News Radio WHAM 1180/Rochester Celebrates 100 Years
RADIO ONLINE | Friday, July 8, 2022
iHeartMedia Rochester celebrates the 100th anniversary of News Radio WHAM 1180. As the longest surviving radio outlet in Rochester, NY, WHAM debuted on July 11, 1922, under the call letters WHQ. To honor the station’s milestone, on Monday, July 11, Rochester Mayor Malik Evans will declare July 11, 2022, as “NewsRadio WHAM 1180 Day” in Rochester, NY. The local proclamation, along with local video greetings and dignitaries, can be found at www.WHAM1180.com on Monday to coincide with the station’s historic launch.
In addition, WHAM will continue to celebrate its anniversary on its podcast “WHAM @ 100: An Oral History,” a weekly podcast hosted by Joe Lomonaco that features rare and never before heard archive recordings, new interviews with former, and current, WHAM staff, and stories about what WHAM means to the community it continues to serve. Listeners can here the podcast on the station’s website.
© David Ricquish Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
“NewsRadio WHAM 1180 has been a friend and source of information to generations,” said iHeartMedia Upstate New York President Robert J Morgan. “With nearly 1,000,000 newscasts and even more conversations over the past 100 years, this iconic station has stood side by side with our listeners in good and bad times. Always present, always relevant, and always trusted.”
Throughout its history as a cornerstone of the Rochester media landscape, WHAM has been the home to legendary local and national news talk voices such as Bob Lonsberry, Todd Hallidy, Bob Matthews, Jack Slattery and George Haefner, Chet Walker and Beth Adams, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Paul Harvey, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, Mark Levin, Joe Pags and others.
In the past WHAM aired more than just news & talk. This recording was made in New Zealand in 1980.
© Chris Mackerell Collection, Radio Heritage Foundation
In addition, local reporters have informed the public through historical events and community issues such as the Rochester riots of 1964, Attica Prison riot in 1971, Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the Ice Storm of 1991, the Northeast Blackouts of 2003, the Black Lives Matters protests of 2020 and the more recent Covid-19 Pandemic.
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