WBEE-FM

WBEE-FM
City Rochester, New York
Broadcast area Rochester metropolitan area
Branding 92.5 WBEE
Slogan Rochester's New Country
Frequency 92.5 MHz (also on HD Radio)
92.5-2 FM: Sports (WROC simulcast)
First air date February 1961 (as 101.3 WBFB)
Format Country
ERP 50,000 watts
HAAT 152 meters (499 ft)
Class B
Facility ID 71206
Callsign meaning W BEE (using a bee as the station's mascot)
Former callsigns WBFB (1970-1975)
WNWZ (1975-1976)
WMJQ (1976-1986)
WLRY (1986-1987)
Owner Entercom Communications
(Entercom Rochester License, LLC)
Sister stations WBZA, WCMF, WPXY, WROC
Webcast Listen Live
Website wbee.com

WBEE-FM (92.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station in Rochester, New York. It airs a country music radio format and is owned by Entercom Communications, after being acquired from Sinclair Broadcasting in 1999. The station's studios are located in downtown Rochester at Entercom's High Falls Studios. Its transmitter tower is off Five Mile Line Road in Penfield.[1]

The station is usually #1 or #2 in listenership in the Rochester radio market according to Nielsen Audio. The station broadcasts in HD and airs the all-sports format from co-owned AM 950 WROC on its HD-2 channel.

History

The 92.5 MHz dial position in Rochester was first occupied in 1960 by WVOR, owned by the Functional Broadcasting Company.[2] But within a couple of years, that station moved to 100.5 (home today to WDVI). In 1970, classical music station WBFB moved to the unoccupied 92.5 dial position. WBFB had already been established in 1961 at 101.3 as the sister station to popular AM outlet 950 WBBF.[3]

In 1975, NBC Radio started a 24-hour all-news radio network called NIS (News and Information Service). WBFB switched from classical music to join the NIS Network, becoming WNWZ (the call letters standing for NEWS/Z). But the network was not profitable and NBC announced it would be shut down at the end of 1976.

The soft rock format had been catching on around the country, heard on stations such as WMGK in Philadelphia and WMJC in Detroit. So LIN Broadcasting, which owned WNWZ at the time, decided to put a soft rock sound on 92.5, calling the station WMJQ "Magic 92.5."[4] (NBC's own FM station in New York made a similar switch from All-News to Soft Rock on 97.1 WYNY, now WQHT). These stations played many of the same artists as were heard on album rock stations but only their softer works. Over time, WMJQ moved to a more mainstream album rock sound, putting it in competition with Rochester's leading rock station, 96.5 WCMF, eventually dropping the "Magic 92" branding and identifying as "92MJQ".

By early 1983, WMJQ had shifted to more of a modern rock sound, though continuing to play a lot of mainstream album rock artists, and used the slogan "Rock of The Eighties." The modern rock format had proved to be quite successful on KROQ in Los Angeles and other stations around the country. But in the late summer of 1983, LIN Broadcasting decided to make a switch. Co-owned AM 950 WBBF had given up its Top 40 format for news-talk the previous year, as many AM stations were doing at the time. WMJQ switched to a CHR format in early September 1983, now calling itself "Q92". The Rochester market now had three FM CHR/Top 40 stations (WPXY 97.9FM had adopted a Top 40 format the previous year, and WHFM 98.9FM had been Top 40 since the late 1960's). Even after WHFM changed format in early 1985, WMJQ was in a difficult competitive position against format ratings-leader WPXY. On April 2, 1987, FM 92.5 flipped to another format that was quickly becoming popular among FM radio stations at the time and began broadcasting country music as WBEE-FM. (The WMJQ call sign was then immediately acquired by what is now WTSS in Buffalo, who held the sign for the next decade.) It used the FM suffix to its call letters because there was already an AM station, 1570 WBEE in Harvey, Illinois near Chicago, now known as WBGX.

Programming Line-Up

The award-winning morning show, "The BEE Morning Coffee Club" is heard weekdays 5:30am to 10am, hosted by Jeremy Newman, Steve Hausmann, and TJ Sharp. The show had been hosted by Bill Coffee from the show's inception until his death in 2005.

The midday shift from 10am-3pm is hosted by longtime morning show co-host Terry Clifford, who moved into middays in August 2015. Billy Kidd hosts afternoon drive time and Justine Paige hosts the evening shift weeknights from 7pm-midnight. Up until the departure of long time overnight host Dave Beck, the station had live talent 24 hours a day on weekdays. Overnights and some weekend hours are now automated. Weekends feature Bob Kingsley's Country Top 40 and CMT Country Countdown USA.

A long running feature on WBEE is its Guitars and Stars concert which was held at the Dome Arena in Henrietta, New York, and now takes place at Finger Lakes Gaming and Race Track in Farmington, New York. It features up and coming country music stars in an acoustic setting to benefit the Ronald McDonald House charity.

In the past the station also hosted "Random Acts of Country" where an up-and-coming country music star would show up and play without prior public notice at a local bar or restaurant in the Rochester area.

References

  1. ↑ Radio-Locator.com/WBEE
  2. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1963 page B-126
  3. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1972 page B-145
  4. ↑ Broadcasting Yearbook 1978 page C-151

Coordinates: 43°10′37″N 77°28′37″W / 43.177°N 77.477°W / 43.177; -77.477


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