WBBL

Infobox Radio station
name = WBBL


city = Grand Rapids, Michigan
area = [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBBL&service=AM&status=L&hours=U]
branding = The Ball 1340 AM
slogan = Your Local Sports Leader
airdate = September 18, 1940
frequency = 1340 kHz
format = Sports
power = 1,000 watts
erp =
class = C
callsign_meaning = The Ball
former_callsigns = WLAV (3/1/84-6/1/94)
WTWN (9/1/80-3/1/84)
WLAV (8/18/40-9/1/80)
owner = Citadel Broadcasting
sister_stations = WHTS, WKLQ, WLAV-FM, WTNR
webcast =
website = [http://www.wbbl.com/ wbbl.com]
affiliations =

WBBL (1340 AM, "The Ball") is a radio station broadcasting an all-sports format in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The station, owned by Citadel Broadcasting, enjoys a fair amount of ratings success as Grand Rapids' only full-time sports-talk station. It is currently Grand Rapids' affiliate of ESPN Radio.

The station first began broadcasting in 1940 under the WLAV call sign (which stood for Leonard Allen Versluis, the station's original owner). WLAV became a full-time Top 40 music station in the summer of 1963, and was originally consulted by Mike Joseph, who later went on to develop the Hot Hits format in the late 1970s. It soon overtook rival stations WGRD and WMAX as the dominant popular music station in the market, but its market share declined in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the popularity of FM stations such as 95.7 WZZM and WLAV's own album-rock FM sister station at 96.9. WLAV went to a more adult contemporary sound in 1974, which continued until 1980, when the station tried a talk format as WTWN. The heritage WLAV-AM calls were restored in 1984, and the station tried a variety of oldies formats for several years. In late 1992, the format changed to a modern rock-based format called "1340 Underground". This happened shortly after an experiment with changing the format to modern rock on WLAV-FM from the heritage classic rock and AOR format had failed. WLAV-FM then reverted their format back to classic rock. The "1340 Underground" format gained a considerable cult following in the Grand Rapids area, even though the night-time signal was very poor. The WBBL calls and sports-talk format debuted in 1994 when ownership of the radio station had changed.

WBBL was briefly the Grand Rapids home of Howard Stern's syndicated morning show after it was dropped by sister station WKLQ. However, WBBL stopped airing Stern for several weeks after CBS Radio discovered that they were hacking away at the show, such as airing New York ads instead of local spots, K-Rock liners and cutting the show at 10 a.m. sharp for low-rated sports programming.

Programming

The Ball 1340 AM is West Michigan's home to a host of sports-talk programs. As the local home of ESPN Radio, WBBL airs Mike and Mike In the Morning weekday mornings. Local programs "On the Bench with Bret Bakita" and "The Huge Show" with Bill Simonson have large presences in the Michigan sports scene, frequently getting interviews with the top players and coaches in Michigan sports. Sports-talk radio icon Jim Rome's syndicated radio show can be found on WBBL weekday afternoons. Fox Sports Radio and Westwood One can also be heard on WBBL with Fox Sports React with JT the Brick and Monday Night Football respectively.

Sources

* [http://www.michiguide.com/dials/rad-a/wbbl.html Michiguide.com - WBBL History]
* [http://www.wbbl.com WBBL.com]
* [http://www.thehugeshow.net The Huge Show.net]
* [http://www.lionsinsider.net LionsInsider.net - blog of HugeShow Lions Insider Mike Fowler]

External links

*AMQ|WBBL
*AML|WBBL