WBLS

WBLS is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station that is licensed to New York City operating on 107.5 MHz frequency.

History

The station signed on in July 1951 as WEVD-FM. On September 15, 1965, WEVD changed its call letters to WLIB, the same calls as its sister AM station at 1190 kHz, and became an urban contemporary (R&B) radio station. In 1974, it changed calls once again, this time to WBLS.

Related Topics:
July - 1951 - September 15 - 1965 - Call letters - KHz - R&B - 1974

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WBLS was often the number one FM station in New York from 1974 to 1978, competing often with WKTU-FM, a pop-turned-disco station whose music rosters included black artists. Afterward, though, the station's ratings fell to number three. In the spring of 1980, WBLS was number one again but incorporated rap music into its playlists. In August 1981, RKO General, who owned WXLO (99X), went after WBLS' urban audience by launching WRKS-FM (98.7 Kiss FM). WXLO rose from 22nd place to third place on the Arbitron ratings in just one rating period. WBLS, WKTU and WRKS battled for the urban audience in the early 1980's. WKTU was sold in 1985 and WRKS later became a hip hop station due to its rap-influenced format. WBLS became better known as an R&B station, and retains the format to this day.

Related Topics:
1974 - 1978 - WKTU-FM - Disco - 1980 - August - 1981 - RKO General - WRKS-FM - Arbitron - 1985 - Hip hop - R&B

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In 1993 the Reverend Calvin Butts and other religious groups threatened to boycott the station if they played any form of "gangsta rap." By the end of that year the station banned the music except for clean versions of it. WBLS introduced the market's first Urban Adult Contemporary format in 1994 and continued to stay in the top ten Arbitron ratings until Emmis Broadcasting purchased WRKS-FM (Kiss FM)in December of that year and changed the format targeting the station's 25 to 54 audience. In 1997 WBLS reintroduced rap back on its playlists and crept back up to the top five Arbitron ratings. In 2004 Deon Levingston was appointed as the new general manager of the station and changes the format back to Urban Adult Contemporary. Many young African American listeners disagreed with Levingston, feeling that WBLS does better with young listeners and is the mother station for the Urban contemporary format.

Related Topics:
1993 - Urban Adult Contemporary - 1994 - Arbitron - Emmis Broadcasting - WRKS-FM - 1997 - 2004 - African American - Urban contemporary

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WBLS is currently the flagship station for the very controversial radio show, the Wendy Williams Experience, hosted by female shock-jock Wendy Williams.

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As a side note, in August 2004, ICBC, Inner City Broadcasting's radio subsidiary, redeemed nearly $140 million accreted value of redeemable preferred stock in a recapitalization led by GE Capital and Alta Communications, a Boston-based private equity firm http://www.quetzaljpmorganpartners.com/news08_13_04.html.

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