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WHYN

Springfield, Massachusetts
Broadcast area	Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts
Frequency	560 kHz
Branding	WHYN NewsRadio 560
Programming
Format	Talk radio
Affiliations	Premiere Networks Fox News Radio
Ownership
Owner	iHeartMedia (CC Licenses, LLC)
Sister stations	WHYN-FM, WRNX
History
First air date	1941 (1941) (on 1400 kHz in Northampton)
Call sign meaning	W HolYoke and Northampton
Technical information
Facility ID	55757
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts (daytime) 1,000 watts (nighttime)
Transmitter coordinates	42°11′37″N 72°41′02″W / 42.19361°N 72.68389°W / 42.19361; -72.68389
Links
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	https://whyn.iheart.com/

WHYN (560 kHz "NewsRadio 560") is a commercial AM talk radio station licensed to Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves the Pioneer Valley area of Western Massachusetts and is owned by iHeartMedia. Studios and offices are on Main Street in Springfield. The transmitter is on County Road in Southampton. WHYN operates at 5000 watts by day, using a directional antenna, but must reduce power to 1000 watts at night to avoid interfering with other stations on 560 kHz.

Programming

Weekdays begin with a local news and interview morning show with Jim Polito and John Baibek. That's followed by nationally syndicated talk shows, mostly from iHeartMedia subsidiary Premiere Networks: Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Buck Sexton, Clyde Lewis and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. Boston-based Howie Carr is heard weekday afternoons. Weekends feature shows on money, law, gardening and religion (some of which are paid brokered programming). Weekend syndicated hosts include Bill Handel, Gary Sullivan, Bill Cunningham, Joe Pags, Ric Edelman and Sean Hannity. (WHYN is a rare iHeartMedia talk station that doesn't run Sean Hannity on weekdays.)

Most hours begin with world and national news from Fox News Radio. WHYN partners with WGGB-TV & WSHM-LD's "Western Mass News" for severe weather coverage and storm closings.

History

Early Years in Northampton and Holyoke

WHYN first signed on in 1941, at 1400 kilocycles, with Northampton, Massachusetts, as its original city of license. It was owned by the Pioneer Valley Broadcasting Company and its 250 watt signal primarily covered Northampton and Holyoke, Massachusetts, so its call sign represented Holyoke and Northampton. In 1949, it moved to AM 560, powered at 1,000 watts, located in Holyoke. It was a network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System.

WHYN added an FM sister station in 1946, the first FM station licensed to the Springfield region. That station took the call letters WHYN-FM and mostly simulcast the AM station's programming.

Relocating to Springfield

In the early 1950s, WHYN-AM-FM moved to Springfield and became affiliates of CBS Radio, dropping Mutual programming. In 1953, television station WHYN-TV Channel 55 was put on the air (today WGGB-TV Channel 40). Around 1960, WHYN-AM-FM began programming Top 40 music.

Over the years, WHYN was known as "Whyn (pronounced WIN) Radio." During the rock and roll era, some of its monikers included "Channel 56," "Radio Five-Six-Oh," "Five-Sixty W - H - Y - N," "Fun Five Sixty" and "The Big Fifty-Six." Many jingles (mainly produced by PAMS) reflected these ongoing themes. In the early '60s, WHYN was the dominant Top 40 radio station competing with rival 1270 WSPR. WHYN's Top 40 sound was so popular, the station not only led in the Springfield ratings, but it was often in the top 10 in nearby Hartford, Connecticut. Some early airchecks of WHYN and its colorful disc jockeys (DJs) are at Northeast Airchecks and ReelRadio. In the 1960s, WHYN-FM ended its simulcast of AM 560 by switching to beautiful music.

Switch to AC and Talk

WHYN continued as a Top 40 station until young listeners began switching to FM for contemporary music. Automated FM station 102.1 WAQY (branded "Wacky Radio") went on the air in 1972 and took some of WHYN's audience. Jim Rising (James Marshall) was WAQY's first Program Director (circa 1976) after it began live programming. Rising came over from WHYN, where he had been the station's morning host, to program WAQY. He brought along WHYN's Johnny (Bekish) Michaels to be one of the DJs on WAQY.

