WLEA (1480 AM) is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

broadcasting a

talk radio 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, Interview (jo ...

format. Licensed to

Hornell, New York Hornell is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in Steuben County, New York, Steuben County, New York, United States. The population was 8,259 at the 2020 census. The city is named after the Hornell family, early settlers. The City ...

, United States, the station serves the Canisteo Valley area, and is a part of the Elmira Corning Radio Market The station is currently owned by Dawn Ichikawa through licensee GRI Telecom, and operated by Robert Savage as a simulcast of WYSL in Avon, New York as part of a

local marketing agreement In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one corporation, company agrees to operate a radio station, radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it ...

FM translator

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 ...

is used to widen the coverage area of WLEA, especially at night when the

AM broadcasting 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") transm ...

signal reduces power to only 19

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

History

WLEA signed on in 1948 on 1320 kHz; two years later, the 1320 slot was bought out by WWHG, later the now-defunct WHHO, necessitating the station to move to a new frequency. It was part of the

Mutual Broadcasting System The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Golden Age of Radio, ...

. Actor

Bob Crane Robert Edward CraneCrane, Robert (2015). Crane : Sex, Celebrity, and My Father's Unsolved Murder'. Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky. p. 100. . (July 13, 1928 – June 29, 1978) was an American acting, actor, drummer, rad ...

was one of the station's earliest employees, beginning as a janitor and later hosting "The 1480 Club." The station's owner Pmj Communications was founded by Kevin Doran, who also hosted the station's morning show for a time in the 1970s, then again from the early 1990s until his death in 2015; his estate continued to own the company and sister station WCKR until 2024. Previously, the station was owned by Charlie Henderson, who represented Hornell in the State Assembly (1956–1981). Programming heard on WLEA includes This Morning: America's First News, The Rush Limbaugh Show,

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 ...

, Jim Bohannon,

John Batchelor John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and the host of ''Eye on the World'' on the CBS Audio Network. His flagship station is WOR in New York City. The show is a hard-news-analysis radio program on current events, wo ...

, a local interview show called "Newsmaker Show" and the "1480 Club", as well as local news updates,

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 ...

and

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, ...

. WLEA is the broadcast home of the Hornell Dodgers team and also carries Hornell High School athletics (sister station WCKR carries Canisteo–Greenwood High School sports). The Doran estate had been under substantial financial distress since January 2020, forcing them to briefly take WCKR to an all-talk format to reduce the cost of music royalties. On November 6, 2024, it was announced that WLEA 1480 along with its FM translator 106.9 W295CW, will shutdown permanently on November 11, 2024, due to lack of sponsors and support.Sad news: Hornell’s WLEA 1480 AM radio will go silent in days
Wellsville Sun - November 6, 2024 Doran's son Brendan had been in negotiations to sell the station to Gordon Ichikawa, which had been foiled by Ichikawa's death in December 2023; Ichikawa's widow Dawn eventually agreed to buy the station. Days after the announcement, radio station WYSL in Avon, New York agreed to provide programming to WLEA to keep the station operational.

References

External links

{{Elmira-Corning Radio LEA News and talk radio stations in the United States Hornell, New York