The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum » WBUF-FM Buffalo Doesn't Know Jack After Format Flip

RadioActive · November 25, 2020 4:52 pm

I guess this means they're no longer "playing what they want." Instead, it might be what listeners want, after WBUF Buffalo dropped the Jack format in favour of branding called "Everything That Rocks."

It appears to be chasing hard rock fans, with artists like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, and Ozzy Osbourne featured. Perhaps they're trying to siphon off listeners from WGRF.

Been a while since anybody shuffled the deck in Buffalo.

Townsquare's WBUF-FM/Buffalo Launches Rock Format

WBUF's new website

Radiowiz · November 25, 2020 5:13 pm

Now, I get that Howard Stern is NOT returning.
Is there another national morning show (fits rock format) that they may have chosen to air?
Bob & Tom?
All I know is, I highly doubt they care to hire a local morning show.

Also, they were already a rock station, thanks to "Crazy Jeff", who flushed out all that disco music and played we will rock you over and over again until finally going rock.

If rock radio did not work last time why will it work this time for them??

Last edited by Radiowiz (November 25, 2020 5:16 pm)

mace · November 25, 2020 5:54 pm

WBUF had the Jack format for 15 years. The only other format the station had with some success was the 1982-92 A/C run. Smooth Jazz, Alice, Dancin' Oldies were less successful music formats. I don't expect this change to move the needle, ratings wise. Can't see them improving on their 2.5-2.8 share, which is where they have been hovering the last few months according to stationratings.com.

Radiowiz · November 25, 2020 6:08 pm

mace wrote:
Can't see them improving on their 2.5-2.8 share, which is where they have been hovering the last few months according to stationratings.com.

That's why I suspect that they've signed a contract with someone big to do mornings for them...It won't be Howard Stern, but still someone that relates heavily with the rock format.

Fitz · November 25, 2020 6:27 pm

I just looked at their "recently played " online and it looks like someone there thinks CanCon applies:

These are some of the groups played during the last few hrs:

Saga
Aldo Nova
Red Rider
Triumph
Rush

Radiowiz · November 25, 2020 7:29 pm

Fitz wrote:
I just looked at their "recently played " online and it looks like someone there thinks CanCon applies:

These are some of the groups played during the last few hrs:

Saga
Aldo Nova
Red Rider
Triumph
Rush

Meh, maybe someone there thinks can con is what will BEST make them sound different from WGRF. lol

Fitz · November 25, 2020 7:58 pm

My favorite format for WBUF was the progressive format which ran for about 4 years until 1978. I have quite a few examples of that on the site, scattered through various sections including "The Radio Corner". Have a few examples of the AOR and AC years as well. Some of those I may not have uploaded yet.

In 1976/77 they were exposing artists like Television and The Ramones before there was a CFNY. Still remember a DJ named Phil Bash played Roadrunner by Johnathan Richman and that was the first time I had heard that.

Here's a little snippet of the progressive era with a great ID in the middle:

WBUF 1975

Last edited by Fitz (November 25, 2020 7:59 pm)

splunge · November 25, 2020 8:45 pm

Radiowiz wrote:
Fitz wrote:
I just looked at their "recently played " online and it looks like someone there thinks CanCon applies:

These are some of the groups played during the last few hrs:

Saga
Aldo Nova
Red Rider
Triumph
Rush
Meh, maybe someone there thinks can con is what will BEST make them sound different from WGRF. lol

maybe sometimes there are GOOD cancon songs which transcend regs or borders?

Dale Patterson · November 25, 2020 9:28 pm

My favourite era for WBUF was in the '80s when they had a soft rock/oldies mix with jocks like Stan Roberts, Fred Klestine and Dan Katone. They've seemingly had a million formats since then - Mix 92.9 (Adult Contemporary), Smooth Jazz as WSJZ, Alice (Modern Adult Contemporary) as WLCE, Dancin' Oldies (Urban Oldies) back to WBUF, (Buffalo's Active Rock) Active Rock, FM Talk and then Jack. (Surprised no one took the WBUF calls in the four years they were available from 1995 to '99).

The longest lasting format on WBUF? Beautiful Music from the station's founding in 1947 to 1975, when after 28 years the station switched to progressive rock as B93. It was Foxy 93 as WFXY for a short time from 1980-82, then AC/Oldies as WBUF.

paterson1 · November 25, 2020 9:44 pm

splunge wrote:
Radiowiz wrote:
Fitz wrote:
I just looked at their "recently played " online and it looks like someone there thinks CanCon applies:

These are some of the groups played during the last few hrs:

Saga
Aldo Nova
Red Rider
Triumph
Rush
Meh, maybe someone there thinks can con is what will BEST make them sound different from WGRF. lol
maybe sometimes there are GOOD cancon songs which transcend regs or borders?

They have also played another RUSH cut, Neil Young, some Heart cancon and Kim Mitchell Go for Soda. If these guys keep it up they are going to sound a lot like Q107. Any Hip or Sam Roberts coming up?

RadioActive · November 25, 2020 10:02 pm

They better be careful or the CRTC will try to regulate them.

Jody Thornton · November 25, 2020 11:42 pm

I recall it as Foxy 93 in 1980 ....lol. But yes the AC format for WBUF in the 80s was long lasting for sure.

RadioActive · November 26, 2020 12:42 am

WBUF used to come in here like a local. Then a few years ago, I seem to recall they moved their transmitter farther south and they all but disappeared. I can't recall the last time I got a listenable signal from them.

