WGR

WGR, or WGR Sports Radio 550, is an all sports radio station in Buffalo, New York that broadcasts on 550 AM. It is the flagship station of the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, and Buffalo Bandits, and is currently the only full-time sports talk station in the city of Buffalo. Its studios are located in Amherst, New York, and transmitter in suburban Hamburg, New York. Although it has a power of 5,000 watts, during the day its signal can be heard as far north as Barrie, Peterborough and Kingston, Ontario, as far west as Windsor, Ontario, as far east as Syracuse, and as far south as Erie, Pennsylvania and Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio. At night its signal can be heard as far north as Sudbury, Barrie and Peterborough, Ontario, as far west as Guelph, Kitchener and Waterloo, Ontario, as far east as Batavia, and as far south as Jamestown and Olean.

Early years
The history of one of Buffalo's earliest radio stations has its roots at sea. On April 1, 1921 the Governor, a passenger ship, sank to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean after collision with a freighter, the West Hartland. The passenger ship’s assigned radio call letters were WGR. Due to maritime superstition, the call sign was never reissued to another ship and reverted back to a pool of available call signs for new radio stations.

That same year, the Federal Telephone & Telegraph Company (FTTC), headquartered in a sprawling manufacturing complex in North Buffalo, began marketing its first, completely assembled radio sets. To fill a radio void in the city, and to stimulate sales of their new "high-tech" products, the FTTC applied for (and received) a commercial radio license from the Department of Commerce. The station was named "WGR" after George Rand (founder of Remington Rand), a key investor in the FTTC. On May 22, 1922, WGR's broadcast operations commenced, beginning more than 85 years of continuous service to Western New York and Southern Ontario. Published reports say that the first programs on WGR were: a clergyman’s lecture; a concert from Victor’s Furniture Store showroom; and a presentation on the advantages of a college education by Dr. Julian Park, from the University at Buffalo.

WGR is the oldest radio station in Buffalo that is still in operation. During its days as a full service radio station, its roster of personalities included "Buffalo Bob" Smith, later famous for TV's Howdy Doody children's show, and popular national TV and nightclub comedian Foster Brooks. From 1964 until 1987, WGR was owned by Taft Broadcasting. The station's longtime music format combining Adult Top 40 hits and rock oldies and featured some of Buffalo's top radio personalities, talk hosts and news reporters including Stan Roberts, Larry Anderson, Frank Benny, Tom Donahue, Randy Michaels, Jim Scott, Jerry Reo, Shane, Joe Galuski, Tom Langmyer, George Hamberger, Tom Shannon, Tom Bauerle, John Otto, Chuck Lakefield, Sandy Kozel, Don Dussias, Lauri Githens, Wayne Smith, Jane Tomczak and Craig Matthews. WGR gradually evolved to news/talk during the late 1980s and early 1990s. In 1987, Taft sold the station to Rich Communications, which was part of the Robert Rich family's business holdings, which also included a major processed-food company and a venture applying for a National League expansion baseball franchise (for which WGR was projected to be flagship station of the team's projected network). Although the Rich interests were the National League's choice for the new franchise they dropped out of the competition for an expansion team (which ultimately went to south Florida) for cost reasons. Soon after, WGR was eventually spun off to new owners.

The 1990s: News Radio 55
For much of the 1990s, WGR was a successful news/talk station, competing head to head with WBEN-AM 930. From 1990 to 1994, WGR owned the radio broadcast rights to the Buffalo Bills, the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bisons. The Buffalo Bills' four consecutive Super Bowl seasons were broadcast on WGR, whose Program Directors included Chuck Finney (1991–1993), Daryl Parks (1993–1995) and Jim Pastrick (1995–2000).

Through its news-talk era the WGR line-up featured a variety of programs such as Breakfast with Bauerle (Tom Bauerle), The Fabulous Sports Babe, Chuck Dickerson, Art Wander, Extension 55 with John Otto, Ron Dobson, John and Ken, Rick Emerson, Joey Reynolds, and several other local and national hosts. Syndicated talk radio host Leslie Marshall, controversial talk radio host J. R. Gach and future WFAN New York morning drive fixture Craig Carton worked at the station. Jesse Ventura was at one time a candidate to host a show on the station, but lost out to Dobson. The station has been, since the network's inception, an affiliate of ESPN Radio, which it has carried on the weekends since 1992.

