City Lancaster, New York Branding "WXRL" First air date 1965 | Broadcast area Buffalo Frequency 1300 kHz | |
Slogan Buffalo's Hometown, Family Owned-and-Operated Radio Station | ||
WXRL is an AM radio station located in Lancaster, New York, serving the greater Buffalo market. The station is owned and operated by the family of Ramblin' Lou Schriver, a well known local country music performer, under the name Dome Broadcasting Inc.
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History
WXRL signed on in 1965 as WMMJ. The station had been founded by Stan Jasinski, a local media mogul known most famously for his polka broadcasts; polka has been a fixture of the station's format since its inception. When Jasinski shifted his focus to television and started up WUTV in 1970, he sold the radio station to Schriver, who owned the station for the rest of his life and installed what was then the first country music station in Western New York. When more modern country stations such as WYRK and WNUC started reaching the airwaves in the early 1990s, Schriver, like numerous other AM country stations, maintained a classic country format. Schriver died January 17, 2016 from heart failure; he was 86. His family and heirs continue to own and operate the station.
Programs
Local hosts include Ron Dombrowski, Matty K and Lynn Carol Schriver. Scott Cleveland was a longtime on-air personality with the station until his death in 2015, as was Ramblin' Lou Schriver himself (reruns of his "Old Country Church" program continue to be posthumously broadcast on the station).
Syndicated programs include the Renfro Valley Gatherin', Classic Country Today with Keith Bilbrey and "Country Music Greats" with Jim Ed Brown. WXRL is an affiliate of NBC News Radio, having picked up the network in 2012 after the cancellation of CNN Radio's service.
The station has the "Drive Time Polkas" show from 5 till 7 pm Monday thru Saturday and also devotes a large portion of its weekend programming to polka music.
The station also airs some local sports programming, predominantly from Lancaster High School.
This station does not stream on the Internet.