Broadcast area Western New York Frequency 1440 kHz Format 1950s music | Branding Old Time Rock & Roll First air date 1947 | |
City Niagara Falls, New York | ||
WJJL (1440 AM) is a radio station primarily broadcasting a 1950s music (oldies) format. Licensed to Niagara Falls, New York, USA, the station serves the Niagara Falls and Buffalo area. The station is currently owned by M. J. Phillips Communications, Inc., Debtor in Possession. WJJL went on the air in December 1947, and it serves Western New York and Southern Ontario, Canada. WJJL was the first radio station to feature a two-way telephone talk show, Party Line. The show was renamed Viewpoint in the 1960s and is currently maintained weekday mornings by longtime Niagara Falls fixture and former news director Tom Darro. Mr. Darro hosts a recorded music program preceding it which includes a reading of a list of public service announcements of events occurring in Niagara Falls.
A studio fire at the station's Niagara Falls headquarters in 1999 necessitated a move out of Niagara Falls to West Seneca. In June 2009, WJJL's morning show started broadcasting from a satellite studio in the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center in Niagara Falls.
In the station's heyday, it was never a top-notch station (when compared to the big legendary AMs in nearby Buffalo, such as WKBW, WBEN, WEBR, and WGR). However, it was a launching pad for many future top talents. These include former News Director and Viewpoint host Dave McKinley, now an Emmy Award-winning reporter for WGRZ-TV in Buffalo. John Murphy, the current radio voice of the Buffalo Bills, worked there early in his career, as did long-time WJYE/Buffalo Program Director/Morning Host Joe Chile, and national voice-over artist Jeff Lawrence. Former WGN Radio-Chicago VP/General Manager Tom Langmyer worked there as a summer fill-in personality, news reporter and anchor while in college. Other noted WJJL alumni include WBEN talk show host Tom Bauerle, WBEN Reporter Dave Debo, Tony Magoo, John Jarrett, Jon Park, David J. Miller, Bob O'Neil, WKBW-TV Anchor Melanie Pritchard, WGR's Howard Simon, former WIVB-TV personality Craig Nigrelli (now in Omaha), and Cumulus Media Networks, Red Eye Radio, Nationally Syndicated Talk Host and former WBEN Talk Host Gary McNamara. Country musician Ramblin' Lou Schriver was a radio personality on the station throughout the 1950s, which eventually led to Schriver buying his own station, WXRL.
From 2000 to 2009, WJJL broadcast weekly games of the City of Buffalo Public School's Harvard Cup football league. These broadcasts featured Rich Kozak on play-by-play, Hall of Fame Coach Art Serotte, and sideline reporter Dr. John Pluta. The Harvard Cup championship was traditionally played on Thanksgiving. WJJL continues its weekly coverage of Western New York High School Football with the "Intense Milks" Game of the Week still focusing on the teams of the former Harvard Cup League. Kozak, Serotte, Pluta, and analyst Roger Weiss continue as part of the broadcast crew.
The station's owner is M.J. Phillips. A considerable amount of controversy arose in 2007, when a woman who identified herself as "Joann Nicola Lutz Distefano Phillips", an Internet troll who was known for her bizarre screeds on radio message boards, claimed to be the owner of the station, as well as M.J.'s ex-wife, and tried to take over the station's license by filing a parallel license renewal listing herself as the station owner. The FCC rejected her claim to the station, just as they did in 2004 when she previously tried to file a license renewal. She filed yet another attempt to take the station in 2011.