After writing about the 50th birthday at Connoisseur’s WPLR in Connecticut, the walls inside the Radio Ink ZOOM room were reverberating with wonder. How many active radio stations are there today that have carried the same format for 50 years or longer?
We knew there was only one way to find out…to ask you. If you work for – or worked for at one time – a radio station with the same format for 50 years, please let us know in the comments below.
This is a format agnostic question. It could be any format. It could also include very slight tweaks in the format. However, a flip from country to country oldies or Classic Rock to Alternative will get the ejection button.
Let the fun begin below. Feel free to include links to your station and send logo material to [email protected]
WSB in Atlanta has been on the air since 1922.
WMMR/ Philadelphia… signed on as a rock station April 29, 1968 and cued up Beggars Banquet, Electric Ladyland and the White Album- as currents! Today we’re playing the latest from Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Dirty Honey. 53 years and going strong.
92.7 WOBM-FM in Toms River, New Jersey.
March 1968 with an A/C format.
Modifications over the years, but still the same format.
WBT, Charlotte, just marked our 99th anniversary on April 10. While we haven’t been Talk through the entire back half of the last century, we were Full Service through much of that period, paving the way for the Talk transition thirty years ago. Looking forward to celebrating our 100th next year!
99.9 KISW in Seattle is celebrating 50 years young this year, as they started on February 14, 1971, and have been delivering “Seattle’s Best Rock” ever since. We’re having quite the celebration all year long: http://www.kisw.com.
WNRI, Woonsocket, RI est. 1954 has been mainly NEWS/TALK most of our three quarters of a century on-the-air, starting out as one of the first stations to expose & play Rock and Roll here in Southern New England and where Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, (Elvis, Johnny Cash & Roy Orbison all on the Sun Label) and hundreds of others got their records played, starting in 1955, when I was 17 and fortunate enough to be hired right out of high school!
Dick Bouchard: Part owner of Bouchard Broadcasting turns 83 in June!
The legendary 101 WRIF in Detroit is 50 as of February 14th which came on the air in 1971.
WDVE Pittsburgh, long time rocker!
KSOP-AM 1370 and KSOP-FM 104.3 (Salt Lake City) have both been country & western since the AM station signed on 1955!
WQYK-FM, Tampa. “Proud To Be Country” since 1971.
Top rated WMMR in Philadelphia, 53 years of playing current rock with no break in the format.
I didn’t work there but I believe WKEE, Huntington, WV would qualify for 50 years plus of Top 40/CHR. Even when AM 800 was going strong, it was simulcast on FM, until the AM and FM split and Top 40 continued on the FM.
Also, WFCJ, Miamisburg (Dayton), OH has had a Christian talk/teaching format since 1961.
SportsTalk 1050 WTKA-AM, Ann Arbor, MI
Michigan Sports since 1942!
In Los Angeles, we have the HISTORIC KJLH (Kindness, Love, Joy and Happiness), 102.3. They started in 1965 and in 1979 the station was bought buy the legendary Stevie Wonder under the name: Taxi Productions. KJLH is the oldest African American owned radio station on the West Coast!
SOS Radio (KSOS) has been in Las Vegas for 50 years. We launched as KILA Christian radio in the early 1970’s, and decades later we changed the call letters to KSOS as our Las Vegas radio station grew into a network of stations broadcast in 9 other states. It’s been the same ownership and the same format (Christian music) since day one in Las Vegas. As a matter of fact, the first employee hired by our founder Jack French, was Brad Staley. Brad had recently graduated high school back then, but today he is our president & general manager. He’s been here all 50 years!
WHUR-FM (Howard University) will be 50 in December 2021. I was the original chief engineer and later served as GM for 30 years! Still going strong and competitive!
One that is sneaking up on the big 5-0 is KHAY in Oxnard-Ventura CA, which broke away from simulcasting its AM in the summer of 1973 to go Country, and is still in the format.
Same for WCBS News Radio 88 in NYC starting August 28 1967 the day after their High Island tower was taken down by a small plane that clipped a guy wire sending the tower into Long Island Sound.
WCLV-FM in Cleveland has been a classical radio station since 1962. A commercial licensee for the first 50 years of its existence, WCLV began operating as a noncommercial station in 2013 as a part of ideastream, Cleveland’s public broadcasting entity. WCLV co-founder Robert Conrad still plays an active role.
KLUC-FM Las Vegas has had the same format for 50 years, playing the hits back in 1971 and CHR today. I was on-air and production director 1980-83 and returned as IT manager 1997-2010.
WDAC 94.5 FM has been on the air continuously since Dec. 13, 1959, with the same Christian format. This year will mark our 62nd anniversary. http://www.wdac.com
Scott Herman reminds us that 1010 WINS went all news on 4/19/65 “and the Newswatch has never stopped,” he tells us.