The audio quality is so good on this that we have to take you back to 1961 for this pristine aircheck of WKBW in the early days of it's Top 40 format. KB really WAS the biggest thing to ever happen to Buffalo! This aircheck proves why WKBW took off from it’s earliest inception as a Top 40 station in 1959 to become a legend among its fans right up through the early 80s.

Enjoy newsman Irv Weinstein with “Pulse Beat News”, the old weather reports (it’s 74 KB-grees), real KLASSIC commercials (wow this shows how more ‘modest’ our society was), and those old, OLD jingles! Remember, this is an ORIGINAL recording of WKBW, not a recreation.

Compare this with a much-later recording of Al Bandiero’s night show from 1979.


In 1986, ABC/Capital Cities sold WKBW AM and TV to separate owners. FCC rules at the time didn't permit different stations in the same market to hold the same call letters, so Price Communications, the owner of the AM side changed the calls to WWKB, in the hopes of retaining the "KB" legacy. Those call letters are still in use today.


Entercom, 1520's next and current owner, tried to capture lightning in a bottle in 2003 with its KB-Klassics ‘Real Oldies’ format recreation, but found that the format was too expensive to operate and abandoned the format three years later. From 2006 - 2013, the station had a liberal talk format that seemed to have been fairly well received, but in 2013, Entercom flipped again. This time, to an almost 100% ESPN sports talk format. Aside from some local play by play, no other local programming has aired on 1520 since the flip.


Be sure to check out airchexx.com for this and thousands of other classic radio airchecks!


Audio courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks and Russ Horton.