WWWL (1350 AM, "The Bet New Orleans") is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts a sports gambling format. The station's studios are located at the

400 Poydras Tower 400 Poydras Tower, formerly known as the Texaco Center, located at 400 Poydras Street in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana, is a 32-story, -tall skyscraper. Built in 1983, this modern office tower features more than of offi ...

Downtown New Orleans In New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, downtown has historically referred to neighborhoods along the Mississippi River, downriver (roughly northeast) from Canal Street – including the French Quarter, Tremé, Faubourg Marigny, Bywater, t ...

. The

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to ...

site is in Algiers, near the city limits of Gretna and Terrytown. The station operates at 5,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...

s around the clock, although after sunset, it switches to a directional antenna. The station is simulcast on FM translator station W225CZ (92.9 FM).

History

Early years

This station carried the

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assig ...

WSMB from its founding until 2006. It

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A dig ...

the airwaves April 1, 1925, as New Orleans' first professional radio station, a joint commercial venture by the local Saenger Theatre and the

Maison Blanche Maison Blanche (''White House'' in French) was a department store in New Orleans, Louisiana, and later also a chain of department stores. It was founded in 1897 by Isidore Newman, an immigrant from Germany. Maison Blanche is perhaps best remem ...

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

. Programming was provided by the Saenger, allowing Maison Blanche to sell radio sets in the store so customers could hear the station's programming. For most of its early history, the studios were located on the thirteenth floor of the Maison Blanche Building on Canal Street, a few blocks from the theater. By the 1930s, WSMB was an

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation pla ...

of the

NBC Red Network The National Broadcasting Company's NBC Radio Network (known as the NBC Red Network prior to 1942) was an American commercial radio network which was in operation from 1926 through 2004. Along with the NBC Blue Network it was one of the first ...

, carrying its schedule of dramas, comedies, news, sports,

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

s 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 ...

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 ...

Switch to MOR and talk

As network programming shifted to TV in the 1960s, WSMB moved to a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: * Full-service radio, a wide range of programming * Full Service Network, a communications company Entertainment * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block'' * Fu ...

format of

middle of the road music Middle of the road (also known by its acronym MOR) is a commercial radio format and popular music genre. Music associated with this term is strongly melodic and uses techniques of vocal harmony and light orchestral arrangements. The format was even ...

(MOR), news and talk. WSMB found success in the ratings, primarily on the strength of morning

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 cla ...

personalities Roy Roberts and Jeff Hugg, known as "Nut and Jeff," and midday political talk show host, Keith Rush. Musically, the station in the 1960s was a mix of pop standards and the softer sounds of

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

. In the 1970s, WSMB moved to a more

adult contemporary music 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 present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...

sound. The station played moderate amounts of music during morning and afternoon drive times while being music intensive and leaning toward

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

overnights and weekends. By 1980, as music listening shifted to FM, WSMB's ratings had dropped. The station gradually cut back on music through the early 1980s. By 1985, WSMB was strictly news and talk, using the ABC Radio Information Network and its Talk Radio service. Moving to all talk still did not bring ratings up. In 1988, WSMB was sold to Winton Communications, which kept the talk format in place but could not improve the ratings.

Move to all-talk and sports

In 1996, WSMB was bought by the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

, which also owned the news-talk powerhouse 870 WWL. Sinclair turned WSMB into a

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 ...

of WWL, running talk programs that weren't available on AM 870, and adding WWL's newsgathering expertise. In 1999, Sinclair sold its New Orleans radio stations to Entercom. WWWL began broadcasting sporting events that were bumped from WWL due to scheduling conflicts, including basketball and football from LSU and

Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into a comprehensive pu ...

. The station was the radio home of the New Orleans Brass minor league hockey team from 1997 to 2002 and has sometimes been a local radio outlet for national broadcasts of

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

football. With all the sporting events on WSMB's schedule, it became an all-sports station between 1999 and 2001. Programming at that time included

syndicated Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

shows from

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN" ...

and an afternoon show hosted by local sports commentator Kaare Johnson. Other local personalities heard on the station included sports trainer Mackie Shilstone. There was a period where most programming consisted of psychological call-in shows, featuring hosts such as Dr. Laura and Dr.

Joy Browne Joy Browne (born Joy Oppenheim; October 24, 1944—August 27, 2016), also known as Dr. Joy, was an American talk show host, specializing in advice counselling. She hosted a nationally syndicated call-in talk show for several decades, heard ...

. From 2005 until November 2006, the station carried a

progressive talk radio Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included syndicated and independ ...

format as an affiliate of

Air America Radio Air America (formerly Air America Radio and Air America Media) was an American radio network specializing in progressive talk radio. It was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010. The network was founded as a left wing alternative to counte ...

