WBEB

WBEB

City of license	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Greater Philadelphia (Delaware Valley)
Branding	B101
Slogan	Today's Hits & Yesterday's Favorites
Frequency	101.1 MHz (also on HD Radio) 101.1 HD-2 for All 80's music
First air date	May 13, 1963 (as WDVR)
Format	Adult Contemporary
Language(s)	American English
ERP	14,000 watts
HAAT	287 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	71382
Transmitter coordinates	40°02′21″N 75°14′13″W
Former callsigns	WBEB-FM (1993-1995) WEAZ-FM (1989-1993) WEAZ (1981-1989) WDVR (1963-1981)
Owner	Jerry Lee (Jerry Lee Radio, LLC)
Website	b101radio.com

WBEB (101.1 FM, "B101 FM") is a radio station broadcasting an Adult Contemporary format. Licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it serves the Greater Philadelphia (Delaware Valley) metropolitan area. It first began broadcasting in 1963 under the call sign WDVR. The station is currently owned by Jerry Lee. The station has been a top-ranking station in the Philadelphia Arbitron ratings since the early 1990s, and is the only independently owned station in the Philadelphia radio market. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of the city. The station claims that since Arbitron began electronic meter measurement in January 2007, B101 has an unbroken string of being the most listened to Philadelphia radio station every single month.^{[citation needed]}

WDVR-FM

Previously called WDVR (Delaware Valley Radio) and WEAZ, the station pioneered the Beautiful Music format beginning in 1963.

Original staff included Rich Franklin and Dave Shayer, both broadcast veterans, and were two of the original air staff hired by WDVR/WEAZ/WBEB 101.1 FM when they first went on the air May 13, 1963. Both, later, were Music Directors at 101.1 FM, and are still active in broadcasting today. Also part of the first air staff were Lou Klawansky (air name: Lee Kramer), Frank Goshy (air name: Frank Edwards), and Joaquin Bowman. Working with Jerry Lee, Marlin Taylor, Phil Stout (later Programmer of SRP), Dave Kurtz, Alan Campbell and others, WDVR skyrocketed to phenomenal success and became a broadcasting legend. 101.1 FM was, and is, one of the most successful independent FM stations in the country.

The station was known for playing Beautiful Music featuring pop tunes reworked in the form of instrumentals. They played two vocalists per hour, as the instrumentals would be based on the works of such artists as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Neil Diamond and The Carpenters. By the 1980s, the station increased the amount of music with vocalists to four per hour as they also added more artists suited to an adult contemporary format. Also in 1980, WDVR changed its call letters to WEAZ, and began using the slogan EAZY 101 with Patrick O'Neal (later Robert Urich) as its spokesperson. By 1984, EAZY 101 became the #1 rated station in Philadelphia.

In 1988, the station dropped Beautiful Music for a soft adult contemporary format. This format change came after research tests showed that people who grew up after the advent of rock and roll did not like instrumental music. With the format change, the station was satellite-delivered, but by the next year, some of the airstaff returned. By 1990, the station's name was shortened to "EZ 101". The station would shift to a mainstream adult contemporary format in 1993, and its call letters would eventually change to WBEB (B101).

Over the years, many stations have attempted to program AC formats in the same city as the firmly entrenched B101. None of them have ever been successful.

Signal strength

WBEB's signal reaches north into New Jersey, especially along Interstate 287 south of Morristown, and in northwestern New Jersey. In those areas WBEB interferes with WCBS-FM, an Oldies station in New York City, which also broadcasts on 101.1, and in some spots, WBEB's signal actually seems stronger. This is because both stations are full, non-directional Class B operations that are severely short-spaced under a grandfathered FCC rule.

Philadelphia's Christmas Station

In 2002, competing Adult Contemporary station WSNI (Sunny 104.5) began programming an all-Christmas music format as early as the first weekend in November. In previous years, B101 had gone all-Christmas for 36 hours—from noon Christmas Eve to midnight on December 25—but the extended all-Christmas format proved very successful for Sunny 104.5, which prompted B101 to do the same in 2003. Thus for several years Philadelphia had two stations playing all-Christmas music.

Sunny 104.5 changed formats in August 2006 and their all-Christmas programming was dumped along with it. That year, B101 went all-Christmas November 18.

Ratings have consistently shown that Philadelphians are huge fans of the all-Christmas format. For 2007, B101 announced that they'd be conducting an electronic survey on their website. The results would be used to make up the holiday playlist and to decide when the station would flip to all-Christmas. B101 made the switch at 3:00 p.m. on November 21, 2007. Starting that year, Christmas music was sprinkled in with the regular format for the next few days after Christmas. With the all-Christmas format all to themselves, B101 enjoyed a 17-share in the 6+ Arbitron ratings. (Double-digit shares, let alone a few ticks shy of a 20 share, are somewhat unprecedented in the modern era of major-market radio).

