WEBC

WEBC

Duluth, Minnesota
Broadcast area	Duluth-Superior
Frequency	560 AM (kHz)
Branding	560 ESPN
Programming
Format	Commercial; Sports
Affiliations	ESPN Radio
Ownership
Owner	Townsquare Media
Sister stations	KBMX, KKCB, KLDJ
History
First air date	1924
Call sign meaning	Edwina & Barbara Clinton
Technical information
Facility ID	49689
Class	B
Power	5,000 watts
Links
Website	webc560.com

WEBC (560 AM, "560 ESPN") is a radio station located in Duluth, Minnesota, airing programming from ESPN Radio is owned by Townsquare Media.

The studios and offices are with its three other sister stations at 14 E. Central Entrance, on the west side of Duluth.

WEBC primarily competes with KFAN affiliate KQDS 1490. ESPN 560 broadcasts Minnesota Vikings games.

History

WEBC is the oldest radio station in the Duluth-Superior market. It signed on the air on June 1, 1924 in Superior, using 50 Watts on AM 1240. Duluth studios were established in 1926 and the community of license was later changed to Duluth, though WEBC's transmitter has always remained on the Wisconsin side of the bridge. The station ended up on 560 in the mid 1950's after a series of upgrades and frequency changes.

The station was temporarily raised to 500 watts in 1928 in order to provide radio service to President Calvin Coolidge who was vacationing nearby. The New York Times nicknamed it "The President's Station." WEBC joined NBC at this time, so as to provide the vacationing president with coverage of the national political conventions.

WEBC's owners founded WMFG in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1935 and WHLB Virginia, Minnesota in 1936. The three stations were linked for local programming as part of the Arrowhead Radio Network. WEBC's influence in regional programming was strengthened in 1942 when WMFG and WHLB switched to NBC from CBS.

WEBC and its NBC programming dominated the market in the 1930s and 1940s. Like most other stations in the "Golden Age of Radio", WEBC carried a general entertainment format as the local affiliate of the NBC Radio Network. In 1955, with radio losing listeners to TV, WEBC dropped NBC and adopted a hot new format—Top 40. WEBC featured announcers such as Lance "Tac" Hammer, Lew Latto, and "Doctor" Don Rose, among many others.

WEBC founded an FM station in Duluth in the 1940s, WDUL, but the project was a financial failure. This probably contributed to WEBC's decision to not go into television. Instead, WDSM and KDAL were able to finally overcome their longtime rival by going into TV in 1953. WDSM-TV's being an NBC-TV affiliate contributed to WEBC's 1955 switch to Top 40 programming.

WEBC began carrying ABC Radio newscasts in 1964.

WEBC was a top-rated station until the mid-1970s, when FM began to attract more listeners. WEBC briefly switched to country music and then became one of the first stations to program a classic hits format. Talk programming was added to the lineup by the late-1980s and took over the entire schedule by 1990. The format was then changed to Sports in 2003 after a sale to Clear Channel Communications, which syndicated the "FAN" radio network from KFAN in Minneapolis to a number of its stations in the region. After the station was sold to GapWest Broadcasting in 2007, WEBC joined ESPN Radio station (with "FAN" programming soon moving to rival KQDS). GapWest was folded into Townsquare Media on August 13, 2010.

External links

• ESPN560 WEBC official website
• Facility details for Facility ID WEBC ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's AM station database
• A Technological History of WEBC Radio