. ''The Food Show'' with

Tom Fitzmorris Tom Fitzmorris (born February 6, 1951) is a New Orleans food critic, radio host and author. Mr. Fitzmorris a Certified Culinary Professional by the IACP. He began publishing a newsletter, The New Orleans MENU, in 1977. That newsletter continu ...

remained on the air through all these format changes. It is the longest-running talk show of any kind in New Orleans, airing weekdays since July 18, 1988, and now heard on WWL-FM HD2 or in podcast format.

Hurricane Katrina

The station's previous studios adjacent to the

Louisiana Superdome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

were destroyed in August 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. Its frequency, as well as all other operational Entercom and Clear Channel frequencies, was used to

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/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, simult ...

the programming produced by the

United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans was a wikt:consortium, consortium of radio stations in Greater New Orleans, Louisiana, formed in response to the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. It began on September 1, 2005. Led by WWL (AM), WWL-AM, the sta ...

with the staff of sister station WWL. Normal programming was resumed on December 19, 2005.

Change to WWWL

The WSMB call letters were relinquished in November 2006, when the programming was switched to repeats of shows originated on WWL, becoming "WWWL - WWL On Demand." The WSMB call sign was picked up by another Entercom station located in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

(which became WMFS in 2009). WWWL Logo

On June 30, 2008,

returned to AM 1350, as WWWL became a full-time affiliate. On October 14, 2013, WWWL re-branded as ''3WL: Sports, Food & Fun''; the format would continue to primarily feature sports programming, switching to

NBC Sports Radio NBC Sports Radio was a sports radio network that debuted on September 4, 2012. The network content was produced by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and distributed by Westwood One, which is the corporate successor to the remains of t ...

and featuring a morning show with T-Bob Hebert and Kristian Garic, but with an afternoon lineup featuring lifestyle programming such as

' ''The Food Show'', and John "Spud" McConnell moving from WWL midday to host afternoon drive. On February 9, 2017, WWWL began running announcements redirecting 3WL listeners to

WWL-FM WWL-FM (105.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station, licensed to Kenner, Louisiana, and serving the New Orleans metropolitan area. It is owned by Audacy, Inc. and airs a news-talk and sports radio format, simulcast with WWL. The station's studio ...

HD2 HD1 is a proposed Redshift#Extragalactic observations, high-redshift galaxy, and is considered, as of April 2022, to be one of the earliest and most List of the most distant astronomical objects, distant known galaxies yet identified in the ob ...

, where the format would be moving full-time. The next day at noon, WWWL flipped to

urban adult contemporary 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 ...

as "Hot 103.7," utilizing new FM translator W279DF to enable its signal to be heard with FM quality. The first song on "Hot" was "

Rude Boy Rude boy, rudeboy, rudie, rudi, and rudy are slang terms that originated in 1960s Jamaican street culture, and that are still used today. In the late 1970s, there was a revival in England of the terms ''rude boy'' and ''rude girl'', among other ...

" by

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to t ...

. The new format competes with market-leading

WYLD-FM WYLD-FM (98.5 MHz) is a commercial radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana, and one of the highest-rated radio stations in the market. It airs an Urban Adult Contemporary radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offic ...

and KMEZ with a younger skewing take on the format, focusing solely on R&B hits from the 1990s through today, as opposed to the

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop. The term has sev ...

s of its two competitors, who include songs from the 1970s and 1980s. On February 14, 2018, WWWL flipped to an

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, but maintained the ''Hot'' branding and on-air staff. The station now focuses primarily on classic R&B from the 1970s and 1980s. On April 11, 2018, WWWL's FM translator W279DF was replaced by W225CZ, which operates from a taller antenna at 92.9 FM. At the same time, the station re-branded accordingly as ''Hot 92.9''. On June 28, 2021 WWWL/W225CZ flipped to sports gambling, branded as "The Bet New Orleans." The previous urban oldies format and "Hot" branding will continue to air on WLMG-HD2.Audacy Flips Seven Stations to BetQL Network, branded as 'The Bet'
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References

External links

FCC History Cards for WWWL
* * * *
Article on WWWL's format flip
{{Entercom

WWWL WWWL (1350 AM, "The Bet New Orleans") is a commercial radio station in New Orleans, Louisiana. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts a sports gambling format. The station's studios are located at the 400 Poydras Tower in Downtown New Orleans. T ...

Radio stations established in 1925 Audacy, Inc. radio stations Sports radio stations in the United States CBS Sports Radio stations