WBRX-FM

WBRX-FM (107.1 FM) is a commercial radio station in Buffalo, New York and is owned by iHeartMedia. The station carries a rhythmic contemporary format with its HD2 sub-channel carrying the station's previous mainstream rock format and its HD3 channel carrying a Regional Mexican format. WBRX-FM's studios and offices are located on Hazelwood Drive in Buffalo, and it's transmitter is located in West Seneca, New York.

As a stand-alone FM station
The origins of WBRX-FM originate as far back as December 3, 1954 as WMMY. Initially owned the locally-owned Ministry of Media For Youth, the station carried a full-service radio format mostly aimed at kids.

During the early age of FM radio, most FM stations would be co-owned by an AM station and would simulcast that station and its programming mainly because FM radio had a small amount of listeners. However, WMMY was one of the rare FM stations to be separately owned.

Despite the fact that Ministry of Media for Youth was a non-profit organization, WMMY wasn't a commercial-free public station, instead being a commercial radio station.

Because of the non-profit ownership and very rare format, Ministry of Media for Youth would sell WMMY to Bally Enterprises in 1957. Under Bally control, the station would switch to a middle-of-the-road format.

Simulcast of WMMY-AM
On February 28, 1960, Bally Enterprises would launch a companion station to WMMY-FM known as WMMY-AM (590 kHz) now currently WTHQ-AM. During the launch of the station, WMMY-FM would simulcast of WMMY-AM. Essentially meaning that WMMY-FM continued to broadcast its middle-of-the-road format.

As FM stations started to stop simulcasting their AM counterparts, WMMY-FM would discontinue its middle-of-the-road format in favor of a more traditional CHR format in 1971.

Separation for AM sister station and switch to "Spanish Variety Hits"
In 1979, as part of Bally's exit from radio broadcasting, WMMY-AM would be sold to Jack Friedman under his LJN company while WMMY-FM would wind up under ownership by the locally based "Western Media". Despite the ownership change, the CHR format would continue to broadcast. However, due to declining ratings by 1984, the station discontinued its CHR format in favor of a Variety hits/Regional Mexican hybrid format branded as "La Buena 107.1" and changed its call-letters to "WBNY-FM".

On September 8, 1985, WBNY-FM held a contest in which artists around Buffalo, New York were commissioned to design a mascot for the station. The winner was college graduate Alex Vazquez, and his character "Buena" an anthropomorphic female white wolf. Buena was officially adopted as the mascot of the station the following day and continues to be used in promotions and advertisements.

On January 1, 1986, the station switched to a more generic Regional Mexican format.

B107
On May 12, 1987, Western Media would merge with Edens Broadcasting putting it under Edens' cluster of Top 40 stations. 2 months after acquisition, on July 4, 1987 (Independence Day), the station changed its call-letters to WBBB-FM (on-air as B107) and changed its format to Urban leaning-Top 40 format. The first song to play on "B107" was I Know You Got Soul by Eric B. & Rakim. Both WBBB-FM's logo and branding takes cues from sister station WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida.

On September 21, 1989, WBBB-FM would premiere "The B107 Morning Zoo" a version of the "The Q105 Morning Zoo" talk show in Tampa for a Buffalo based audience. It was initially hosed by Coby Conrad and Theresa Gamble, both hosts would leave the station in 1994 in favor of joining WTHQ-FM. The show now called simply "Morning Zoo" is currently hosted by Brett Kavanagh and Wanda Kay.

In 1992, Edens declared chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced to sell off its stations. For WBBB-FM it was sold to Pyramid Broadcasting for an estimated $20 million.

Mainstream rock
On May 19, 1993, after declining ratings and several laid-offs, WBBB-FM completely got rid-off its Urban leaning-Top 40 format in favor of a mainstream rock format. This was reflected in the new call-letters (WBRX-FM) and branding (107.1 K-Rock), in which Pyramid use the "K-Rock" under licensee by Infinity Broadcasting. The first song to play on "107.1 K-Rock" was Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil.

In 1995, Pyramid Broadcasting, which owns WBRX-FM was acquired by Evergreen Media. In 1997, Evergreen merged with Chancellor Broadcasting. Chancellor would merge with Capstar to form AMFM, Inc. in 1999, and would be both acquired and merged into Clear Channel Inc in 2000.