WINS (AM)
Encyclopedia
WINS known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City
, owned by CBS Radio
. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan
, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey
.
WINS is one of the nation's oldest all-news radio
stations, broadcasting in that format continuously since 1965.
department store. It moved to 860 kHz sometime around 1927, and to 600 around 1930, settling on 1180 around 1931. It was bought by William Randolph Hearst
in 1932, and by 1934 had adopted its present callsign (named after Hearst's International News Service). It changed its frequency from 1180 to 1000 on March 29, 1941 as part of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
and then eventually to 1010 on October 30, 1943. The Cincinnati-based Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
purchased the station from Hearst in 1946.
music. Among its early and famous personalities included disc jockey
s Alan Freed
and Murray "the K" Kaufman
. Sports broadcaster Les Keiter
, a latter-day member of the first generation of legends in that field, served as sports director for a period in the 1950s. Keiter is perhaps best remembered for his recreations of San Francisco (formerly New York) Giants
baseball games, which WINS carried in 1958 to keep disconnected Giants fans in touch with their team, who moved west along with the Brooklyn Dodgers
the previous year.
By the early 1960s WINS faced stiff competition for the rock-and-roll audience from three other stations, WMCA
, WMGM
, and WABC
. The competition continued after WINS was purchased by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation
in 1962. But by 1963, WMCA upstaged them all and became the top-rated top 40 station in the New York area. WINS consequently saw a decline of ratings between 1963 and 1965, normally trailing WMCA and WABC by some distance. By this time WMGM had already defected to a beautiful music
format under its previous call letters, WHN, in February 1962.
It is said that the last song played in 1010 before it became a news station was "Out in the Streets", by The Shangri-Las
, on April 18, 1965, at around 8 PM
.
, going with the format around the clock. WINS immediately established a template for its format, with an easily-identifiable, distinctive teletype
sound effect
playing in the background (some other stations later dropped this, but WINS has kept it), and the slogans, "All News, All the Time", "The Newswatch Never Stops", "Listen 2, 3, 4 times a day" and "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world". The latter tagline was a reference to WINS's format clock, which segments every 20 minutes. For a time in the late 1970s, WINS had a third slogan, "New York wants to know - and we know it".
The format has remained unchanged, save for minor tweaks, over the years. Currently, WINS regularly programs traffic reports from Metro Traffic every ten minutes on the "ones" (six times an hour), sports updates every quarter-hour (twice an hour, at :15 and :45), weather reports from AccuWeather
as much as six times an hour (three regularly scheduled reports at :12, :32, and :52 past every hour with breaking weather news interspersed in the front of each segment), entertainment news once an hour (at :38) and business news twice an hour (at :26 and :56). When breaking news warrants, WINS will break format to provide continuous coverage of any event.
In 1995 Westinghouse Electric purchased CBS
, a move which made WINS a sister station to its long-time rival WCBS
. Early on, there had been speculation that either station would drop the all-news format, but these notions were squelched rather quickly. In fact, the performance differences in both stations supplement their continued overlap. WINS's ratings numbers are better within New York City, while WCBS's listener strength is greater in the suburbs, possibly owing to its much stronger signal. And, from a programming standpoint, WINS's harder approach is offset by WCBS' lighter, more conversational style. Since the Westinghouse-CBS merger, both stations have continued to perform well in both ratings and advertising revenue.
XETRA
programmed an English-language all-news format, which was unsuccessful, as was also the case with WAVA
in the Washington, D.C.
area, and with Chicago
station WNUS
. As a result, many in the radio industry predicted a quick demise for WINS. However, Westinghouse Broadcasting
supported the format and WINS eventually prospered with it. Westinghouse made similar format changes at two other stations: KYW
in Philadelphia, in September 1965; and KFWB
in Los Angeles
, in March 1968. Together, WINS, KFWB and KYW served as the prototype all-news stations, and all three succeeded in attracting both listeners and advertising revenue over the years.
CBS was the first broadcaster to make an attempt to mimic Westinghouse's all-news formula. Locally in New York, WINS' success as an all-news station spurred CBS to make a similar transformation with WCBS in August 1967, though that station did not go full-time with all-news until 1970. After completing the conversion of WCBS to all-news, five of CBS' other owned-and-operated AM stations also adopted the format. With this move, CBS-owned WCAU
in Philadelphia and KNX
in Los Angeles competed directly against KYW and KFWB, respectively, with varying results. In 1975, NBC Radio tried an all-news approach themselves with its News and Information Service radio network, but the service shut down after only two years in operation. And, in the mid-1970s Westinghouse's second Chicago station, WIND
, carried the format part-time while competing against CBS-owned, all-news WBBM
. WIND was not successful, and Westinghouse tried again after selling WIND in 1985 and acquiring WMAQ
from NBC in 1988, converting WMAQ into a full-time news outlet with mixed results.
Today, the New York outlets coexist with the format as CBS-owned sister stations. As of February 2011, CBS Radio operates seven of the largest all-news stations in the country—WINS, KYW, WCBS, WBBM, KNX, KCBS
in San Francisco
, and WWJ
in Detroit
.
