First air date August 11, 1932 Class C Frequency 1230 kHz C-QUAM AM Stereo Format Brokered programming Branding AM 1230 WFAS | Power 1,000 watts Facility ID 14381 City of license White Plains Owner Cumulus Media | |
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Broadcast area Westchester County, New York Callsign meaning W Frank A. Seitz
(father of founding owner) Area New York metropolitan area Slogan Westchester's Legacy Radio Station | ||
WFAS (1230 kHz) is an AM radio station licensed to White Plains, New York and serving Westchester County. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts at 1,000 watts from a transmitter site on Secor Road, in the Hartsdale section of town of Greenburgh, New York.
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Programming
WFAS airs a sports format with programming from CBS Sports Radio. CBS Sports Radio is distributed and partially owned by Cumulus Media, parent company of WFAS.
History
Owned by Westchester Broadcasting Corporation, WFAS first signed on the air on August 11, 1932 from the Roger Smith Hotel, on the corner of Post Road and Chester Street in White Plains, NY. The call letters honor Frank A. Seitz, the father of the owner. WFAS broadcast 100 watts on a frequency of 1210 kHz from a T top antenna on the roof of the hotel. Prior to that, the station used the call sign WCOH when it was located in Yonkers (Westchester Broadcasting Corporation) and WBRS in Brooklyn (North American Broadcasting Corporation). WFAS had to share time on the 1210 kHz frequency with WBRB; Long Branch, New Jersey, WGBB; Freeport, New York and WGNY; Newburgh, New York. That was not an unusual arrangement in the early days of broadcasting when fewer frequencies were made available by the government.
In 1941, in accordance with the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), the station moved to 1240 kHz and increased power to 250 watts, still sharing the frequency with two other stations. By March 1943, the station had moved to 1230 kHz on a full-time exclusive basis.
In 1947, the transmitter site was moved to its current location on Secor Road in the Town of Greenburgh. Concurrent with that move, 103.9 WFAS-FM signed on the air on August 1, from the same location. The T top antenna continued to be used as an auxiliary while the studios remained at the Roger Smith Hotel.
In 1948, WFAS and WFAS-FM moved to new studios and offices in the building of the White Plains Reporter Dispatch newspaper. By 1954, the studios had moved out of the City of White Plains into the Secor Road location. In 1963, the station increased power to 1,000 watts.
In 2014, WFAS-FM changed its call sign to WNBM, moved its transmitter site to The Bronx and its studios to Penn Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, to become an Urban adult contemporary station serving the New York metropolitan area.
On February 3, 2016, WFAS changed its format to sports, branded as "Sportsradio 1230" with programming from CBS Sports Radio. Till then, it had been programmed with a Talk radio format.