Buffalo Born

At long last, the rebirth of legacy radio station WEBR is making a comeback to its hometown of Buffalo New York, at 1440 on the AM dial!  After a 27 year absence, this historic “Buffalo Born” radio station is bound to have a strong re-emergence on local airwaves which will be music to the ears of Western New Yorker's who could not find any trace of the classic standards from the "Great American Song Book" anywhere on the AM or FM dial. Hearing this music again will bring a touch of class and a new choice to starved radio listeners. WEBR was born in Buffalo on October 14th, 1924. Buffalo Electrical engineer Herbert H. Howell built and signed on WEBR at 54 Niagara Street in downtown Buffalo. In 1936 The Buffalo News bought the station then sold it to the Courier-Express Newspaper in1942. For many decades WEBR's studios and tower were located at its historic broadcast center site at 23 North Street in Buffalo. On July 8th, 2014 a historic building was demolished by the city of Buffalo after it was struck by lightning. 

By the mid-1920s, WEBR had a full staff including a 27 piece orchestra and a talented cast of actors performing a variety of live programs each day from its main studio at 23 North Street. Millions of Western New Yorkers grew up listening to WEBR "The Sound of The City" which became a historic broadcast institution. It was one of the most popular radio stations in Buffalo's media history. Many popular iconic local broadcast personalities made their mark on the airwaves of WEBR. You can find their names today enshrined in the Buffalo Broadcasters Association "Hall of Fame". In 1930 it was a young Buffalo Broadcaster and writer Fran Striker who created wrote and produced the first episodes of the classic "The Lone Ranger" series which premiered on WEBR then went on for many years across the country on national network radio then moved to TV in the early 1950s. Through the 1940s and 50's Bob Wells, one of the most popular DJs of all time on Buffalo Radio created the first live teen dance radio show called "Hi Teen" in 1946 at the Dellwood Ballroom at Main and Utica Streets broadcast each Saturday afternoon. In 1952 TV producers in Philadelphia offered Bob Wells the opportunity to host the TV version of the show which he refused. They found a young Phili DJ named Dick Clark to host what became for many decades "American Bandstand" on national TV. In 1931 WEBR would be the first radio station to broadcast a non-English speaking ethnic program starring Emileno Rico of Buffalo. WEBR also continues to feature daily one of America's longest-running talk shows, hosted by life long area radio legend Tom Darro.  

For 71 years WEBR served Western New Yorkers till its last owner Buffalo's Public TV station WNED purchased WEBR in 1975 then dropped the WEBR call letters in 1993 changing them to WNED. Another station pickup the call letters and just recently had a chance to make the call letters available to come home to Buffalo. As fate or luck would have it Kenmore Broadcasting of Buffalo was quick to apply to the FCC and has been awarded the WEBR call letters. It was due to the persistent efforts of two Buffalo natives Bill Yuhnke and Don Angelo that 97 years later WEBR will sign on once again in its home town of Buffalo, NY.