[3] The earliest Syracuse broadcasting stations, all of which were short-lived, were: WBAB (Andrew J. Potter, April 19, 1922—March 22, 1923); WDAI (Hughes Electrical Corporation, May 16, 1922 – November 19, 1923); WFAB (Carl Frank Woese, June 6, 1922 – October 9, 1924)[4] and WLAH, first licensed in the summer of 1922 to Samuel Woodworth.
[7] Samuel Woodworth was credited with having "shouldered the burden of mechanical installation and testing",[7] and was WFBL's General Manager at the time of his death in 1954.
WFBL-AM-FM carried the line up of CBS dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio".
From May 1979 to October 1980, WFBL, then known as "Fire 14," used consultant Mike Joseph's "Hot Hits" format as a Top 40 competitor to 1490 WOLF.
The station dropped "Hot Hits" in October 1980 in favor of the then-emerging adult standards format called the "Music of Your Life".
In the early 1990s, the station also broadcast local call-in sports talk programming in late night to supplement the music format.
The WFBL call sign (and standards format) later moved to 1050 AM in Baldwinsville, New York, (later WBVG) before returning to their original home at 1390.
[16] For a few years, when it was owned by Buckley Broadcasting, WFBL featured a line-up that closely mirrored its sister talk station, 710 WOR in New York City.
In late 2015, Leatherstocking Media Group reached an agreement to sell some of its assets to the Family Life Network, a regional Christian radio company.