WBBR
Encyclopedia
WBBR is a radio station
broadcasting at 1130 AM
in New York City
. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P.
WBBR's format
is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives, economists and industry analysts.
The station's origins go back to 1922 as WAAM and 1925 as WODA. The station was acquired in 1934 by businessmen Milton Biow and Arde Bulova, who changed the call letters to WNEW, for "the NEWest thing in radio". A radio institution throughout the majority of the 20th century, WNEW is known for its music selection as well as its staff of radio personalities including Martin Block
, Dee Finch, Gene Rayburn, Gene Klaven and William B. Williams. WNEW is credited with pioneering the role of the disc jockey, as well as for developing the modern morning radio show format and debuting the first all-night radio show. In addition to its music and entertainment programming, WNEW featured an award-winning news desk and became "the voice of New York sports" for its coverage of New York Giants
football games.
After years of declining ratings and management changes in the 1980s, WNEW was purchased by Bloomberg L.P.
in 1992 and changed to WBBR. The first WBBR station (WBBR 1330) was created in 1924 and was owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses
.
, Fox News Sunday
, and This Week
and airs each of them twice on Sundays.
WBBR serves as an overflow station for WFAN
and airs games from New York and New Jersey teams, namely the New Jersey Devils
. New Jersey Nets
and New York Mets
, when there are scheduling overlaps. WBBR is also the flagship station for the Notre Dame football
-ISP Sports
Radio Network and carries St. John's basketball
games. It provides Westwood One
's coverage of the annual Masters Tournament.
to local radio stations across the country; it is one of three stations (KPIG
in Freedom, California
and 660, The Fan
in New York City being the other two) that are broadcast in this manner. Bloomberg Radio is also streamed live on Bloomberg.com.
As a small, independent radio station, WNEW lacked the funds larger networks Columbia Broadcasting System and Mutual Broadcasting System
used to produce daily programming common for that time such as comedy shows, soap operas and recipes. However, Judis was not discouraged, and even welcomed the opportunity to develop her own schedule of innovative programming that included playing recordings of popular music throughout the day, creating the first all-night radio show, Milkman's Matinee, and cultivating a line-up of popular morning radio show personalities.
In 1935, WNEW pioneered the concept of a disc jockey when staff announcer Martin Block
needed to fill time between new bulletins during his coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping
trial of Bruno Hauptmann
. Block did not have access to a live orchestra to play music during the breaks as most network stations did, so he played records instead. Soon afterward, he piloted a 15-minute experimental show called the Make Believe Ballroom, during which he played records from popular bands and singers, posed as a live performance in an imaginary ballroom. During Block's tenure as host of Make Believe Ballroom, the show attracted 25% of the listening audience in New York City. The show continued in sporadic runs until the station's end in 1992.
In 1936, as the popularity of recorded music grew, WNEW was the defendant in a lawsuit initiated by bandleaders Paul Whiteman
, Sammy Kaye
and Fred Waring
claiming that they playing of records on radio broadcasts was undermining performers' network contracts, which often called for exclusive services. The court ruled that WNEW, after purchasing each record, was allowed to broadcast it regardless of the resistance from artists. WNEW's victory subsequently authorized radio stations across the country to start playing recorded music and brought about the modern radio programming landscape.
In 1942, Judis set up a broadcast desk at the New York Daily News
and WNEW became the first station to break for hourly newscasts. The station ended its association with the Daily News in 1958 and went on to build its own news department with 13 reports and writers.
, and later Gene Klavan
, on a long-running morning show, Anything Goes, that often playfully mocked its own advertisers, who in turn were still eager to have their products touted on the popular show.
During this time, pop music was dividing between rock and roll and popular standards. Some stations moved to a predominantly rock and roll format and became known as "Top 40" station, where the most popular songs were played frequently, while others played popular standards with some softer rock and roll sounds, earning the name "Middle of the Road" (MOR) stations. At WNEW, deejays Ted Brown, Al Collins and William B. Williams helped define the MOR musical character of WNEW, lending their own "professionalism and elegance" to popular standards programming that included Frank Sinatra
, Nat King Cole
, Pat Boone
, The Beatles
and an occasional big band song from the 1940s.