In 1995, Rich Communications which owned both WGR and its FM counterpart WGRF, sold WGRF to Mercury Radio headed by Charles W. Banta. Simultaneously, Rich Communications entered into a Local Marketing Agreement (LMA) with Keymarket Communications. The Federal Communications Commission approved the sale of WGR to Keymarket within twelve months of the LMA. Keymarket also owned WBEN, WMJQ, WWKB and WKSE. Keymarket merged with River City Broadcasting which was purchased by Sinclair Broadcast Group in 1997. Sinclair Broadcast Group sold its entire radio division to Entercom Communications in 1999. In February 2000, WGR changed formats from News-Talk to Sports-Talk.

Becoming an all sports station
In February 2000, WGR became an all-sports talk radio station. Bauerle, for a short time, was retained and paired with Chris "Bulldog" Parker, who joined from WBEN for the morning show. Chuck Dickerson maintained his afternoon drive show. Jim Rome, who was added to the WGR line-up in late summer 1998, was retained when WGR switched to all sports. Anne Burke, a frequent caller to the station's talk shows, joined Bob Gaughan to co-host middays. Mike Maniscalco and later Brad Riter hosted the evening shift.

From October 2000 to 2004, WGR competed with WNSA-FM, an FM station licensed to Wethersfield, NY in rural Wyoming county (with a 107.3 translator in Buffalo). The two stations battled for listeners and the rights to broadcast sporting events. Several teams' broadcasts bounced between the two stations, such as the Bandits, New York Yankees, and Buffalo Destroyers.

WGR landed a coup when it signed WNSA's top afternoon host, Mike Schopp, from WNSA-FM in 2002; the event came at about the same time as when Rigas and Adelphia Communications were beginning to collapse under massive financial scandal. WNSA never recovered and eventually WGR took the upper hand in the local sports radio battle. Schopp was at first teamed with the vitriolic Chuck Dickerson in afternoon drive. When Dickerson departed WGR, Schopp was teamed with Chris "Bulldog" Parker. Bauerle moved from WGR to sister station WBEN, Gaughan joined Kevin Sylvester in morning drive (Burke had been released long before this) and Parker joined Schopp in the afternoon show, releasing Dickerson in the process. Riter was paired with sidekick Jeremy White in the evening and lastly The Tony Kornheiser Show (from ESPN) was added in Gaughan and Burke's old time slot. (Kornheiser would later be replaced by Colin Cowherd by ESPN.)

With the purchase of WNSA, WGR re-joined the New York Yankees radio network and for the first time since 1996, regained the radio rights to the Buffalo Sabres. Howard Simon, also from WNSA, joined in November 2004, with White moving from evenings to mornings to be Simon's sidekick.

In 2006, the Sabres and WGR renewed their broadcast agreement through 2012, and Yankees rights were dropped by 2007. In 2007, host Brad Riter was fired after failing to report for work, and he joined rival WECK in March 2008. A series of WGR staffers, as well as past and present Buffalo media personalities such as former WNSA and Empire host (and former KOHD-DT morning anchor) Jim Brinson and WIVB-TV sports director Dennis Williams, hosted the vacated slot. (WGR also tried to lure John Murphy, but because he was also at the time the radio host of the Bills, his contract prevented him from hosting the slot.) In January 2008, Williams was hired as the new evening host at WGR; WIVB declined to his contract shortly thereafter, and replaced him with Murphy. Williams left the station in early 2009 to enter the sales industry, the time slot is currently held by reruns. On January 4, 2012 it was announced that WGR would become the Buffalo Bills Radio Network flagship station. WGR began a partial simulcast on Rochester sister station WROC in September 2008. Sabres games, Schopp and the Bulldog, and ESPN Radio will be carried on WROC.

In 2012, WGR secured the rights to the Buffalo Bills Radio Network after previous owner WGRF decided against renewing their contract. As part of the deal, John Murphy will begin hosting a nightly talk show dedicated to the Bills on nights when the Sabres do not play. At the same time, Kevin Sylvester will also return to the station as the host of a daily Sabres-oriented talk show, Hockey Hotline, which last aired in 2004.

