WFBL
WFBL, located at 1390 kHz on the AM dial, is an oldies music radio station owned by Buckley Broadcasting and serving the city of Syracuse, New York.
WFBL's call sign stands for "First Broadcast License" because the station was the first FCC-licensed radio station to sign on in central New York in 1922. The station has changed call signs, frequencies, and formats frequently in its long history, settling today on an oldies music format.
Programming
As of April 7, 2008, WFBL is playing music from the 1950s and 1960s. This change compliments a shift on sister station WSEN, which is changing from Oldies to "Classic Hits," featuring music from the late 1960s through the mid 1980s.
Weekday Jock Schedule
- Bob Brown, morning drive (live)
- John Carucci, middays (voicetracked, except for live noon request hour)
- Gary Dunes, afternoons (voicetracked)
- Diane Wade, evenings (voicetracked)
With the exception of Brown, the rest of WFBL's air talent already appear on live shifts on WSEN.
Historical Notes
From May 1979 to October 1980, WFBL, then known as "Fire 14," used consultant Mike Joseph's Hot Hits format as a Top 40 competitor to 1490 WOLF-AM. Airchecks of the station during its Hot Hits phase can be heard here.
WFBL dropped "Hot Hits" in October 1980 in favor of the then-emerging adult standards format called Music of Your Life. The WFBL calls (and standards format) later moved to 1050 AM in Baldwinsville, New York (now WSEN-AM) before returning to their original home at 1390.
For a few years, WFBL was a talk radio station with a line up that very closely mirrored, with few exceptions, that of its sister station, WOR in New York City.
This continued until April 7, 2008 at 6:00AM, when WFBL switched formats from "Talk Radio 1390" to "Oldies 1390." The station features music from the 1950s and 1960s.