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{{Infobox radio station
| above = Simulcasts [[WDCX-FM]] Buffalo
| city = [[Buffalo, New York]] | translator = 94.1 W231EA (Buffalo)
▲ | frequency = 970 [[kHz]]
| format = [[Christian radio|Christian]]
▲ | airdate = October 14, 1924 (as WEBR)
▲ | power = 5,000 [[watt]]s
▲ | class = B
| former_callsigns = [[WEBR]] (1924–1993)<br />[[WBFO|WNED]] (1993–2012)
▲ | facility_id = 27668
▲ | callsign_meaning = same as [[WNED-TV]]
| licensee = Kimtron, Inc.
| sister_stations = [[WDCX-FM]], [[WDCX (AM)|WDCX]]
▲ | owner = Crawford Broadcasting
| webcast = {{listenlive|https://live.mystreamplayer.com/WDCXFM}}
| licensing_authority = [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]]
}}
'''WDCZ''' (970 [[AM broadcasting|AM]]) is an American [[radio station]] in [[Buffalo, New York]].
On August 29, 2012, [[Crawford Broadcasting]], a [[Denver]] based firm, announced its intention to buy WNED for $875,000. A spokeswoman for WNED said a closing date for the sale depended on approval by regulators. Donald B. Crawford, the Crawford Broadcasting president said that he expected his company to take over the station and begin programming it around January 1, 2013.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article1028685.ece|title=WNED-AM being sold to Denver company|last=Robinson|first=David|date=29 August 2012|work=The Buffalo News|accessdate=29 August 2012}}</ref> This will be a second station for Crawford in the Buffalo market as it is the long time owner of [[WDCX-FM]], whose programming it plans to simulcast on WNED in order to further its reach into southern Ontario.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article1030682.ece|title=WNED-AM to broadcast religious programming|last=Robinson|first=David|date=30 August 2012|work=The Buffalo News|accessdate=30 August 2012}}</ref> The finalization of the sale took place at midnight November 30, 2012. The station will operate under the call letters WDCZ, according to Brett Larson, general manager of WDCX-FM.▼
WDCZ has not originated any programming of its own since 2012. The station operated as a commercial station from its launch in 1924 until 1975, then operated as a [[public radio]] station from 1975 to 2012. In its later years, much of its programming was duplicating that of competing FM station [[WBFO]], which eventually prompted the two stations to merge operations (using WBFO's frequency) in 2012. After several months of simulcasting WBFO, the 970 facility was sold off to the owners of religious-formatted [[WDCX-FM]], who in turn switched 970 to a simulcast of WDCX, a status it has held ever since.
==History==
The broadcast license currently used by WDCZ was launched on October 14, 1924 as WEBR, licensed to H. H. Howell at 51 Niagara Street.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Radio service bulletin / Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce no.69-92 (1923-24). |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.319510008420265?urlappend=%3Bseq=415 |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}</ref> These call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs, and the station adopted the slogan "We Extend Buffalo's Regards".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Youth's companion v.99(1925). |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uiug.30112125158938?urlappend=%3Bseq=349 |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}</ref>
[[Fran Striker]], later famous for co-creating the [[Lone Ranger]], worked for the station in the early 1930s. From 1936 to 1944, WEBR was an affiliate of the [[Blue Network]] (later the [[American Broadcasting Company]]) and then with the [[Mutual Broadcasting System]].<ref name=history-of-webr-970>{{cite web |title=The Buffalo Broadcasters: History of WEBR Radio, AM-970 |url=http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/broadcasters/hist_webr.asp |website=buffalohistoryworks.com}}</ref> The station was a commercial operation for its first five decades on air, competing (generally with a measure of success, despite the weakness of its highly directional signal that is aimed directly at [[Toronto]]), against competing Buffalo stations. At at least two points in its history it was a sister station to [[WBEN (AM)|WBEN]], during the times when regulatory rules allowed it.
Unlike its counterpart, WBFO which still had music programming overnight and on the weekend; WNED focused entirely on news and talk programming. Several of the programs on WNED and WBFO overlapped with different production teams for local inserts, each with its own hosts. ▼
Throughout much of the 1940s, WEBR broadcast on [[1340 AM|1340 kilocycles]]. On April 4, 1948,<ref>[https://www.facebook.com/BroadcastingHistory/posts/pfbid027YJFLA9s5egGfhCFZirZPvEHVFCrUGcWAPsvf8xdgURiRv9bfaQT7nGsueJWsYMQl Buffalo Broadcasting Landmarks Today: 1936 Blaw-Knox Tower In The Larkin District]. ''Buffalo Broadcasters Association''. April 13, 2024. Retrieved April 14, 2024.</ref> the station moved to its current frequency of 970,<ref name=history-of-webr-970/> clearing the 1340 allocation for two new local service stations in Western New York, [[WLVL|WUSJ]] in [[Lockport, New York|Lockport]]<ref>[https://wlvl.com/about/history-of-wlvl History of WLVL]. Retrieved April 14, 2024.</ref> and [[WKSN|WJOC]] in [[Jamestown, New York|Jamestown]].
