WBLK

WBLK

City of license	Depew, New York
Broadcast area	Buffalo
Branding	"93.7 WBLK"
Slogan	The People's Station
Frequency	93.7 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	December 10, 1965
Format	Urban Contemporary
ERP	47,000 watts
HAAT	154 meters
Class	B
Callsign meaning	W Benjamin L. Kulek W B LacK
Owner	Townsquare Media (Townsquare Media of Buffalo, Inc.)
Website	www.wblk.com

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 transmitter is located in Buffalo.

WBLK is currently owned by Townsquare Media. It is the Buffalo area's radio home for the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show.

History

WBLK-FM began in 1965 as an urban contemporary station that primarily played R&B and soul. The station was founded by legendary Buffalo radio personality George Lorenz ("Hound Dog"), who had earlier championed rhythm-and-blues music on other area stations such as WXRA, WINE (both of these stations were predecessors of today's WUFO/1080 AM), WJJL, and WKBW. Lorenz's voice was heard on the station from its inception until his death in 1972. WBLK can be classified as a "heritage" station; it has held the same basic format and call signs for its entire existence, and as such, it is one of the longest continuously running formats in Buffalo radio today. The station also regularly ranks in the top 5 radio stations in Buffalo's Arbitron ratings. Some on air personality's were,"Mr. Blues" Ernie Jones, Roosevelt Tucker, Bradley J. Cool, Chuckie T, Mansfield Mann's,Jerry Young, Gary Lanier, Ron Baskin, Don Allen Sr, Don Allen Jr, Don Robinson, & Freddie Patrick. WBLK went from a mono signal to stereo in 1974. With a playlist called the Funky Forty, at 3 PM that Monday when Don Robinson flipped the switch and the stereo light flickered on the first song was "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye.

Contrary to popular belief, despite WBLK's format and target audience, its call letters do not stand for the word "BLacK" per se; rather, they are a tribute to Benjamin L. Kulek, who was a major financial backer of the station when it first went on the air.

In August 1995, WBLK's original owners and founders sold the station to Boston-based American Radio Systems. In 1997, Westinghouse (now CBS Corporation) would purchase WBLK and all of ARS' stations for $2.6 Billion. Westinghouse would be purchased by Infinity Broadcasting in 1999. Infinity Broadcasting would become CBS Radio in December 2005.

WBLK began streaming its programming on the Internet on November 13, 2006, and was sold by CBS Radio to Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) in December 2006. Prior to the sale, WBLK was CBS Radio's last urban contemporary station outside the southern United States since the company now only owns two urban contemporary stations -- WVEE Atlanta & WPEG Charlotte, North Carolina (WPGC-FM in Washington, D.C. is an urban contemporary reporter per Nielsen BDS & the station's parent CBS Radio, but they are rhythmic contemporary per Mediabase reports, and therefore is not urban contemporary despite being the only rhythmic in the Washington, D.C. area since the Washington/Baltimore area is fielded by Radio One's WKYS & WERQ).

In late 2009, WBLK launched an ongoing consciousness awakening campaign.

Audience in Canada

In the 1980s and '90s, WBLK also had a significant listenership among fans of urban music in Toronto, which did not have an urban-format radio station. Many commercials were geared at listeners in Southern Ontario. The Toronto audience's reliance on an American station with no Canadian content requirements, in turn, significantly impacted the commercial development of Canadian hip hop and R&B.

However, after the launch of CFXJ-FM in 2001 on the adjacent 93.5 frequency, WBLK became much harder to receive on some radio receivers with weaker tuners, and thus lost much of its prominence in the Toronto market.

External links

• Official WBLK Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WBLK
• Radio-Locator information on WBLK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WBLK