Buddy Shula hopes so and he’s banking on it. He recently purchased WECK AM/FM in Buffalo, which is now known as “Buffalo’s Very Own.” Shula’s goal: To be a model for the industry in getting back to localism and generating revenue that can be attained through a locally focused strategy. The station is shifting from a syndicated Adult Standards format to Adult Favorites with local news and local talent. Legendary Buffalo news voice John Zach (formerly of WBEN) will be the News Director and morning news anchor. Here’s the rest of the team joining the station.
Veteran Buffalo personality Gail Ann Huber will pair with WECK’s Tom Donahue as morning co-host. Huber spent 14 years as part of the morning show at WYRK and later worked on the WHTT morning show. Donahue is a Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall-of-Famer, whose credits include WGR, WKBW Radio, and WHTT. Good Morning Buffalo with Tom, Gail and John Zach will include local news, traffic, weather, and sports. This past week, WECK announced an affiliation agreement with CBS News to provide hourly world and national newscasts in addition to WECK’s local news commitment.
Jon Summers, a longtime Buffalo radio and TV personality joins the station to host 9a-12n. Summers most recently served as co-host of AM Buffalo on WKBW-TV, where he worked from 1990 to 2017. He spent decades behind the microphone at WKBW Radio and on several other stations in Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
Another Buffalo Broadcasting Hall-of-Famer, Harv Moore, will host 12n-3p. Moore handled wake-up duties for many years as part of the well-known Taylor & Moore Breakfast Flakes show on WYSL and WPHD, and later did stints on several other Buffalo stations. Moore came to Buffalo in 1975 after a long and successful run at Washington’s WPGC. Moore’s former on-air partner, Robert W. Taylor, joins as WECK’s imaging voice.
Afternoons from 3p-7p will be hosted by Mike Jacobs. Jacobs joins the station after having worked in various on-air roles at WHTT, WYRK, WKSE, and WEDG. Friday afternoons will feature Buffalo Broadcasting Hall-of-Famer Danny Neaverth. Neaverth, a legendary Buffalo radio and TV personality, is best known for a run of more than 40 years hosting mornings, including 25 years at WKBW and another 15 years at WHTT. Danny Moves Your Friday Fanny will be a slice of life with humor, news, and music.
Evenings will be hosted by WECK owner and president Buddy Shula. Shula has more than 30 years experience in the Buffalo market on-air, in marketing, and in sales. Before purchasing WECK, Shula was an account executive for Buffalo’s Entercom stations and hosted a business show on WBEN.
Shula said, “Buffalo’s Very Own WECK will be just that — Buffalo’s radio station. Trusted friends who Buffalonians have known and loved for many years are now at home here. We’re so proud to do what radio does best — serving the local community. Radio’s future depends on this kind of commitment.”
I wish the new owners and management all the luck in the world. It’s time to get local-content radio a fair go which it has been bereft of for too long; especially on AM. With that said, I am cautiously optimistic as advertisers are going to be reluctant to purchase time on such a facility. What I’d REALLY like to see is for clear channel stations not unlike WWKB to offer similar programming.
God bless these folks, fighting the good fight for local radio!
I love to tell the story of Buffalo’s 1230. It started out as WNIA, owned by Gordon P. Brown, one of the many eccentric radio owners. He put on WSAY in Rochester in the 1930’s and 20 years later put on WNIA. After a few setbacks with networks and TV licenses, Gordon seemed to give up trying to make money with these stations. He ran both on shoestrings, hired disc jockeys just beginning their career and gave them all names that went with their shifts. Tommy Thomas, Jerry Jack, Mike Melody and others. Until GPB’s death in 1979, the voices would change but the air name stayed the same. WNIA was a 500 watt flea-powered station in the beginning..now apparently full powered (at 1,000) for the 1230 frequency. When the station was first sold, it continued to flounder until the 80s when someone decided to put the massive music library accumulated since 1956 to work as a home-made “Music Of Your Life” format. In the 80s it was usually a top 5 Buffalo station. It fell on hard times since, but with what Buddy’s doing, and his addition of the 102.9 translator, he may be onto something. AM powerhouses in Buffalo like WGR, WKBW, and WBEN have become shadows of what they once were -and if Buddy, with the staff he’s putting together can attract an audience for WECK, it just might work. AM doesn’t have the audience it used to, or the choices found on FM, but even with a small signal at 102.9, there might be enough people out there hoping for a decent product. Good luck, Buddy. If it can work in any market, Buffalo’s the place.