WIBX

Early Years

WIBX first went on the air December 5, 1925. The station was originally owned by Grid Leak, Inc., a local radio dealer. The company put the station on the air to provide programming for customers who bought radios. WIBX's facilities were housed at the store. The following April, Grid Leak transferred the station to a subsidiary, WIBX, Inc., and a month later a new studios were opened at the Hotel Utica. Initially operating at 1460 kHz, WIBX moved to 1280 kHz in late 1926, and then to 1260 kHz in April 1927.

The Boston Store acquired the station in early 1928, a move intended to keep WIBX in Utica. That April, the station was taken over by John C. Drummond. The Federal Radio Commission moved WIBX to 1200 kHz on November 11. On December 1, the station moved its studios to the First National Bank Building. The Buffalo Broadcasting Corporation, which operated several stations in Buffalo (including WGR, WKBW, and WMAK), acquired WIBX in August 1929. In March 1931, the station was sold to a partnership of Percy B. Brown and Scott Howe Bowen. Bowen soon acquired Brown's stake; his family would maintain ownership for nearly five decades.

CBS Affiliation

On October 14, 1934, WIBX became a network affiliate of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Through the Golden Age of Radio, the station carried the CBS network's line up of dramas, comedies, soap operas, game shows, sports and big band remotes, as well as newscasts. WIBX would remain a CBS Radio Network affiliate for 76 years.

Power Increase

The North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) moved WIBX to 1230 kHz on March 29, 1941. However, on this frequency, the station remained at low-power, 250 watts, as had been the case at 1200 kHz). That meant it could not be easily heard in nearby Rome at night, leading the Rome Sentinel to apply for a 5,000-watt station serving both cities in 1946. Afraid that the new station, which eventually became WRUN, would prove more attractive for CBS, WIBX sought to upgrade to its own 5,000-watt facility.

On May 2, 1947 the Federal Communications Commission granted WIBX a move to 950 kHz from a transmitter site in Whitesboro, New York, with the new facility going on the air in early 1948. The WIBX studios would relocate to Whitesboro as well in the early 1960s. An FM sister station at 98.7, WIBQ (now WLZW), was added January 1, 1974. An earlier WIBX-FM at 96.9 FM first signed on in October 1946, but left the air during the early 1950s, when few people owned FM radios.

Sportswatch

WIBX included in its line up the sports program Sportswatch, which debuted in the 1950s and included among its numerous hosts Bill O'Donnell, Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton, Tim Roye, Bob Papa, Jim Jackson, and Mike Haynes. Sportswatch ended its run in January 2013.

All-Talk Format

The Bowen family sold WIBX to Marathon Communications in 1979. Soon afterward, the station's longstanding full service middle of the road format began evolving away from music in favor of increased news, talk, and sports programming. After REBS, Inc. acquired WIBX in 1985, music programming was dropped entirely, outside of the station's Sunday morning Polish language program, Polonaise. Maritime Broadcasting bought the station in 1988. The station was then sold to 950 Communications Corporation in 1992, to Forever Broadcasting in 1996, and to Regent Communications (the predecessor to Townsquare Media) in 1999. Regent moved its Utica-area stations to studios in Marcy, New York, in 2003. WIBX ended its long affiliation with CBS on February 28, 2011, when it joined Fox News Radio. Prior to the affiliation change, WIBX was the only station, radio or television, to carry CBS content in the Mohawk Valley, since the Utica area had no CBS television affiliate at the time, and had to pick up CBS programming from either Syracuse or Schenectady. CBS returned to the Utica area November 22, 2015 when NBC affiliate WKTV affiliated its second digital subchannel with CBS television.

In 2015, WIBX reached an agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting Group and Mission Broadcasting, whose stations are managed by Nexstar under shared services and local marketing agreements, to share programming, allowing Nexstar-owned Channel 33 WFXV to simulcast WIBX's morning show starring Bill Keeler, while WIBX began simulcasting Mission-owned WUTR Channel 20's 6 p.m. newscast. Citing closed-captioning expenses, WFXV dropped the simulcast of Keeler's show on January 4, 2016, but reinstated it May 9, 2016.

Charitable Broadcasts

The station conducts a radiothon for the American Heart Association every March. It was first held in 1971 in memory of Ralph Allinger, a WIBX staffer who had died of a heart attack. In subsequent years, the American Heart Association has also held additional fundraisers in the Mohawk Valley, including a run and walk, to supplement the radiothon.