Early years WGR was the first commercial radio station in Western New York. It was preceded by
amateur radio operator Charles Klinck's short-lived 1920 station, in addition to sporadic experimental stations in the 1910s Effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, which regulated U.S. radio at this time, adopted regulations formally defining "broadcasting stations". The wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz) was designated for entertainment broadcasts, while 485 meters (619 kHz) was reserved for broadcasting official weather and other government reports. The
Buffalo Daily Courier and
Enquirer (both owned by
William J. Conners) were issued a
temporary authorization for 360 meters, with the call sign WPU, for a concert on January 22, 1922. This broadcast employed apparatus "furnished by the Federal Telephone & Telegraph Co." In early 1922, Federal, headquartered in North Buffalo, began producing radio receivers. As part of its marketing efforts, the company decided to apply for its own broadcasting license for Buffalo's first non-temporary radio broadcasting station. The license was issued on March 14, 1922, with the randomly assigned call letters WGR, transmitting on both 360 and 485 meters. The March 28 issue of the
Buffalo Evening News reported hearing test transmissions made by WGR the previous night. On April 1 it was announced that, starting that day, WGR would broadcast weather reports provided by the Department of Navigation on 485 meters each weekday at 12:30 and 6:00 pm. In mid-April, WGR's regular broadcast schedule was reported to be musical programs sent on 360 meters on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday afternoons, plus daily weather and market reports on 485 meters. WGR suspended regular operations while company employees worked on constructing a more powerful transmitter that could be easily heard by the
crystal radios the company was selling. In May they were reported to be conducting test transmissions, initially as experimental station 8XAD. The debut for WGR's use of the upgraded transmitter was scheduled for May 21, an event that was described as the "formal opening of one of the largest and most powerful broadcasting stations in the east which may make Buffalo the ethereal center of this part of the country", because "The arrangements and furnishing of the station will be equal to that of any of the present stations of national fame." The starting date coincided with the first day of "Radio Week" in Buffalo. The May 21 broadcast opened with prayer by Rev. Michael J. Ahren, president of
Canisius College, followed by a talk by the dean of the
University of Buffalo's college of arts and sciences, Julian Park, on the possibilities of education, Rev. F. Hyatt Smith, Kenmore Presbyterian Church speaking about the nature of "success", and Albert Kinsey, Chamber of Commerce president, reviewing the financial future of Buffalo. This was followed by entertainment by local artists. In early 1923 WGR ended the government reports on 485 meters, although it continued making entertainment broadcasts on 360 meters. In September 1922 the Department of Commerce set aside a second entertainment wavelength, 400 meters (750 kHz) for "Class B" stations that had quality equipment and programming. In May 1923 additional "Class B" frequencies were made available, with 940 kHz reserved for "Zone 1", which was assigned to WGR later that year. Effective November 11, 1928, the recently formed
Federal Radio Commission implemented its
General Order 40, which divided transmitting frequencies into three categories: Clear Channel, Regional and Local. Most former Class B stations became clear channel stations, however WGR was moved to a regional frequency, 550 kHz, while the station previously at that frequency,
WMAK, was reassigned to 900 kHz. The August 1941 adoption of the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s "duopoly" rule restricted licensees from owning more than one radio station in a given market, and the Buffalo Broadcasting Company decided to divest WGR, while retaining
WKBW. In late 1946, WGR was bought by a consortium of Western New York families known as the WGR Corporation. This company signed on WGR-TV (channel 2) in 1953 and WGR-FM (now
WGRF) in 1959. WGR Corporation bought several other television and radio stations in the 1950s, and eventually became known as Transcontinent Broadcasting. Transcontinent merged with
Taft Broadcasting in 1964. Taft sold off WGR-TV in 1983. Due to a current FCC rule that prohibited TV and radio stations in the same market, but with different owners, from sharing the same call letters, the TV station amended its call letters to
WGRZ after it was sold. Taft retained both WGR and WGRQ (the former WGR-FM). During its days as a
full service radio station, WGR's 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. The station's longtime music format combined
adult top 40 hits and rock
oldies and featured some of Buffalo's top radio personalities, talk hosts and news reporters including Stan Roberts, Frank Benny, Tom Donahue,
Randy Michaels, Jim Scott, Jerry Reo, Shane, Joe Galuski,
Tom Langmyer, George Hamberger,
Tom Shannon,
John Otto, Chuck Lakefield, Don Dussias, Lauri Githens, Wayne Smith, Sandy Kozel, Jane Tomczak, Tom Bauerle (as well as his brother, Dick Bauerle), Craig Matthews. WGR gradually evolved to
talk radio during the late 1980s. In 1987, Taft sold WGR and WRLT (the former WGRQ) to Rich Communications, which was part of the
Robert Rich family's business holdings, which also included a major
processed-food company (and with it, naming rights for the
Buffalo Bills stadium then (now called
Highmark Stadium) 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 set to begin play in 1993 (which ultimately went to
Denver, as the
Colorado Rockies) 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 with
WBEN. From 1990 to 1994, WGR owned the radio broadcast rights to Buffalo Bills football,
Buffalo Sabres hockey and
Buffalo Bisons baseball. The Bills' four consecutive
Super Bowl seasons were broadcast by 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 morning drive fixture
Craig Carton also 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 was, from the network's inception, an affiliate of
ESPN Radio, which it carried on the weekends from 1992 to 2013. 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 FCC 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.