The station changed formats and owners (one of which was the ''[[Buffalo Courier-Express]]'') in the early 1970s until the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, who had owned [[WNED-TV]] since 1959, bought WEBR and sister station WREZ-FM (now [[WNED-FM]]) in 1975. WEBR adopted an (almost) all-news format a year later (although an evening and overnight jazz program, Jazz In The Nighttime with Al Wallack, remained on the air). In 1993 the station was assigned the WNED calls and all non-news programming was dropped.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Buffalo Broadcasters website History of WEBR/WNED 1924 to 1998 |url=http://www.buffalobroadcasters.com/hist_webr.asp |access-date=December 29, 2012 |website=buffalobroadcasters.com}}</ref> (The [[WEBR]] call sign, history and Wallack's jazz program would later be acquired by local taxicab company owner Bill Yuhnke and assigned to the former WJJL on AM 1440 in 2020; in addition to Wallack, former WEBR midday jock Jack Horohoe was brought out of retirement to resume his show.<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 July 2020 |title=He's back on the radio after a 49-year hiatus |url=https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/hes-back-on-the-radio-after-a-49-year-hiatus |website=wkbw.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 June 2020 |title=WEBR-AM Returns to Airwaves |url=http://www.buffalobroadcasters.com/webr-am-returns-to-airwaves/ |website=buffalobroadcasters.com}}</ref>)
On March 1, 2012, WNED was relegated to a simulcast of WBFO. This led to much of the news and information programming that had aired on the weekend by WNED being replaced by NPR entertainment programs, such as [[Wait Wait Don't Tell Me]] and [[Car Talk]] (although the latter will end its run in fall 2012 and thus its future is unknown). WNED, which had not aired music since 1993, now aired blues programming Saturday and Sunday evenings, but in return, WBFO (and, with it, the entire Buffalo market) was stripped of all of its jazz programming.<ref>http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/guide.guidemain?action=viewGuide</ref>▼
▲Unlike its counterpart
Until March 1, 2012, WNED was one of two [[National Public Radio]] affiliates in Buffalo. The remaining affiliate is [[WBFO]], formerly operated by the University of Buffalo. WBFO was purchased from the State of New York by the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, the parent organization of WNED, [[WNED-TV]] and [[WNED-FM]] in July 2011.<ref name="buffalonews.com"/> With WNED's takeover of WBFO, the duplication of programming was expected to end;<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/article674904.ece| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120114144453/http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/article674904.ece| archive-date = 2012-01-14| title = WNED eager to take over WBFO - Entertainment - The Buffalo News}}</ref> there had been speculation (which turned out to be accurate) that WNED would be sold despite strong support in the local market for differentiated jazz, blues, news and talk programming.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2011/10/05/wbfo-wned-get-earful-from-public/ |title=WBFO, WNED Get Earful from Public | Artvoice Daily |access-date=2012-03-18 |archive-date=2011-10-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006201216/http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2011/10/05/wbfo-wned-get-earful-from-public/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> WNED was also chosen as the station to be divested because, as it was later revealed in 2020, its [[directional antenna|directional signal]] had a strong signal over the city of [[Toronto]], but the stations had minimal listenership there; this is in contrast to their television station [[WNED-TV]], which has a strong audience in the city.<ref name="bn-buffalotorontopublicmedia">{{cite news |last1=Pergament |first1=Alan |title=A brand change for Buffalo's public broadcasting stations embraces Canada |url=https://buffalonews.com/2020/02/04/a-brand-change-for-buffalos-public-broadcasting-stations-embraces-canada/ |access-date=February 4, 2020 |work=[[The Buffalo News]] |date=February 4, 2020 |language=en-us}}</ref>
▲On March 1, 2012, WNED
▲On August 29, 2012, [[Crawford Broadcasting]], a [[Denver]] based firm, announced its intention to buy the then-WNED for $875,000. A spokeswoman for WNED said a closing date for the sale depended on approval by regulators. Donald B. Crawford, the Crawford Broadcasting president said that he expected his company to take over the station and begin programming it around January 1, 2013.<ref name="Robinson">{{cite web|url=http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article1028685.ece|title=WNED-AM being sold to Denver company|last=Robinson|first=David|date=29 August 2012|work=The Buffalo News|accessdate=29 August 2012}}</ref>
[[File:WDCX logo.png|thumb|Previous logo]]
==See also==
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==External links==
*[http://www.wnedblog.blogspot.com/ WNED Dialogues Blog; this has links to the station's past which may be of interest]▼
*[https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/getimportletter_exh.cgi?import_letter_id=52012&.pdf FCC History Cards for WDCZ]
▲*[http://www.wnedblog.blogspot.com/ WNED Dialogues Blog]
{{Buffalo Radio}}
{{Crawford Broadcasting}}
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[[Category:Radio stations in Buffalo, New York|
[[Category:
[[Category:Christian radio stations in New York (state)|DCZ]]
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