In fact, come to think of it, almost all the Buffalo FMs used to come in great. Outside of the superpowers like WTSS and WDCX (and I suppose WKSE) almost nothing comes in here anymore. I remember when both WGRF and what was then WYSL-FM put amazing signals into Toronto. Not anymore. I used to love WHTT. Haven't heard it over the air in years.

mace · November 26, 2020 10:03 am

For the most part, you are correct about the Buffalo FM signals being impaired in Toronto. The DOCK frequently messes up WHTT, Radio Humber obliterates 97ROCK, Flow makes WBLK almost unlistenable and EDGE103.3 gets squeezed by 103.5 and 103.9. And 92.9 was always available for me even with their tower move and power decrease from 92K to 76K, Then The GRAND arrived. Good Bye BUF! Most of the Buffalo signals return east and west of Toronto. At home, I can get most of them on line.

mace · November 26, 2020 10:24 am

For the record, those who want to listen to Buffalo FM online through a Sonos device, My-Tuner will give you access to WBNY, WBUF, WBLK, WNED, WMSX, WGRF, WKSE, WDCX, WTSS, WEDG, WHTT and WYRK. Tune-In offers WBFO and WECK.

fybush · November 26, 2020 12:01 pm

RadioActive wrote:
WBUF used to come in here like a local. Then a few years ago, I seem to recall they moved their transmitter farther south and they all but disappeared. I can't recall the last time I got a listenable signal from them.

In fact, come to think of it, almost all the Buffalo FMs used to come in great. Outside of the superpowers like WTSS and WDCX (and I suppose WKSE) almost nothing comes in here anymore. I remember when both WGRF and what was then WYSL-FM put amazing signals into Toronto. Not anymore. I used to love WHTT. Haven't heard it over the air in years.

Believe it or not, the move WBUF made in the early 2000s was northward, not southward. The original 92.9 site was in the hills south of Buffalo, just off Rt. 219 in the town of Boston, and it was a superpower signal - 75 kW, I think. 96.9 was on the channel 2 tower a few miles to the east. Those were great, high-altitude sites for wide-area coverage, but they had issues in the city of Buffalo because the three FMs on the Rand Building (93.7, 96.1, 106.5) right in the middle of downtown tend to overload the front ends of radios and make it hard to get anything from outlying towers.

So 92.9 and 96.9 both moved into the city of Buffalo, on the old Channel 17 tower in North Buffalo (which sits behind the channel 4 studios on Elmwood Avenue.) Better signal strength in the core of the market, a little less wide-area coverage.

And even though both signals moved a little closer to Canada, in the meantime Canada filled its FM dial with new interference. It's harder to get 92.9 in Toronto than it used to be because of the new 92.9 in Haldimand-Norfolk, the power increase on CKIS (and the addition of HD to that signal), and so on.

We've made the same mess of things down here, of course. The last vestiges of my ability to listen to CHUM-FM over the air around Rochester went away when a new translator hit the air on 104.5 from Bristol Mountain. I have to be west of Batavia now to hear CHUM clearly.

As for WHTT? It hasn't moved an inch from its longtime site south of downtown. But CIRR on 103.9 and the 104.1 up in cottage country and HD on CHUM-FM (if it's on) all clutter things up for cross-border reception.

Last edited by fybush (November 26, 2020 12:04 pm)

RadioActive · November 26, 2020 12:05 pm

Amazing info as always, Scott. Thanks for filling in those blanks. Most of the missing stations can be heard online, but to me, it's just not the same as OTA. There was a time when WBLK was quite popular in Southern Ontario. Not any more.

I miss my Buffalo FMs!

mace · November 26, 2020 12:10 pm

Fybush: Are any of the other Toronto area FM's somewhat listenable in the Rochester area. I am familiar with most of the major Rochester locations [92.5, 96.5, 97.9, 98.9, 100.5, 101.3 etc.] However, I don't know the suburban or probably numerous translator frequencys in the area.

fybush · November 26, 2020 2:57 pm

mace wrote:
Fybush: Are any of the other Toronto area FM's somewhat listenable in the Rochester area. I am familiar with most of the major Rochester locations [92.5, 96.5, 97.9, 98.9, 100.5, 101.3 etc.] However, I don't know the suburban or probably numerous translator frequencys in the area.

It's pretty much all gone here now. 98.1 was always tricky because of WPXY on 97.9. 102.1 was creamed a few years back when a new religious station went on the air in Albion, about 25 miles west of here, on the same frequency. Q107 was decent here... until Canada allowed CJTN in Trenton/Quinte West to share that channel. That created a fight between the two Canadians on 107.1 here, and then a translator for WDCX-AM 990 was licensed on 107.1 on the west side of Rochester.

Up closer to the lake (I'm on the southeast side of town), CKFM still comes in adequately in some areas. CJRT is probably the single best Toronto FM that's usable here, assuming you're not too close to the HD from WXXI-FM on Pinnacle Hill two channels up. And although we have a class A signal on 94.1 here, once you get to western Monroe County it sometimes gets a fight from CBL-FM in Brockport and points west.

Radiowiz · November 26, 2020 3:54 pm

fybush wrote:
102.1 was creamed a few years back when a new religious station went on the air in Albion, about 25 miles west of here.

Further back, when I used to live in the Scarborough part of Toronto,
I was able to listen to Buffalo's 101.7 "The spot-Your spot for cool music"
but then that station was sold to a religious group.
It's sad to see the spot go. I liked the music and the creative liners they came up with...needed some radio personality, but still great music.

Last edited by Radiowiz (November 27, 2020 10:51 am)