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, owned by CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey
Lyndhurst, New Jersey
Lyndhurst is a township in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 20,554.Lyndhurst was originally formed as Union Township on February 19, 1852 from portions of Harrison Township...
.
WINS is one of the nation's oldest all-news radio
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...
stations, broadcasting in that format continuously since 1965.
History
The station began broadcasting first during 1924 on 950 kHz as WGBS, named after and broadcasting from its owner, Gimbel'sGimbel's
Gimbel Brothers was an American department store corporation from 1887 through the late 20th century. The store is known for creating the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade, the oldest parade in the country. Gimbels was also once the largest department store chain in the country...
department store. It moved to 860 kHz sometime around 1927, and to 600 around 1930, settling on 1180 around 1931. It was bought by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
in 1932, and by 1934 had adopted its present callsign (named after Hearst's International News Service). It changed its frequency from 1180 to 1000 on March 29, 1941 as part of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, usually referred to as NARBA, is a treaty that took effect in March 1941 and set out the bandplan and interference rules for mediumwave AM broadcasting in North America. Although mostly replaced by other agreements in the 1980s, the basic bandplan...
and then eventually to 1010 on October 30, 1943. The Cincinnati-based Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
The Crosley Broadcasting Corporation was a radio and television broadcaster founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr.. The company was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW...
purchased the station from Hearst in 1946.
Rock and roll
Crosley sold the station in 1953 to the Gotham Broadcasting Corporation, and WINS became one of the first stations to play rock and rollRock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
music. Among its early and famous personalities included disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s Alan Freed
Alan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
and Murray "the K" Kaufman
Murray the K
Murray Kaufman , professionally known as Murray the K, was an influential rock and roll impresario and disc jockey of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s...
. Sports broadcaster Les Keiter
Les Keiter
Les Keiter , also known as the "General", was a newscaster and sports director of Honolulu, Hawaii television station KHON-TV. Keiter, who also lived in New York and San Francisco, also called some of the biggest fights in the history of boxing.- Early career :Keiter was raised in Seattle and...
, a latter-day member of the first generation of legends in that field, served as sports director for a period in the 1950s. Keiter is perhaps best remembered for his recreations of San Francisco (formerly New York) Giants
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the National League West Division....
baseball games, which WINS carried in 1958 to keep disconnected Giants fans in touch with their team, who moved west along with the Brooklyn Dodgers
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
the previous year.
By the early 1960s WINS faced stiff competition for the rock-and-roll audience from three other stations, WMCA
WMCA
WMCA, 570 AM, is a radio station in New York City, most known for its "Good Guys" Top 40 era in the 1960s. It is currently owned by Salem Communications and plays a Christian radio format...
, WMGM
WEPN
WEPN is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio...
, and WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
. The competition continued after WINS was purchased by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
in 1962. But by 1963, WMCA upstaged them all and became the top-rated top 40 station in the New York area. WINS consequently saw a decline of ratings between 1963 and 1965, normally trailing WMCA and WABC by some distance. By this time WMGM had already defected to a beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
format under its previous call letters, WHN, in February 1962.
It is said that the last song played in 1010 before it became a news station was "Out in the Streets", by The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain best known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
, on April 18, 1965, at around 8 PM
PM
PM often means "after noon" in the 12-hour clock .PM or Pm may also refer to:-Sciences:*Particulate matter, particulates — fine dust and soot — suspended in the air...
.
"All News, All the Time"
On April 19, 1965, after weeks of speculation, WINS changed its format radically. The station became one of the first all-news stations in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, going with the format around the clock. WINS immediately established a template for its format, with an easily-identifiable, distinctive teletype
Teleprinter
A teleprinter is a electromechanical typewriter that can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communication channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the use of radio and microwave as the...
sound effect
Sound effect
For the album by The Jam, see Sound Affects.Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media...
playing in the background (some other stations later dropped this, but WINS has kept it), and the slogans, "All News, All the Time", "The Newswatch Never Stops", "Listen 2, 3, 4 times a day" and "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world". The latter tagline was a reference to WINS's format clock, which segments every 20 minutes. For a time in the late 1970s, WINS had a third slogan, "New York wants to know - and we know it".
The format has remained unchanged, save for minor tweaks, over the years. Currently, WINS regularly programs traffic reports from Metro Traffic every ten minutes on the "ones" (six times an hour), sports updates every quarter-hour (twice an hour, at :15 and :45), weather reports from AccuWeather
AccuWeather
AccuWeather is an American media company that provides for-profit weather forecasting services worldwide.AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, then a Penn State graduate student working on degrees in meteorology. His first customer was a gas company in Pennsylvania. While running the...
as much as six times an hour (three regularly scheduled reports at :12, :32, and :52 past every hour with breaking weather news interspersed in the front of each segment), entertainment news once an hour (at :38) and business news twice an hour (at :26 and :56). When breaking news warrants, WINS will break format to provide continuous coverage of any event.
