sponsor of the first Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 21, 1952, is credited with calling young people's popular music by the term "
Rock and Roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
". *Dan Rivers was a veteran morning host on WKBN. He announced he'd be leaving the station in November 2024.InsideRadio.com "People Moves: Dan Rivers" Nov. 12, 2024.
/ref>


References


External links


FCC History Cards for WKBN
(covering 1975-1980) {{coord, 40, 59, 06, N, 80, 36, 00, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title KBN IHeartMedia radio stations News and talk radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1926 1926 establishments in Ohio