WUFO
Encyclopedia
WUFO, Western New York's first radio station programming to the African-American community, began in 1961 when famed station owner Gordon McLendon
moved his then 1080 am WYSL to 1400 am. McLendon sold the 1080 frequency to Leonard Walk, a Jewish man with a group of Black formatted stations (WAMO Pittsburgh, WILD
Boston
). When Leonard Walk bought the 1080 frequency in 1961, the original desired call letters were "WJOE" for "W-JOE in Buffalo
". Since the WJOE calls were unavailable, the owner instead chose the "WUFO" call letters and named the station "WU-FO in Buffalo". These call letters provided the rhyming and identification with Buffalo that the owners desired.
WUFO 1080 am began broadcasting on November 2, 1962 with famed Cleveland
Disc Jockey Eddie O'Jay as the first on the air with the rhythm and blues
format.
WUFO has provided the nation with some of the most popular Black announcers. Some of the announcers that worked at WUFO over the years include Frankie Crocker
, Gary Byrd, Herb Hamlett, Jerry Bledsoe, Thelka McCall and her son Dwayne Dancer Donovan, Don Allen, Don Mullins, Sunny Jim Kelsey, Mansfield Manns Jr,III., Al Brisbane, Jimmy Lyons, H.F. Stone, Chucky T, Al Parker, Gary Lanier, Kelly Carson, Darcel Howell, Mouzon, David Wilson, Byron Pitts, Mark Vann, and "The Discotizer" Keith Pollard. Jimmie Raye 1969-1971 morning show 6AM-10AM was number one for the time slot. He moved to LA to record music and produce his TV Special for NBC in 1976, "The Soul Thing."
In 1973 the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation purchased Dynamic Broadcasting making WUFO the only Black
owned station in Western New York
. Today the station plays Gospel music with community oriented talk and Soul
Oldies
on the weekends. Thirty-four years later, Sheridan still owns the station.
As of 2010, WUFO is the only terrestrial gospel station in Western New York
; a competing gospel station was operated by the Totally Gospel network on WBBF
from 1997 to 2006 and on WHLD
from 2006 to 2010, but that network canceled its leases in 2010 and is currently broadcasting only on the Internet.
, a Buffalo suburb. A construction permit was granted in April 1947. The original calls for the construction permit were WNYB, but when the station signed on in January 1948, it had the new calls WXRA. The city of license was changed from Kenmore to Buffalo in 1952, although its studios and facilities remained in Kenmore. For the first decade or so of its existence, WXRA was a little-noticed full-service radio station offering a wide variety of music and local news.
George "Hound Dog" Lorenz, who later became a Buffalo radio legend on WKBW
and started up WBLK
-FM in 1964, had a show on WXRA during its early years, but was eventually fired for playing too much "race music" (the terminology used for R&B
music in those days). After WKBW adopted a Top 40 playlist approach in the late 1950s and took away Lorenz' privilege of playing what he wanted, Lorenz would return to 1080 AM and would eventually attempt to purchase the station, but was outbid by Gordon McLendon
.
In 1957, Podbielniak and Sanders sold WXRA to John W. Kluge, who would go on to found Metromedia
(owners of WNEW-TV
in New York City). Kluge changed the station's calls to WINE and debuted a Top 40 music format on 1080 on October 15, 1957. WINE's mascot was a caricature of an inebriated Frenchman, and the station's slogan was "It goes to your head!" WINE's city of license was changed from Buffalo to Amherst in 1959, although by then the station's studio and transmitter were located on LaSalle Avenue, in Buffalo itself.
Acclaimed broadcaster Gordon McLendon
purchased WINE in 1960. In April, McLendon changed the calls to WYSL (for "Whistle") and dropped the Top 40 format in favor of Beautiful Music
. Toward the end of 1961, however, McLendon moved the WYSL calls and easy listening format to the 1400 spot
on the AM dial (formerly WBNY). He sold the 1080 frequency to Dynamic Broadcasting, who instituted the WUFO call sign and recrafted the station as the first radio broadcaster programmed for Buffalo's Black community.
Donald C. Mullins, Sr. was WUFO's General Manager from 1968 until 1981. He received numerous accolades while holding the position at WUFO. He was very well known not only in Buffalo, but all over the radio world.
Today's WEDG
, 103.3 FM, was originally the FM side of WXRA (as WXRC) and then of WINE (as WILY and then WINE-FM) in the 1950s. However, Gordon McLendon retained control of the FM station after selling off 1080 to Dynamic and moving the intellectual property of WYSL and its beautiful music format to 1400.
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
moved his then 1080 am WYSL to 1400 am. McLendon sold the 1080 frequency to Leonard Walk, a Jewish man with a group of Black formatted stations (WAMO Pittsburgh, WILD
WILD (AM)
WILD 1090 AM is a radio station licensed to Boston, Massachusetts. It broadcasts on 1090 kHz and airs programming from China Radio International under a lease agreement...
Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
). When Leonard Walk bought the 1080 frequency in 1961, the original desired call letters were "WJOE" for "W-JOE in Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
". Since the WJOE calls were unavailable, the owner instead chose the "WUFO" call letters and named the station "WU-FO in Buffalo". These call letters provided the rhyming and identification with Buffalo that the owners desired.
WUFO 1080 am began broadcasting on November 2, 1962 with famed Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
Disc Jockey Eddie O'Jay as the first on the air with the rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
format.
WUFO has provided the nation with some of the most popular Black announcers. Some of the announcers that worked at WUFO over the years include Frankie Crocker
Frankie Crocker
Frankie "Hollywood" Crocker was a famous New York radio DJ...
