WNBF is one of the
Southern Tier's oldest radio stations. Although the station has traditionally traced its founding to 1928, the year it moved to Binghamton, it was first licensed on February 7, 1927, to the Howitt-Wood Radio Company (Lyle E. Howitt and H. L. Wood) at 117 West Main Street in Endicott, New York, with 50 watts on 1460 kHz, operating from the Elvin Theater. The WNBF call letters were randomly assigned from a sequential roster of available call signs. The station was moved to 1450 kHz on June 15, 1927. On November 11, 1928, it was reassigned to 1500 kHz as a low-powered "local" station, as part of a major reallocation implemented by the
Federal Radio Commission's
General Order 40. Later that month the studios moved to the Arlington Hotel in Binghamton. In 1940, the
Federal Communications Commission awarded the Howitt-Wood Radio Company one of first construction permits for a commercial FM station. Originally on 44.9 MHz as W49BN, it later became
WNBF-FM on 100.5 MHz. The license for this original WNBF-FM was cancelled on August 11, 1952. In early 1941 station ownership was transferred to the Wylie B. Jones Advertising Agency. On March 29, 1941, most of the stations on 1500 kHz, including WNBF, moved to 1490 kHz, with the implementation of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. In 1942, WNBF moved to 1290 kHz, with a power increase from 250 to 5,000 watts. In 1946, the station owners became Clark Associates, Inc. In 1949 a transmission tower was constructed for use by both the AM and FM radio stations, plus a newly authorized television station, WNBF-TV channel 12 (now
WBNG-TV). In 1955,
Triangle Publications purchased WNBF-AM-TV and the construction permit for a new WNBF-FM (now
WHWK) on 98.1 MHz, which began broadcasting in 1956. Triangle also owned
TV Guide magazine. In 1972, Stoner Broadcasting, based in
Des Moines, bought WNBF-AM-FM, and Gateway Communications, publishers of
The Record of
Bergen County, New Jersey, bought WNBF-TV.
Citadel Broadcasting acquired WNBF and WHWK in 1999. Over its long history, WNBF has been home to some of the biggest names in area broadcasting, such as Bill Parker, John Leslie, Roger Neel and Bernard Fionte. ==References==