WBUF (92.9 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Buffalo, New York. Its studios are located at the Rand Building in Downtown Buffalo, with its transmitter in the Elmwood Village neighborhood of Buffalo. WBUF is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts an adult hits radio format known as "92.9 JACK-FM."
WBUF began streaming its programming on the Internet in mid-November 2006. The station has an HD 2 subchannel that airs religious programming from Family Life Radio. WBUF also uses two FM translator stations: W291CN on 106.1 MHz in Buffalo and W239BA on 95.7 MHz in Niagara Falls, New York.
WBUF airs the Jack-FM format, which began on May 16, 2005, while it was owned by CBS Radio. The station was sold to Regent Broadcasting (now Townsquare Media), but the Jack format remains in place. Jack remains popular in the Buffalo media market even though the format has been dropped in markets such as New York City, Chicago and San Diego.
The Jack FM format is by far the longest-running format in the modern history of the station. Prior to the adoption of Jack, WBUF had a history of short-lived and rapidly changing formats (usually failed attempts to challenge other more dominant stations in the market), with the station typically changing formats every two years between 1993 and 2005.
Similarly to other Jack FM stations, WBUF has no live disc jockeys, carries no syndicated long-form or short-form programming, and carries no time-sensitive information (such as news, weather or sports), only interrupting its music for commercials, pre-recorded one-line jokes and station identification; this format is followed uniformly, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At first, 92.9 was one of the only Jack FM stations which didn't use Howard Cogan as the voice of Jack due to its proximity to Toronto's 92.5 CJAQ-FM (now CISS-FM), which identified itself as 92.5 Jack-FM. Using Cogan would have most likely caused confusion with listeners due to the fact the two stations are so close on the FM dial, 92.5 and 92.9. Until mid-April 2009, WBUF used voice talent Brad Davidorf, best known for his voice work on TBS. At that point, WBUF began using Howard Cogan as its imaging voice. Within two months of Cogan's employment on WBUF, CJAQ-FM dropped the Jack format and went back to the Contemporary Hit Radio format known as "Kiss-FM" that Jack-FM replaced six years earlier.
WBUF is a grandfathered "Superpower" Class B FM radio station, operating at 76,000 watts. Buffalo has three other superpower FM stations: 94.5 WNED-FM, 99.5 WDCX-FM and 102.5 WTSS. Under current U.S. Federal Communications Commission rules, Class B FM's are not allowed to exceed 50,000 watts ERP. But because WBUF signed on in 1947, it was not subject to those restrictions on power. In fact, it once was powered at 92,000 watts but because it raised its antenna height some years ago, it reduced its power.
WBUF began broadcasting in 1947, among the earliest FM stations.
Pre-1975: The Home of the Blended Sound Beautiful music, as part of The Empire State FM Network including WVOR/Rochester, WDDS/Syracuse, and WFLY/Albany-Troy.
1975: Freeform/progressive rock
1980: WFXZ "Foxy 93"
This was the product of veteran Buffalo media executive Donald Angelo. Format lasted one year, call letters reverted to WBUF the year after once Angelo departed the station.[1]
1982 - 1992: WBUF featured a popular format of Adult Contemporary and Oldies music presented by several well known Western New York on-air personalities including Stan Roberts and Fred Klestine. This format lasted ten (10) years.
Early 1992: "Mix 92.9", "B93" (Adult Contemporary)
1995: WSJZ Smooth Jazz 92.9; This format launched on March 30, 1995, and lasted two years. The final song on "B93" was "End of the Road" by Boyz II Men, while the first song on "WSJZ" was "Smooth Operator" by Sade.
1997: WLCE [email protected] (Modern adult contemporary)
This format began on April 3, 1997, and was intended to challenge what was then WMJQ (now WTSS). The format lasted two years.
1999: WBUF B92.9 (Rhythmic Oldies/Disco/Classic Soul)
This format began on June 23, 1999, at Noon, and was intended to complement Urban sister station WBLK and challenge oldies-formatted WHTT, but lasted less than two years. This format's end was marked with a stunt, playing the song "We Will Rock You" by Queen repeatedly for one day.
2001: Buffalo's Rock Station (Active rock)
This format was launched on at Noon on February 23, 2001. The first song was "Abacab" by Genesis. "92.9 WBUF", as it was called, was intended to challenge WGRF and WEDG. WBUF brought the syndicated Howard Stern Show to Buffalo's morning drive. Later on, the station added Opie and Anthony. A combination of two events held by the duo led to their demise on WBUF. The first was "T'n'A with O&A," a raunchy party hosted by Opie and Anthony in western New York and sponsored by WBUF. However, before any disciplinary action for that incident was taken, the hosts were embroiled in the infamous "Sex for Sam" scandal in New York City, where two lovers had sex in St. Paul's Cathedral in New York City in exchange for Samuel Adams beer. It was the latter event that ultimately led to their first firing. As Gregg Hughes has said, "We were well on our way to being fired for the 'T'n'A with O&A' party, when we were canceled for 'Sex for Sam'." Instead of reverting the drive time back to rock, Opie & Anthony were replaced with the all-talk Don and Mike Show.
2004: FM Talk
This format was a revival of WWKB's ill-fated "hot talk" format of the mid-1990s. The format was intended to challenge WGR and WBEN, as well as partially replace WNSA. With both drive blocks filled with hot talk hosts, the natural progression was to make WBUF a full-time talk outlet. With the region's best known hot talk host, J. R. Gach, working in Albany and unavailable, Brother Wease, from sister station WCMF in Rochester, was hired to fill the midday, while Tom Leykis and Loveline were given nighttime slots. The format ended in six months after Wease developed nasal cancer and could not work both his Rochester and Buffalo shifts.
2005: Jack FM
Stern was the only host retained when CBS Radio, then the station's owner, dropped the talk format in Buffalo in favor of Jack-FM, the first format in about 10 years not intended to directly compete with another station in the market. When Stern left terrestrial radio for Sirius Satellite Radio, he was not replaced on WBUF. The station goes without live DJs around the clock.
