WSBR

WSBR (740 AM) was an American radio station licensed to Boca Raton, Florida, United States, broadcasting to the West Palm Beach/Boca Raton radio market. The station was last owned by Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc., doing business as Beasley Media Group, LLC.[3] Its studios were in Boca Raton, and the transmitter was located in Parkland. Its license was cancelled on April 19, 2021, as the station had been silent for over one year.[4]

This article is about the radio station. For the auto racing series, see World Series by Renault.
WSBR
Broadcast areaWest Palm Beach area
Frequency740 kHz
Programming
FormatDefunct (was business talk)
Ownership
Owner
WWNN
History
First air date
May 3, 1965 (1965-05-03)[1]
Last air date
December 1, 2019 (2019-12-01)
Call sign meaning
"Wonderful Sound of Boca Raton"[2]
Technical information
Facility ID60634
ClassB
Power2,500 watts day
940 watts night
Transmitter coordinates
26°20′6.00″N 80°15′55.00″W
Translator(s)See § Translators

History

Fred S. Grunwald, operating as Boca Broadcasters, obtained the construction permit for a new daytime-only AM station in Boca Raton on July 5, 1962. Initially assigned the call letters WFSG (for his initials), they were changed to WSBR before going on air in May 1965. It was the first radio station licensed to Boca Raton.[2] The station maintained a transmitter at the Everglades Game Farm and studios in downtown Boca Raton. Grunwald was a surgeon who lived in Washington, D.C., but his interest in electronics led him to start a station.[5] Grunwald sold the station in 1967 to Burbach Radio (named for its principals Robert Burstein and John Laubach), which owned two stations in Pennsylvania.[6] In 1978, the station was approved to begin broadcasting at night.[7]

From its inception in 1965, WSBR served as primarily a middle-of-the-road station, but in the late 1970s, it shifted to a big band and standards format.[8] The station was sold in 1982 to Sam Cook Digges, under the name Goldcoast Communications. Cook Digges, a retired CBS Radio president, immediately exchanged the station's ABC Radio affiliation for one with CBS and finally began nighttime broadcasts.[9] One other addition also had to do with its ownership: Cook Digges was on the board of directors of the New England Patriots, and team owner Billy Sullivan—who had a home in Atlantis—was a part-owner of Goldcoast, so WSBR began broadcasting Patriots games.[10]

1985 and 1986 saw a series of ownership changes for WSBR. Cook Digges sold his shares to Edmund Byrne, which resulted in a new Boca Raton Broadcasting Corporation becoming the licensee. However, Malcolm Kahn and George Delson, who chose to trade as Beach Boca Broadcasting, bought the station within a year. Under Kahn's management, WSBR added more talk programming.[11]

South Florida's MoneyTalk Radio

In 1988, SMH Broadcasting acquired WSBR. Howard Goldsmith, the head of SMH, inherited a station that was losing money and immediately changed the station to business talk as "MoneyTalk Radio" in April 1989.[12] The new WSBR carried brokered time programs made available initially to stock brokers, commodities brokers, bond brokers, investment brokers and mortgage brokers. Non-business talk programs still remained from the Kahn era: Palm Beach resident Herbert Swope and newspaper columnist Greg Allen had daily programs, with the rest of the broadcast day devoted to a combination of "per inquiry" informercials and programming via satellite from the Business Radio Network.

On December 31, 2014, WHFS (1010 AM) in Tampa Bay began to simulcast WSBR.

Closure

WSBR and WHSR, the co-owned brokered ethnic station that also used the Nob Hill Road transmitter site, ceased operations at midnight on December 1, 2019; Beasley had sold the associated land to the city of Parkland, Florida in early September 2019 for $7,100,000, with plans by the city to develop a park.[13] The remaining Beasley station based in Boca Raton, WWNN, absorbed WSBR's imaging and much of its programming; it also began broadcasting over its two translators in Boca Raton and Lauderdale Lakes.[14][15]

Translators

On June 2, 2015, WSBR began simulcasting on translator W245BC (96.9 FM), which is licensed to Lauderdale Lakes. This translator adds coverage in east-central and northwestern Broward County. Both translators began broadcasting WWNN at the closure of WSBR.

Broadcast translators for WWNN (formerly WSBR)
Call signFrequencyCity of licenseFIDERP (W)HAATClassFCC info
W245BC 96.9 FMLauderdale Lakes, Florida138625250118 m (387 ft)DLMS
W280DU 103.9 FMBoca Raton, Florida142696250150 m (492 ft)DLMS

References
  1. "WSBR" (PDF). Broadcasting Yearbook. 1965. p. B-30 (28). Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  2. "Boca Radio Station Equipment Arrives". Palm Beach Post. January 30, 1965. p. 7. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  3. "WSBR Facility Record". United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  4. "Notification of License Expiration", Federal Communications Commission. April 16, 2021. Retrieved April 27, 2021.
  5. "Surgeon Builds Radio Station: He Leads A 'Double Life'". Palm Beach Post. April 3, 1965. p. 10. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  6. "Operation and management of radio station WSBR..." Fort Lauderdale News. August 22, 1967. p. 13. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  7. FCC History Cards for WSBR
  8. Brink, Bob (June 17, 1982). "Boca's Big Band Radio Puts a Group Together". Palm Beach Post. p. B4. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  9. "Business". Palm Beach Post. June 17, 1982. p. B5. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  10. Hummer, Steve (September 9, 1983). "Passing The Buck To Defense". Palm Beach Post. pp. D1, D3. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  11. Ney, Andy (July 5, 1987). "WSBR's Cole offers his easygoing style to a new audience". Sun-Sentinel. p. 12. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  12. Fabrikant, Geraldine (May 20, 1990). "Battle stations! AM radio fights for niche". Palm Beach Post. p. 3B. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  13. "The Week In Parkland Government: September 9–13". ParklandNews.net. September 9, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2019. 24.38 acres located at 8400 Nob Hill Board on the northeast corner of Hillsboro Boulevard and Nob Hill Road. Purchase price $7,100,000 using available reserves for capital. This purchase would allow for the development of a future park consisting of 36 total acres.
  14. Carmona, Sergio (November 14, 2019). "'Shalom South Florida' radio show's move will 'provide broader reach'". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  15. Venta, Lance (December 1, 2019). "$7.1 Million Land Sale Leads To Sign-Off Of Two South Florida AMs". RadioInsight.com. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
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