Broadcast signal
WGR's broadcast signal broadcasts at a power of 5,000 watts. During the day, the nondirectional signal, assisted by the Great Lakes, can stretch from Toledo, Ohio to Watertown, New York. At night, the signal is shifted to a directional north-to-south pattern aimed toward Toronto, Ontario.

In 2006, WGR resumed streaming its programming on the Internet after a four-year hiatus. WGR also broadcasts on the HD Radio digital subchannel of WKSE (FM 98.5).

Hosts and programs

 * Howard Simon and Jeremy White, the station's morning drive duo 6-10AM
 * Kevin Sylvester, host of Hockey Hotline middays (program sponsored by the Buffalo Sabres)10AM-12PM
 * The Jim Rome Show, syndicated msports talk host 12PM-3PM
 * Mike Schopp and Chris "Bulldog" Parker, the station's afternoon drive team 3-7PM
 * John Murphy, host of The John Murphy Show, which is a Buffalo Bills-sponsored program, evenings 7-9PM
 * Brian Koziol, host, Sabres Radio Network
 * ESPN Radio, overnight 9pm-6am
 * Sal Capaccio, host, Sports Talk Saturday
 * Mike Schopp, Saturday Mornings 8-9 AM, The Hobby
 * Tony Caligiuri, Saturday Mornings, Inside High School Sports 10-11AM
 * Dave Buchanan, Sunday Mornings 10-11 AM, WGR's Fast Track (NASCAR Talk)
 * Brian Blessing, Sabres Hockey Hotline, Boss
 * Jim Brinson, Howard Simon partner in crime, Boss

Contributors and regular guests
Thomas Meka, 2012 Summer Intern - nicknamed Intern Tom
 * Joe Buscaglia, WGR Buffalo Bills beat reporter
 * John Clayton, ESPN football reporter
 * Joe DeLamielleure, Hall-of famer, former Buffalo Bills offensive lineman
 * Paul Hamilton, WGR Buffalo Sabres beat reporter
 * Rick Jeanneret, Buffalo Sabres play-by-play announcer
 * Harry Neale, Buffalo Sabres color analyst
 * Mike Robitaille, Former Buffalo Sabre and current MSG hockey analyst
 * Lindy Ruff, Buffalo Sabres former head coach
 * Aaron Schatz, creator of Football Outsiders, Obscure and interesting football statistics
 * Jerry Sullivan, Buffalo News columnist
 * Thurman Thomas, Hall-of famer, former Buffalo Bills running back

20/20 sports anchors and producers

 * Greg Bauch, Producer for Mike Schopp & The Bulldog
 * Dave Buchanan, Sabres Radio Network producer, weeknight producer/anchor
 * Dan Cave, Weeknight producer/anchor, anchor on Sabres broadcasts
 * Dan Fisher, Howard Simon Show Producer
 * Jon Koziol, Sabres Radio Network Producer
 * Pat Malacaro, Weekend producer
 * Michael Jafari, Weekend producer
 * Tom Cich, Weekend producer, anchor
 * Matt Coller, Weekend producer, anchor
 * T.J. Luckman, Weekend producer
 * Pete Carges, Weekend producer

Live sports coverage

 * Buffalo Bills flagship station; play-by-play with John Murphy and Mark Kelso
 * Buffalo Sabres flagship station; play-by-play with Rick Jeanneret and Rob Ray
 * Buffalo Bandits lacrosse play-by play with John Gurtler and Randy Mearns (usually delegated to WWKB)
 * Sunday Night Baseball play-by-play on ESPN Radio
 * Sunday, Monday and Thursday night NFL play-by-play on Dial Global
 * NASCAR Sprint Cup play-by-play from the Motor Racing Network
 * Buffalo Bisons baseball Game of the Week (shared with WWKB and WBEN)
 * "Friday Night Lights" high school football package (discontinued 2012)
 * NCAA college football play-by-play on Dial Global, Saturdays
 * Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball (sometimes delegated to WWKB)