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| Broadcast area | |
| Frequency | 560kHz |
| Branding | NewsRadio 560/98.9 FM WHYN[1] |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | April 1941; 84 years ago (1941-04) (on 1400 kHz in Holyoke) |
Call sign meaning | Holyoke andNorthampton |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 55757 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 42°11′37.3″N72°41′0.3″W / 42.193694°N 72.683417°W /42.193694; -72.683417 |
| Translator | 98.9 W255DL (Springfield) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | whyn |
WHYN (560kHz "NewsRadio 560/98.9 FM WHYN") is a commercialAMnews/talk radio stationlicensed toSpringfield, Massachusetts. It serves thePioneer Valley area ofwestern Massachusetts and is owned byiHeartMedia. Studios and offices are on Main Street in Springfield. Thetransmitter is on County Road inSouthampton. WHYN operates at 5,000 watts by day, using adirectional antenna, but must reduce power to 1,000 watts at night to avoid interfering with other stations on 560 kHz.
Weekdays begin with a local news and interview morning show with Jim Polito and John Baibak. That is followed bynationally syndicated talk shows including,Glenn Beck, The Financial Exchange,Clay Travis & Buck Sexton,Jesse Kelly, andCoast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory.Boston-basedHowie Carr is heard weekday afternoons. Weekends feature shows on finance, law, home-improvement and religion (some of which are paidbrokered programming). Weekend syndicated hosts includeBill Handel,Gary Sullivan,Bill Cunningham,Joe Pags,Ric Edelman andSean Hannity.
Most hours begin with world and national news fromFox News Radio. WHYN partners withWGGB-TV andWSHM-LD's "Western Mass News" for severe weather coverage and storm closings.
The station also carriesSpringfield Thunderbirds hockey games.
WHYN firstsigned on in April 1941, at 1400 kHz, withHolyoke, Massachusetts, as its originalcity of license.[3] It was owned by the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation,[4] whose owners also published theHolyoke Transcript-Telegram,[3] and its 250-watt signal primarily covered Holyoke andNorthampton, Massachusetts, so itscall sign represented Holyoke and Northampton. In 1949, it moved toAM 560, powered at 1,000 watts, located in Holyoke. It was anetwork affiliate of theMutual Broadcasting System.[5]
WHYN added anFMsister station in 1947.[6] That station took the call lettersWHYN-FM and mostlysimulcast the AM station's programming.
In the early 1950s, WHYN-AM-FM moved to Springfield and became affiliates ofCBS Radio in 1953, dropping Mutual programming. In 1953, television station WHYN-TV Channel 55 was put on the air (today WGGB-TV Channel 40).[7] Around 1960, WHYN-AM-FM began programmingTop 40 music.
Over the years, WHYN was known as "Whyn (pronounced WIN) Radio". During therock and roll era, some of its monikers included "Channel 56", "Radio Five-Six-Oh", "Five-Sixty W - H - Y - N", "Fun Five Sixty" and "The Big Fifty-Six". Many jingles (mainly produced byPAMS) reflected these ongoing themes. In the early 1960s, WHYN was the dominant Top 40 radio station competing with rivalWSPR (1270 AM). WHYN's Top 40 sound was so popular, the station not only led in the Springfield ratings, but it was often in the top 10 in nearbyHartford, Connecticut. Some early airchecks of WHYN and its colorful disc jockeys (DJs) are at Northeast Airchecks and ReelRadio. In the 1960s, WHYN-FM ended its simulcast of AM 560 by switching tobeautiful music.
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WHYN continued as a Top 40 station until young listeners began switching to FM for contemporary music.AutomatedFM stationWAQY (branded "Wacky Radio") went on the air in 1972 and took some of WHYN's audience. Jim Rising (James Marshall) was WAQY's first program director (c. 1976) after it began live programming. Rising came over from WHYN, where he had been the station's morning host, to program WAQY. He brought along WHYN's Johnny (Bekish) Michaels to be one of the DJs on WAQY.
During the 1980s, WHYN transitioned to a more adult sound, airingadult contemporary music and adding more news and sports. WHYN was the Springfield radio affiliate for theBoston Red Sox until 2007 when WVEI-FM (nowWWEI) became the Red Sox home in Springfield. WHYN was also affiliated withABC Radio. By the 1990s, WHYN was adding more talk programming and reducing its reliance on music, until it became a full-time talk station.
The station has undergone several ownership changes over the years starting with the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation (a consortium of theDaily Hampshire Gazette, theHolyoke Transcript-Telegram,the GreenfieldRecorder, andthe Springfield Newspapers).Guy Gannett Broadcasting (no relation to the present-dayGannett Company) bought WHYN-AM-FM-TV in 1967. WHYN and WHYN-FM were sold to Affiliated Communications (the broadcast division ofThe Boston Globe) in 1980 while Guy Gannett retained WHYN-TV, which kept its original studio location and changed its call letters to WGGB-TV. The radio stations moved to downtown's "Marketplace" location, where their studios and offices remain, along with co-ownedWRNX. R&R Broadcasting (Robinson & Reece) bought the WHYN stations in 1985. The stations were then sold to Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting in 1987; Radio Equity Partners in 1994; andClear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia, the current owner) in 1996.