In 1995 Westinghouse Electric purchased CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, a move which made WINS a sister station to its long-time rival WCBS
WCBS (AM)
WCBS , often referred to as "WCBS Newsradio 880" , is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of the CBS Radio Network...
. Early on, there had been speculation that either station would drop the all-news format, but these notions were squelched rather quickly. In fact, the performance differences in both stations supplement their continued overlap. WINS's ratings numbers are better within New York City, while WCBS's listener strength is greater in the suburbs, possibly owing to its much stronger signal. And, from a programming standpoint, WINS's harder approach is offset by WCBS' lighter, more conversational style. Since the Westinghouse-CBS merger, both stations have continued to perform well in both ratings and advertising revenue.
Influence
WINS's switch to all-news was initially derided as a poor programming choice. Several years earlier, Tijuana, Mexico-based border blasterBorder blaster
A border blaster is a licensed commercial radio station that transmits at very high power from one nation to another. Border blasters should not be confused with international broadcast stations...
XETRA
XETRA
XETRA may refer to:*A "border blaster" radio station in Tijuana, Mexico:**XEWW-AM , which once had the call sign XETRA-AM**XETRA-FM , branded as "91X"* Xetra , an electronic trading system developed by Deutsche Börse...
programmed an English-language all-news format, which was unsuccessful, as was also the case with WAVA
WAVA
WAVA and WAVA-FM are Religious formatted broadcast radio stations. Both stations are licensed to Arlington, Virginia and serve the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. Both WAVA and WAVA-FM, as well as sister station WWRC, are owned and operated by Salem Communications.-External links:*...
in the Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
area, and with Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
station WNUS
WGRB
WGRB, 1390 AM, is a radio station in Chicago owned by Clear Channel Communications. It airs a gospel music format targeted to Chicago's African-American religious community...
. As a result, many in the radio industry predicted a quick demise for WINS. However, Westinghouse Broadcasting
Westinghouse Broadcasting
The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndication....
supported the format and WINS eventually prospered with it. Westinghouse made similar format changes at two other stations: KYW
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
in Philadelphia, in September 1965; and KFWB
KFWB (AM)
KFWB is a Los Angeles, California AM radio station operating on 980 kHz with 5,000 watts of power from a transmitter site near Lincoln Park . The station had a mostly all-news format from 1968 until September 8, 2009, after which it converted to a news-talk format...
in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, in March 1968. Together, WINS, KFWB and KYW served as the prototype all-news stations, and all three succeeded in attracting both listeners and advertising revenue over the years.
CBS was the first broadcaster to make an attempt to mimic Westinghouse's all-news formula. Locally in New York, WINS' success as an all-news station spurred CBS to make a similar transformation with WCBS in August 1967, though that station did not go full-time with all-news until 1970. After completing the conversion of WCBS to all-news, five of CBS' other owned-and-operated AM stations also adopted the format. With this move, CBS-owned WCAU
WPHT
WPHT is a CBS Radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on 1210 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it broadcasts in an omnidirectional pattern that allows it to cover most of the eastern half of North America at night. It uses the nickname "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT." The...
in Philadelphia and KNX
KNX (AM)
KNX is an all-news radio station in Los Angeles, California, USA. The station operates on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio. KNX broadcasts from facilities shared with sister stations KFWB, KCBS-FM, KTWV, and KAMP on Los Angeles' Miracle Mile...
in Los Angeles competed directly against KYW and KFWB, respectively, with varying results. In 1975, NBC Radio tried an all-news approach themselves with its News and Information Service radio network, but the service shut down after only two years in operation. And, in the mid-1970s Westinghouse's second Chicago station, WIND
WIND (AM)
WIND "AM 560" is a radio station based in Chicago, Illinois, broadcasting its talk radio format on 560 kHz.Its current owner is Salem Media, a company specializing primarily in Christian radio...
, carried the format part-time while competing against CBS-owned, all-news WBBM
WBBM (AM)
WBBM is an all-news CBS radio station in Chicago, Illinois broadcasting on the AM dial at 780 kHz. It is owned by CBS along with WBBM-TV....
. WIND was not successful, and Westinghouse tried again after selling WIND in 1985 and acquiring WMAQ
WSCR
WSCR is a sports radio station in the Chicago, Illinois radio market. The station is owned by CBS Radio and transmits on 670 kHz on the AM dial. Its transmitter is located just off Army Trail Road in Bloomingdale, which is a western suburb of Chicago. It is known as "The Score," and has been on...
from NBC in 1988, converting WMAQ into a full-time news outlet with mixed results.
Today, the New York outlets coexist with the format as CBS-owned sister stations. As of February 2011, CBS Radio operates seven of the largest all-news stations in the country—WINS, KYW, WCBS, WBBM, KNX, KCBS
KCBS (AM)
KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, and WWJ
WWJ (AM)
WWJ is Detroit, Michigan's only 24-hour all-news radio station. Broadcasting at 950 kHz, the station is owned and operated by CBS Corporation subsidiary CBS Radio. The station first went on the air on August 20, 1920 with the call sign 8MK...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
.