, Gary Byrd, Herb Hamlett, Jerry Bledsoe, Thelka McCall and her son Dwayne Dancer Donovan, Don Allen, Don Mullins, Sunny Jim Kelsey, Mansfield Manns Jr,III., Al Brisbane, Jimmy Lyons, H.F. Stone, Chucky T, Al Parker, Gary Lanier, Kelly Carson, Darcel Howell, Mouzon, David Wilson, Byron Pitts, Mark Vann, and "The Discotizer" Keith Pollard. Jimmie Raye 1969-1971 morning show 6AM-10AM was number one for the time slot. He moved to LA to record music and produce his TV Special for NBC in 1976, "The Soul Thing."
In 1973 the Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation purchased Dynamic Broadcasting making WUFO the only Black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
owned station in Western New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Today the station plays Gospel music with community oriented talk and Soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
Oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
on the weekends. Thirty-four years later, Sheridan still owns the station.
As of 2010, WUFO is the only terrestrial gospel station in Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
; a competing gospel station was operated by the Totally Gospel network on WBBF
WBBF
WBBF is a radio station located in Buffalo, New York and broadcasting at a frequency of 1120 kHz on the AM band with a daytime power of 1000 watts....
from 1997 to 2006 and on WHLD
WHLD
WHLD is an AM radio station licensed to Niagara Falls, New York with an adult standards format. The station resides at 1270 kHz on the dial and is owned by Citadel Communications.-History and programming:...
from 2006 to 2010, but that network canceled its leases in 2010 and is currently broadcasting only on the Internet.
Pre-WUFO: WXRA, WINE and WYSL
The roots of today's WUFO can actually be traced back to 1946, when Thaddeus Podbielniak and Edwin R. Sanders (d/b/a Western New York Broadcasting Company) applied to the FCC to construct a 1,000-watt AM radio station in Kenmore, New YorkKenmore, New York
Village of Kenmore is a village in Erie County, New York, in the United States. The population was 16,426 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area....
, a Buffalo suburb. A construction permit was granted in April 1947. The original calls for the construction permit were WNYB, but when the station signed on in January 1948, it had the new calls WXRA. The city of license was changed from Kenmore to Buffalo in 1952, although its studios and facilities remained in Kenmore. For the first decade or so of its existence, WXRA was a little-noticed full-service radio station offering a wide variety of music and local news.
George "Hound Dog" Lorenz, who later became a Buffalo radio legend on WKBW
WWKB
WWKB is an AM radio station in Buffalo, New York that operates on a frequency of 1520 kHz. It is owned and operated by Entercom Communications. The station carries a progressive talk radio format. Declaring itself as A New Voice, A New Choice, The Voice of the New Majority; WWKB carries a number...
and started up WBLK
WBLK
WBLK is an Urban contemporary FM radio station licensed to Depew that serves Buffalo. WBLK plays the musical genres of hip hop, R&B, urban contemporary gospel, and soul. WBLK celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2005, making WBLK the oldest urban FM radio station in the United States of America. Its...
-FM in 1964, had a show on WXRA during its early years, but was eventually fired for playing too much "race music" (the terminology used for R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
music in those days). After WKBW adopted a Top 40 playlist approach in the late 1950s and took away Lorenz' privilege of playing what he wanted, Lorenz would return to 1080 AM and would eventually attempt to purchase the station, but was outbid by Gordon McLendon
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
.
In 1957, Podbielniak and Sanders sold WXRA to John W. Kluge, who would go on to found 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 :...
(owners of WNEW-TV
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
in New York City). Kluge changed the station's calls to WINE and debuted a Top 40 music format on 1080 on October 15, 1957. WINE's mascot was a caricature of an inebriated Frenchman, and the station's slogan was "It goes to your head!" WINE's city of license was changed from Buffalo to Amherst in 1959, although by then the station's studio and transmitter were located on LaSalle Avenue, in Buffalo itself.
Acclaimed broadcaster Gordon McLendon
Gordon McLendon
Gordon Barton McLendon was a radio pioneer and pirate radio broadcaster. He has been coined the Maverick of Radio. McLendon is widely credited for perfecting, with great commercial success, the Top 40 radio format during the 1950s and 1960s which was first invented by Todd Storz and for developing...
purchased WINE in 1960. In April, McLendon changed the calls to WYSL (for "Whistle") and dropped the Top 40 format in favor of Beautiful Music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
. Toward the end of 1961, however, McLendon moved the WYSL calls and easy listening format to the 1400 spot
WWWS
WWWS is a radio station broadcasting a Rhythmic Oldies format. Licensed to Buffalo, New York, USA, the station serves the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area...
on the AM dial (formerly WBNY). He sold the 1080 frequency to Dynamic Broadcasting, who instituted the WUFO call sign and recrafted the station as the first radio broadcaster programmed for Buffalo's Black community.
Donald C. Mullins, Sr. was WUFO's General Manager from 1968 until 1981. He received numerous accolades while holding the position at WUFO. He was very well known not only in Buffalo, but all over the radio world.
Today's WEDG
WEDG
WEDG is a radio station in Buffalo, New York, USA. The station's on air branding is "103.3 The Edge" and broadcasts on 103.3 MHz FM. WEDG has an active rock format and is best known for its afternoon-drive hosts, "Shredd and Ragan," and being the co-flagship of the Buffalo Bills Radio Network...
, 103.3 FM, was originally the FM side of WXRA (as WXRC) and then of WINE (as WILY and then WINE-FM) in the 1950s. However, Gordon McLendon retained control of the FM station after selling off 1080 to Dynamic and moving the intellectual property of WYSL and its beautiful music format to 1400.