The independent news desk at WNEW flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s and was considered the most elaborate news operation at an independent radio station during that time. WNEW sent reporters around the world to places like Cuba to interview Fidel Castro
and to Africa to interview medical missionary Albert Schweitzer
. In 1960, the station won a Peabody Award and an Associated Press Award for the best regularly scheduled news program in New York.
Long-time General Manager Bernice Judis left WNEW in 1959 and was replaced by John Van Buren Sullivan, who is best known for starting the station's affiliation with the New York Giants football team in 1960. Since home games were blacked out on television, as much as 60% of the New York radio audience relied on WNEW for play-by-play game coverage. WNEW broadcast Giants games, and later, Mets
, Rangers
and Knicks
games, as "the voice of New York sports" for more than 30 years, until it was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992.
Facing declining ratings, the station opted to return to its roots as a pop standards station in 1976. Popular shows such as Milkman's Matinee and the Make Believe Ballroom were both reinstated to their original formats and WNEW dropped the adult contemporary format completely by 1981.
In 1988, WNEW went through a major ownership change, as their owners, Metromedia
, sold half interest in the stations to Westwood One
for $22 million. Even with new additions to programming such as NBC Talknet
talk show
s Larry King
's radio show, the station's ratings continued to decline and Westwood One was forced to cut costs and downsize staff in an effort to attract potential buyers.
-owned WQEW
until January 4, 1993 when the new business news format of Bloomberg Radio aired for the first time.
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
broadcasting at 1130 AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
WBBR's format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives, economists and industry analysts.
The station's origins go back to 1922 as WAAM and 1925 as WODA. The station was acquired in 1934 by businessmen Milton Biow and Arde Bulova, who changed the call letters to WNEW, for "the NEWest thing in radio". A radio institution throughout the majority of the 20th century, WNEW is known for its music selection as well as its staff of radio personalities including Martin Block
Martin Block
Martin Block born in Los Angeles, California, was an American disc jockey. Walter Winchell is said to have invented the term "disk jockey" as a means of describing Block's radio work.-Early years:...
, Dee Finch, Gene Rayburn, Gene Klaven and William B. Williams. WNEW is credited with pioneering the role of the disc jockey, as well as for developing the modern morning radio show format and debuting the first all-night radio show. In addition to its music and entertainment programming, WNEW featured an award-winning news desk and became "the voice of New York sports" for its coverage of New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
football games.
After years of declining ratings and management changes in the 1980s, WNEW was purchased by Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
in 1992 and changed to WBBR. The first WBBR station (WBBR 1330) was created in 1924 and was owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
.
Programming
The original Bloomberg Radio news format divided each hour of the day into six 10-minutes segments, each of which contained financial market updates, business headlines, traffic, weather, sports, a human interest piece or a general updates about cultural happenings. However, by 2010, Bloomberg Radio had shifted from a headline service to a discussion-based format in order to offer more in-depth market and economic analysis. Each day, the station broadcasts more than 20 live interviews with economists, market analysts, authors and politicians on shows such as Bloomberg Surveillance with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt which airs weekday mornings from 7 a.m to 10 a.m.Non-business programming
In addition to its business programming, WBBR has radio broadcast rights to several of the national Sunday morning news programs such as Meet the PressMeet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
, Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is a public affairs program on the Fox network, hosted by Chris Wallace and airing on Sunday mornings. The show began on April 28, 1996, which predated the launch of Fox News Channel, and usually talks about items similar to Sunday morning talk shows...
, and This Week
This Week
This Week is the name of a number of television and radio programmes:* This Week , a Sunday morning political talk show broadcast on ABC in the United States...
and airs each of them twice on Sundays.
WBBR serves as an overflow station for WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
and airs games from New York and New Jersey teams, namely the New Jersey Devils
New Jersey Devils
The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey, United States. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League...
. New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
and New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
, when there are scheduling overlaps. WBBR is also the flagship station for the Notre Dame football
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football
Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...
-ISP Sports
ISP Sports
IMG College, is a sports marketing company formed from the acquisition of Host Communications in 2007 and ISP Sports in 2010.ISP Sports was founded in 1992 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina providing sports marketing and broadcast services for collegiate athletics across the United States. In...
