WECK

Early years

In August 1956, the station first signed on as WNIA.^[3] The call letters referred to the nearby Niagara Falls. The station was founded by Gordon P. Brown, who also owned WSAY (now WXXI) in Rochester, New York. After Brown's death, WNIA was sold to Quid Me Broadcasting, a group headed by local broadcast account executive Chet Musialowski. Musialowski was also General Manager of the station during the Quid Me years (1980–1988).

In 1979, the station switched from urban contemporary/R&B to a Top 40/oldies hybrid format that might today be described as adult hits. Original air personalities included Chuck McCoy, Jeff Reinhardt (P.D.), Mark Phillips, J.R. Russ, Barbra Lynne and part timers Art Zelasko, Mike Brown, Ricky Banks, David J. Miller, Jon Park, Dr. Jim Rose and newscaster Pam Kloc. To tie in with the popular local sandwich of roast beef on a kimmelweck roll or "beef on weck", the station switched its call letters to WECK, branding itself as "The roll that rocks."

Music of Your Life

On April 4, 1981, as listening to contemporary music on AM radio declined, the station again switched formats. WECK began airing Adult Standards using the syndicated "Music of Your Life" service. J.R. Russ was elevated to Program Director and the station maintained a live on-air staff including Jim Nowicki in mornings (and earlier, Guy Michaels), Joe Kozma, Aaron Christopher (Russ' air name), Tim White, Dave Prescott (radio name of the late Joseph Skurzewski), Lynn Dixon, Ray Rogers, News Director Bruce Allen, Dave Teresa and Sports Director Walt Hankin.

Previous owner Gordon Brown owned many pop music albums yielding a 2,000-plus library of hit titles. The station continued licensing the "Music of Your Life" name, but it shifted from the tight-rotation "MOYL" tapes to a much larger playlist produced in-house.

The lack of repetition proved worth the effort and the format was a big hit with of Buffalo's large adult population. WECK grew from a "no show" in the ratings at the time of the format change (on 4/4/81) to an all-time high of #4 in the market in late 1983. The trade publication "Inside Radio" touted the headlines: "WECK..takes town by storm" and "WECK skyrockets into contention". Radio and Records designated WECK as a "Fastest Mover" up the ratings ladder.

The 1,000-watt station garnered a 7.2 share of 12+ all listeners, beating most FM, and every area AM station (including 50,000-watt WWKB) except #1 WBEN. The Radio and Records Directory also listed WECK as #4 in the entire U.S. in Average Quarter Hour listening (AQH) among stations with similar formats.

CBS ownership

The station was sold by Quid Me to CBS Radio in 1988. WECK continued with a nostalgia music format, but became satellite automated, maintaining only a live, local DJ show in morning drive. Portions of the station's programming came from the Music of Your Life network, although the station switched to Westwood One's Adult Standards satellite feed for a time.

The station was sold to Regent Communications along with the rest of the CBS Buffalo cluster in 2006. In February 2006, WECK abruptly pulled the plug on the standards format. In an attempt to capitalize on the success of sister station Country WYRK 106.5 FM, the group's most successful station, WECK switched to the Jones Radio Network classic country format, until March 11, 2008.^[4]

Talk radio era

On Monday, November 5, 2007, local resident Dick Greene, owner of WLVL in nearby Lockport, New York, announced that he had purchased WECK for $1.3 million through his company, Culver Communications. In the early morning, on March 12, 2008, Greene launched a new talk radio format, mixed with local and syndicated programming. WECK immediately made headlines with the hiring of Buffalo radio veterans Harv Moore and Tom Donahue to helm its morning show. However, just six months after the switch, Moore was released and replaced by local actress Loraine O'Donnell, who was subsequently fired in June 2011.^[5] Brad Riter and Nick Mendola, former personalities at 550 WGR, were also added to the staff, as was former politician Bill O'Loughlin.

