Its 50,000-watt non-directionaltransmitter, located in Chili, New York, operates the maximum power for commercial AM stations in the United States and Canada. During the day, it provides at least secondary coverage to all of Western New York, including Buffalo. It can also be heard in much of Southern Ontario, including Toronto, Peterborough, and Kingston. At night, WHAM can be received across much of the Eastern United States and Eastern Canada with a good radio. It is the Emergency Alert System's primary entry point station for Western New York.
Weekend programming includes shows on money, health, home repair, cars, technology and law. Weekend hosts include Bill Cunningham and some brokered programming.
History
University of Rochester
The station first signed on the air on July 11, 1922.[2] While not the first station to be licensed to the Rochester market (that distinction belongs to the defunct WHQ), it is the oldest surviving station in the area.
Industrialist George Eastman, the founder of the Rochester-based Eastman Kodak Company, helped the University of Rochester launch the station and thought the "WHAM" name would prove to be a clever marketing tool. Jim Barney helped the university get the station on the air.
Stromberg-Carlson
In 1927, WHAM was acquired by Stromberg-Carlson,[3] a maker of radio and telecommunications equipment then based in Rochester. The company expanded the station's operations and boosted its signal to 5,000 watts shortly after the acquisition.
It was relocated from 1080 to 1150 kHz in the overall national reorganization of the AM radio band by the Federal Radio Commission in 1928. In 1933, WHAM was allowed to increase power to 25,000 watts. A ceremony marking the event included a three-hour broadcast from the Eastman Theatre with "a galaxy of stars" participating.[4] It later got a boost to its current 50,000 watt level.
In February 1948, WHAM and its FM sister station, WHFM (now WBZA), moved into a new facility, Rochester Radio City. The building included 24 offices and six studios, the largest of which could accommodate 400 people in the audience.[3]
WHAM has ties to two of the city's television stations. It put the city's first station on the air, WHAM-TV, in 1949. That station is now WROC-TV, the area's CBSaffiliate. In 2005, the area's ABC affiliate, WOKR, changed its call sign to WHAM-TV. Clear Channel Communications (now known as iHeartMedia), already the owner of WHAM radio, owned WOKR/WHAM-TV from 2002 until the sale of its entire television group to Newport Television (controlled by Providence Equity Partners) in 2007; the two stations still have a news partnership.
Controversy
WHAM radio host Bob Lonsberry has often been the source of controversy, due to his on-air remarks.[5] He was fired from his show in 2003, but was later brought back due to boycotts by aggrieved fans.
News articles were circulated about him comparing a derogatory racial reference to the term "Boomers" - a colloquial reference for people born during the Baby Boom.[6]
Lonsberry also hosts a show later in the day on co-owned WSYR (570 AM and 106.9 FM) in Syracuse and co-hosts a show on WHAM sister station WAIO.