Radio Network and carries St. John's basketball
St. John's Red Storm men's basketball
The St. John's Red Storm men's basketball team represents the St. John's University in Queens, New York. The team participates in the Big East Conference. The men’s coach Norm Roberts was fired on March 19, 2010...
games. It provides Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
's coverage of the annual Masters Tournament.
Bloomberg radio simulcasts
An audio simulcast of selected Bloomberg Radio programming is available from satellite radio providers XM Radio and Sirius Radio. Additionally, most programming is carried by Dial Global Networks and syndicated by United Stations Radio NetworksUnited Stations Radio Networks
United Stations Radio Networks is a radio network providing a wide range of programs and programming services for radio stations across the US and elsewhere...
to local radio stations across the country; it is one of three stations (KPIG
KPIG
KPIG-FM is a radio station located near the city of Santa Cruz, California, USA. Founded in 1988, the studio is based in Watsonville, California, and broadcasts to the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey. It also has a radio repeater on 94.9 MHz FM in San Luis Obispo County as KPYG...
in Freedom, California
Freedom, California
Freedom is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 3,070 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Freedom is located at ....
and 660, The Fan
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
in New York City being the other two) that are broadcast in this manner. Bloomberg Radio is also streamed live on Bloomberg.com.
1930s-1940s
WNEW was acquired in 1934 by advertising executive Milton Biow and watch manufacturer Arde Bulova after the Amalgamated Broadcasting System failed and began selling off its radio stations. New York socialite Bernice Judis was hired as WNEW's first General Manager.As a small, independent radio station, WNEW lacked the funds larger networks Columbia Broadcasting System and Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
used to produce daily programming common for that time such as comedy shows, soap operas and recipes. However, Judis was not discouraged, and even welcomed the opportunity to develop her own schedule of innovative programming that included playing recordings of popular music throughout the day, creating the first all-night radio show, Milkman's Matinee, and cultivating a line-up of popular morning radio show personalities.
In 1935, WNEW pioneered the concept of a disc jockey when staff announcer Martin Block
Martin Block
Martin Block born in Los Angeles, California, was an American disc jockey. Walter Winchell is said to have invented the term "disk jockey" as a means of describing Block's radio work.-Early years:...
needed to fill time between new bulletins during his coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping
Lindbergh kidnapping
The kidnapping of Charles Augustus Lindbergh, Jr., was the abduction of the son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The toddler, 18 months old at the time, was abducted from his family home in East Amwell, New Jersey, near the town of Hopewell, New Jersey, on the evening of...
trial of Bruno Hauptmann
Bruno Hauptmann
Bruno Richard Hauptmann was a German ex-convict sentenced to death for the abduction and murder of the 20-month-old son of Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The Lindbergh kidnapping became known as "The Crime of the Century".-Background:Hauptmann was born in Kamenz in the German Empire,...
. Block did not have access to a live orchestra to play music during the breaks as most network stations did, so he played records instead. Soon afterward, he piloted a 15-minute experimental show called the Make Believe Ballroom, during which he played records from popular bands and singers, posed as a live performance in an imaginary ballroom. During Block's tenure as host of Make Believe Ballroom, the show attracted 25% of the listening audience in New York City. The show continued in sporadic runs until the station's end in 1992.
In 1936, as the popularity of recorded music grew, WNEW was the defendant in a lawsuit initiated by bandleaders Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman
Paul Samuel Whiteman was an American bandleader and orchestral director.Leader of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s, Whiteman's recordings were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz"...
, Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye
Sammy Kaye , born Samuel Zarnocay, Jr., was an American bandleader and songwriter, whose tag line, "Swing and sway with Sammy Kaye", became one of the most famous of the Big Band Era.-Biography:...
and Fred Waring
Fred Waring
Fredrick Malcolm Waring was a popular musician, bandleader and radio-television personality, sometimes referred to as "America's Singing Master" and "The Man Who Taught America How to Sing." He was also a promoter, financial backer and namesake of the Waring Blendor, the first modern electric...
claiming that they playing of records on radio broadcasts was undermining performers' network contracts, which often called for exclusive services. The court ruled that WNEW, after purchasing each record, was allowed to broadcast it regardless of the resistance from artists. WNEW's victory subsequently authorized radio stations across the country to start playing recorded music and brought about the modern radio programming landscape.