During the 1980s, WHYN transitioned to a more adult sound, airing adult contemporary music and adding more news and sports. WHYN was the Springfield radio affiliate for the Boston Red Sox until 2007 when 105.5 WVEI-FM (now WWEI) became the Red Sox home in Springfield. WHYN was also affiliated with ABC Radio. By the 1990s, WHYN was adding more talk programming and reducing its reliance on music, until it became a full time talk station.

Ownership Changes

The station has undergone several ownership changes over the years starting with the Daily Hampshire Gazette; Guy Gannett Broadcasting (no relation to the present-day Gannett Company); Affiliated Communications (the broadcast division of The Boston Globe); R&R Broadcasting (Robinson & Reece); Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting; Radio Equity Partners; and Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia, the current owner).

In the 1950s and 60s, the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation (a consortium of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, the Greenfield Recorder, and the Springfield Newspapers) owned WHYN-AM-FM-TV. The stations were sold in 1967 to Guy Gannett Broadcasting. WHYN and WHYN-FM were sold to Affiliated Publications in 1979 while Guy Gannett retained WHYN-TV, which kept its original studio location and changed its call letters to WGGB-TV. The radio stations moved to downtown's "Marketplace" location, where their studios and offices remain, along with co-owned 100.9 WRNX, a country music station.

Past Personalities

Disk jockeys heard on WHYN during its Top 40 era included: Phil D-e-e, Bob Allen (a/k/a Robert R. Charest - b. 1939 Springfield MA; d. 20-APR-2008 Coffeyville KS), Bud Stone (deceased) and Little Davy Jones early in the decade. In 1968, the line up was Bob Allen (deceased), Lou Terri (a/k/a Louis Gualtieri - d. 23-OCT-1989 - Age 62), Bud Williams, Ron Savage, Bob O'Brady (a/k/a Robert M. Kennedy - b. 1947; d. 31-DEC-2013 Salem, VA), Norm Lambert (Norman N. Lambert - b. 1922 - d. 08-JAN-2010 - Age 87), Dennis Lee and Fred King. Additional DJs through the rock 'n roll era into the 70s included Jeff Baker, Larry Kruger (Lawrence C. Kruger - b. April 19, 1945 Savannah, GA; d. July 4, 2011 Swansea, MA), Jim Scott, Walt Cooper, Ken Moon, Patti Piech, Chuck Adams, Bill Erickson (who later was a news anchor at WHYN from 1990 through 2006), Ed Mitchell, Jerry Daniels, Gerry Tower, Rich Roy (who was also on WHYN-FM in its beautiful music days), Mike Taylor, Jackson Hill, Jungleman (Peter Pratt), longtime news anchor Ron Russell, news anchor Tony Gill, who worked earlier at WBZ and WRKO in Boston. In the '80s, DJs included Doug Hawkes (Roy Douglas Hawkes - d. July 3, 2011 Stone Creek Florida - Age 66), Charlie Donovan, Sherri McBride and Dan Williams (who later did mornings on WHYN-FM with his wife, Kim Zachery).

Former logos

References

1. Broadcasting Yearbook 1950 page 169
2. Broadcasting Yearbook 1977
3. Broadcasting Yearbook 1955 page 70

External links

• WHYN News/Talk 560 website
• Facility details for Facility ID WHYN ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• Rick Kelly's New England Airchecks Website
• ReelRadio Dot Com Aircheck Repository
• Chris Tracy's Springfield Radio Tribute Site

• Articles needing cleanup from December 2008
• Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from December 2008
• Misplaced Pages pages needing cleanup from December 2008
• Radio stations in Massachusetts
• News and talk radio stations in the United States
• Radio stations established in 1941
• Media in Springfield, Massachusetts
• IHeartMedia radio stations
• Boston Braves broadcasters
• Hartford Whalers broadcasters