WECK acquired the broadcast radio rights to the University of Buffalo Bulls football and men's basketball games for the 2008 season. In 2009 the station acquired the Buffalo-area rights to New York Yankees baseball through the 2011 season. WECK lost the rights to the UB Bulls athletics teams to 1270 WHLD Niagara Falls in the spring of 2013.

WECK's logo as "Timeless"

Early programming during the talk era included a show by WLVL host Scott Leffler, a tradio service, a news block hosted by Tom Schuh, and a one-hour midday block of local brokered programming. All of these had been canceled as of May 2011. Channel 2 WGRZ news was simulcast during WECK's talk radio era. Syndicated programming on WECK toward the end of its talk run included The Laura Ingraham Show, Dennis Miller, First Light and Fox Sports Radio. Some of these affiliations continue on WLVL.

On July 12, 2011, Greene ended the talk format. With former operations manager director Tom Schuh rehired as a consultant, WECK returned to the adult standards music format.^[6] For its first two years after returning to the music format, WECK's music blend leaned toward a MOR approach, branded as "The Breeze;" among its personalities was WGRZ weather anchor Kevin O'Connell, who voice-tracked afternoon drive until 2012.

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In 2013, after WHLD (which was carrying a pure adult standards format at the time) shifted to sports talk, WECK rebranded to its current Timeless format and reformulated its playlist to reflect a traditional adult standards approach.

Morning host Tom Donahue and Sunday polka music host Ron Dombrowski (who also hosts shows for WXRL during the week and WBBZ-TV on television) continue to air on WECK, with most other dayparts covered by America's Best Music. In late January 2016, WECK acquired the local broadcast rights to Delilah, the nationally syndicated love-song host who spent the previous two decades on 96.1 WJYE (now WMSX).^[9] The station also broadcasts Canisius College men's basketball.

Buffalo's Very Own: Sale to Buddy Shula and shift to oldies

WECK's logo under Shula ownership; used until 2018

Buddy Shula, a local broadcast veteran, filed with the FCC and announced his intent to purchase the WECK and translator 102.9 FM on March 10, 2017.^[10] The sale closed May 3, 2017 at a purchase price of $550,000; among his first moves was to hire Danny Neaverth, the longtime former morning host at WKBW and WHTT, for an on-air position.^[11] John Zach, previously WBEN's morning co-host from 1998 to 2016, joined WECK as news director and morning news anchor in July 2017; along with Zach's hiring, the station's national news updates switched from Fox News to CBS News.^[12] Zach mysteriously and unceremoniously left the station in February 2018,^[13] and Steve Cichon, a local historian who has worked at several Buffalo radio stations in the past, including WBEN and WNSA, took over the post.^[14] Cichon, who tends to just walk off jobs when he gets sick of it, left abruptly with an email that said “later gators” and “tootalu”. Apparently he did not even give the standard two week notice. Among other hirings at the station was Harv Moore for mid-days (former co-host of the legendary Taylor and Moore show; Moore's former co-host Robert Taylor contributed some voice-overs to the station), former WYRK and WHTT morning host Gail Ann Huber as morning co-host, longtime WKBW-TV voice-over artist and DJ Jon Summers for late mornings, and former WJYE morning host and Program Director Joe Chille^[15] for afternoon drive time Monday through Thursday; Shula stole Glen Topolski away from WYRK to play a dual role at WECK as program and music director. Former WGR and WKBW radio DJ Tom Donahue continues as morning show co-host after Shula took over. Evenings are hosted by Moon Rivers, and a show called "WECK After Hours", to replace Delilah, which Shula got rid of because it was not local, and sounded out of place. Shortly after Shula's purchase of the station, WECK shifted from adult standards to a 1960s-centered oldies format.

In late April 2018, the FCC granted 100.5 FM, as a second metro signal for WECK that has superior coverage in the north towns of Buffalo. WECK is the only major Buffalo radio station that can be heard on three radio frequencies, online, tune in and Simple Radio apps, and all voice activated devices, like Alexa.