Adoption of all-sports format 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, an FM station licensed to
Wethersfield, New York, 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
John 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
Chuck Dickerson in afternoon drive. Dickerson, who had been particularly harsh against the Bills in what was believed to be revenge for being fired from his assistant coach position with the team a decade prior, was forced out in 2003 in an effort to make amends with the city's sports franchises and put them in better position to regain play-by-play rights; 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). 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 Sports Network host (and former
KOHD 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. WGR began a partial
simulcast on
Rochester sister station
WROC in September 2008. Sabres games,
Schopp and the Bulldog, and ESPN Radio were carried on WROC;
Schopp and the Bulldog was dropped in 2011. On January 4, 2012, it was announced that WGR would become the
Buffalo Bills Radio Network flagship station, after previous owner
WGRF decided against renewing their contract. As part of the deal, John Murphy began hosting a nightly talk show dedicated to the Bills on nights when the Sabres did not play. At the same time, Kevin Sylvester also returned to the station as the host of a daily Sabres-oriented talk show,
Hockey Hotline, which last aired in 2004. WGR parent company Entercom moved the ESPN Radio affiliation to its own full-time affiliate, WWKB, in September 2013.
CBS Sports Radio eventually filled the overnight time slots ESPN Radio had previously filled on WGR. In 2016, the formation of
MSG Western New York was announced. A regional sports channel for Western New York, the channel includes both Sabres and Bills programming. Two main WGR shows
Sabres Hockey Hotline and
The John Murphy Show began simulcasting on the channel on October 3, 2016. WGR and
Pegula Sports and Entertainment reached a five-year contract extension for radio broadcasts not long afterward, keeping the Bills and Sabres broadcasts on WGR through 2021. Also in 2016, former Sabres players
Andrew Peters and
Craig Rivet would start hosting
The Instigators podcast. Peters and Rivet would leave the show in 2021 and be replaced by
Brian Duff and former goaltender
Martin Biron. They would use the same name for a short while then be rebranded to
Sabres Live. In 2018,
Steve Tasker joined John Murphy and The John Murphy Show became
One Bills Live. Two years later in 2020, Murphy announced he would be leaving
One Bills Live to solely focus on his play-by-play duties with the Bills. He was replaced by
Chris Brown. In February 2026, the Bills and Sabres both announced that they had disaffiliated from WGR, moving both production and sales game coverage and daily shows such as
One Bills Live and
Sabres Live in house. The teams will distribute the shows online via their website and team apps and throughout the region via new broadcast affiliates, which could include WGR.
Radio Insight, an industry publication, reported in February 2026 that Audacy was to begin simulcasting WGR on FM sister station WLKK (the former WNSA), which had a country music format. Audacy subsequently applied to the FCC to have WLKK's call letters changed to
WGR-FM effective February 19, 2026. At midnight on February 17, 2026, WGR began simulcasting on WLKK. Simulcasting on what is now WGR-FM and its repeaters improved the station's reach in
Batavia and extended its broadcast area to
Rochester as well as provided a clearer sound in Buffalo/
Niagara area. Five days later, WROC in Rochester rebranded itself as "WGR Rochester" and began carrying WGR's programming for much of the day, further improving its availability in that city. ==See also==