WIBX Celebrates 90 Years Of Broadcasting
It was December 5, 1925 when WIBX first hit the radio airwaves, transmitting via an antenna atop the Clark Building in downtown Utica, NY. Ninety-years later, and after a few frequency changes on the radio dial, WIBX 950 is not only a thriving news, talk, sports, entertainment and information radio station, its has evolved into a 21st-century medium that also serves central New York via a website, internet/digital radio, video and a variety of social media platforms.
Over the next year, the current cast of news reporters and personalities will take a look back at WIBX's history. This will include audio samples of 'old-time radio', historical photographs and interviews with former voices of the area's oldest radio station. We'd like to recognize UticaAMradio.org, a project of former WIBX-er Lou Barile and his son Lou Barile Jr, who've created the site dedicated to the history of AM radio and WIBX. Sadly, the elder Barile recently passed at age 88.
In 2016, WIBX will also broadcast it's 45th Heart Radiothon, a fundraiser started in 1971 after employee Ralph Allinger died of a heart attack. The money it raised was donated to the American Heart Association, and that tradition continues to this day making it the longest fundraiser of its kind for the AHA.
Here are a few snapshots of the station's history: