First air date March 1947 (1947-03) Class B Website AM 1420 WBEC Webpage City of license Pittsfield Owner Gamma Broadcasting, LLC | Power 1,000 watts Facility ID 2714 Frequency 1420 kHz Format Talk radio Branding AM 1420 WBEC | |
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Sister stations WBEC-FM, WUPE-FM, WSBS, WNAW, WUPE Affiliations ABC News Radio, Fox News Radio, Fox Sports Radio, Westwood One | ||
WBEC (1420 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, USA. The station is owned by Gamma Broadcasting, LLC and features programing from Cumulus Media Networks and Premiere Networks, including Premiere's talk network and Fox Sports Radio.
On March 5, 2012, WBEC announced it would no longer carry The Rush Limbaugh Show in response to Limbaugh's derogatory remarks about law student Sandra Fluke. General manager Peter Barry told local NPR member station WFCR that he and his staff had been troubled by Limbaugh's rhetoric for many years, but his attacks on Fluke were the last straw. WBEC is believed to be the second of Limbaugh's affiliates to cancel his show; KPUA in Hilo, Hawaii had dropped Limbaugh a few hours earlier. WBEC replaced Limbaugh with The Mike Huckabee Show upon that show's launch on April 9 of the same year. The station began to run The Howie Carr Show on January 5, 2015.
In August 2013, Gamma Broadcasting reached a deal to sell its Berkshire County radio stations, including WBEC, to Reed Miami Holdings; the sale was canceled on December 30, 2013.