Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves Western New York, the Niagara Falls region, and parts of Southern Ontario.

[4] The station initially used the facility built by the Norton Laboratories organization from Boston as part of an experiment to send amplitude modulated (AM) voice transmissions between Niagara Falls, New York, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But the effort was historic because GE's experimental facility was the first American television station with a regular broadcast schedule, as well as the forerunner of the current Capital District CBS-TV affiliate WRGB.

WMAK and WFBL filed applications for full-time use of the frequency, while two other existing stations, WEBR in Buffalo and WBNY in New York City, applied for half-time assignments.

A fifth application, made with support from local businesses, came from the Buffalo Evening News newspaper, which filed a request to build a new full-time station.

[17] A Construction Permit to build the new station on 900 kHz, with a sequentially assigned provisional call sign of WRDA, was issued on January 23, 1930,[18] specifying a transmitter site in Orchard Park and studios in Buffalo.

The original construction permit for a (never built) new station was modified to specify that it was now an upgrade to the existing Martinsville transmitter site.

[24] Following the repeal of the Davis Amendment, in 1948 WMAK's vacated frequency assignment was licensed to a new station in Kenmore, now WUFO in Amherst.

In December 1938, WBEN began an experimental facsimile service, transmitting overnight newspaper extracts printed with special receivers in subscribing homes.

[29] In 1941, WBEN moved to its current frequency of 930 kHz as a result of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) reassignments.

The original WBEN-FM would later move to 102.5, increase its signal strength to 110 kilowatts to become the most powerful FM station in New York State, and eventually become WBKV.

As many national network radio programs moved to television, WBEN shifted to a middle-of-the-road format and developed a stable talent to lead the market in ratings.

Sports personalities Van Miller, Stan Barron and Dick Rifenburg shared various duties, including hosting and interview programs, while familiar news voices Jack Ogilvie, Gene Kelley, Lou Douglas, Virgil Booth, and others were heard during this period.

Most of these personnel also handled TV duties, anchoring, announcing the news, weather, and sports, and hosting game shows and other programming at WBEN-TV.

When the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) disallowed same market co-ownership of newspapers and broadcast licenses in the early 1970s, the combination of the Buffalo Evening News and WBEN-AM/FM/TV was grandfathered under the new rule.

With the loss of the WBEN stations' grandfathered protection, WBEN-TV was sold to newspaper publisher Robert Howard.

By the time of this transition period, WBEN radio's demographics had grown older with its folksy personalities and middle-of-the-road music.

With the Butler family no longer owning the newspaper or broadcast properties, WBEN attempted to contemporize the sound during the mid-late 1970s by firing some of its longtime on-air institutions, hiring DJs, and playing Top-40 music.

DJs Jay Fredericks (Fritz Coleman), Chris Tyler, and Charlie Warren joined the station from other markets.

Buehlman's 34-year run at the station was the longest in WBEN history, a benchmark that would eventually be surpassed by Susan Rose in 2019.

Levite presided over the gradual transition of WBEN from an adult contemporary station to its current news and talk format.

From April 5, 2011, to September 26, 2013, Entercom switched its Classic Rock/Triple-A hybrid sister station WLKK to a simulcast of WBEN.

(Buffalo's Evening News is expected to return in 2018 after Bauerle's show was cut back to three hours as part of a contract extension.

[33]) After a very brief stint in which David Bellavia filled the shift from 10 pm to 1 am, the station added The Savage Nation to its syndicated offerings in early 2014.

From 1960 (when the station moved to 102.5 MHz) until 1973, the morning show continued to be simulcast.The 106.5 frequency was reallocated, switching its call letters to WADV and eventually WYRK.