In 1942, Judis set up a broadcast desk at the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
and WNEW became the first station to break for hourly newscasts. The station ended its association with the Daily News in 1958 and went on to build its own news department with 13 reports and writers.
1950s-1960s
Through the 1950s and 1960s, WNEW's programming was largely based on a low-key, personality-driven format, with a line-up of deejays whose approach to radio evolved into what today might be termed "shock jock radio". Dee Finch teamed up with Gene RayburnGene Rayburn
Gene Rayburn was an American radio and television personality. He is best known as the host of various editions of the popular American television game show Match Game for over two decades....
, and later Gene Klavan
Gene Klavan
Gene Klavan , was an American disc-jockey columnist and author.-Early years:Klavan was born in Baltimore, Md. and attended Baltimore City College . His radio career began at WTOP in Washington D.C...
, on a long-running morning show, Anything Goes, that often playfully mocked its own advertisers, who in turn were still eager to have their products touted on the popular show.
During this time, pop music was dividing between rock and roll and popular standards. Some stations moved to a predominantly rock and roll format and became known as "Top 40" station, where the most popular songs were played frequently, while others played popular standards with some softer rock and roll sounds, earning the name "Middle of the Road" (MOR) stations. At WNEW, deejays Ted Brown, Al Collins and William B. Williams helped define the MOR musical character of WNEW, lending their own "professionalism and elegance" to popular standards programming that included Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and an occasional big band song from the 1940s.
The independent news desk at WNEW flourished in the late 1950s and early 1960s and was considered the most elaborate news operation at an independent radio station during that time. WNEW sent reporters around the world to places like Cuba to interview Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...
and to Africa to interview medical missionary Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
. In 1960, the station won a Peabody Award and an Associated Press Award for the best regularly scheduled news program in New York.
Long-time General Manager Bernice Judis left WNEW in 1959 and was replaced by John Van Buren Sullivan, who is best known for starting the station's affiliation with the New York Giants football team in 1960. Since home games were blacked out on television, as much as 60% of the New York radio audience relied on WNEW for play-by-play game coverage. WNEW broadcast Giants games, and later, Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
, Rangers
New York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
and Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
games, as "the voice of New York sports" for more than 30 years, until it was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992.
1970s-1980s
The 1960s and 1970s marked a period of programmatic confusion for WNEW as listeners' musical tastes continued to evolve and the station struggled to maintain an adult pop standards audience that was being replaced by an expanding youth market. In an effort to attract young listeners, WNEW began to air Top 40 hits, despite resistance from established deejays like Williams who helped build WNEW's pop standards tradition. In the early 1970s, WNEW shifted its programming again and tried an adult contemporary format. The station also cut back on music and shortened programs like Milkman's Matinee, which as renamed The Nightmare Show.Facing declining ratings, the station opted to return to its roots as a pop standards station in 1976. Popular shows such as Milkman's Matinee and the Make Believe Ballroom were both reinstated to their original formats and WNEW dropped the adult contemporary format completely by 1981.
In 1988, WNEW went through a major ownership change, as their owners, Metromedia
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
, sold half interest in the stations to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...
for $22 million. Even with new additions to programming such as NBC Talknet
NBC Talknet
NBC Talknet was a nighttime programming block on the NBC Radio Network from the 1980s to the 1990s. It comprised several advice-oriented call-in talk shows, the most notable personalities being Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael...
talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
s Larry King
Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
's radio show, the station's ratings continued to decline and Westwood One was forced to cut costs and downsize staff in an effort to attract potential buyers.
1990s-present
WNEW was put up for sale in 1991, and Bloomberg L.P. purchased the station for $13.5 million shortly after. WNEW's farewell show aired on December 11, 1992 and the station simulcast traditional pop standards on The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
-owned WQEW
WQEW
WQEW is a Radio Disney affiliate licensed to New York City. Its transmitter is located in Maspeth, Queens. WQEW has a transmitter power of 50,000 watts and is listed as a Clear-channel station...
until January 4, 1993 when the new business news format of Bloomberg Radio aired for the first time.