In August 2008, a new Adult Contemporary station (WNUW/Now 97.5) launched in Philadelphia with sights set squarely on B101. To draw attention to themselves and to take B101 down a peg, Now 97.5 flipped to all-Christmas at 5:00 p.m. on October 31. B101 began sprinkling in Christmas tunes during the weekend of November 8–9. On November 13, B101 flipped to all-Christmas. Shortly thereafter, 1340 WHAT-AM also went all-Christmas. On November 26, 98.1 WOGL made the surprise move of abandoning its format for the first time ever to flip to all-Christmas and actually went down in the holiday ratings. Considering Wilmington's 99.5 WJBR is close by, Philadelphians found themselves with five all-Christmas stations in 2008. B101 still dominated the holiday ratings. WNUW has since flipped to an all-sports format.

At 3:00 p.m. on November 19, 2009, B101 flipped to all-Christmas and, having the market to themselves once again, achieved a huge 16.7 share (6+ persons) in the holiday book.

At 3:00 p.m on November 18, 2010, B101 switched to all-Christmas, starting with a medley of Christmas greetings from various songs and movies before playing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams. Also in 2010, B101 introduced an updated holiday jingle package.

At 6:07 a.m. on November 17, 2011, B101 switched to all-Christmas once again starting with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams.

At 7:40 a.m. on November 19, 2012, B101 - "Philadelphia's official Christmas Station" switched to all-Christmas with yet again, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" by Andy Williams kicking off the season. Debuting new "jingles" between songs including "Find your holiday spirit here - B101" and "Thanks for spending the Holidays with us - B101". B101 aired Christmas music from that point until December 26, 2012 at 3:03 AM, when they went back to their normal format with "Take on Me" by A-Ha. The last song played minutes before that was "Last Christmas" by Jimmy Eat World.

Listener confusion with Providence's WWBB

In the last 10 years, many B101 listeners have mistakenly called the request lines of WWBB in Providence, Rhode Island also positioned as "B101" (but located at 101.5 FM). The confusion lies in the fact that the "b101.com" website is owned by WWBB and Clear Channel, not WBEB. WBEB listeners sometimes log on to "b101.com", assume they are on the correct website, find the phone number, and end up calling WWBB. Both stations also used a bumblebee logo, which could add to the confusion (WWBB dropped the bumblebee from their logo a few years ago). Thus, WBEB uses "b101radio.com". Coincidentally, WBEB's current morning show co-host, Tiffany Hill, was also once the morning co-host at WWBB.

Relaunching as "Fresh"

On September 18, 2007, at 12:00pm, WBEB conducted a special poll, which was broadcast both on-air and online via their website. The poll was 700 songs long and the station would play a 5 to 7 second clip of a song. Liners would encourage listeners to go to the station's website. Once there, a user would then click if they wanted to hear the song often, sometimes, or not at all.

At 2 pm, the station was relaunched using the "Fresh" concept, becoming the second outlet to add this concept following the launch of WWFS, Fresh 102.7, in New York City by CBS Radio in January 2007 (although their ads use the same exact "cartoon office figures" as WLTW in New York).

Awards

The station has won many radio industry awards including most recently the following National Association of Broadcasters awards:

• 2012 Adult Contemporary Station of the Year
• 2011 Major Market Station of the Year
• 2009 Major Market Station of the Year
• 2009 Adult Contemporary Station of the Year
• 2007 Adult Contemporary Station of the Year
• 2006 Legendary Station of the Year
• 2005 Adult Contemporary Station of the Year
• 2004 Major Market Station of the Year

Internet stream

As of Sunday, March 15, 2009 B-101 stopped providing a live Internet stream. The statement from WBEB reads as follows:

Dear B101 Listener,

Sorry, B101 is not streaming our radio signal on the Internet at this time.

A new SoundExchange music licensing agreement has jeopardized your ability to listen to all kinds of music on the internet. Excessive music royalty rates, which have nearly doubled in the last three years and continue to increase to unprecedented levels, no longer make streaming a viable option.

Please tune to B101 on your radio dial at 101.1 FM. If you’re having trouble getting our signal to come in clearly, try moving around the power cord, as on most radios, it also acts as the antenna. In the event you’re looking for a quality, dependable radio for your office or home, click here for one we recommend.

Sincerely,

B101

This makes WBEB one of the largest stations in the USA to not have an online stream. For more on this, see here.

Current weekday DJ lineup

• B101 Morning Show: 5 am-9 am
  • Jenn Ryan (Co-host)
  • Michael Chew (Co-host)
  • Bill Tafrow (News/Weather/Traffic/Sidekick)
  • Blaire Galaton (Producer)

• Andrea Duffy: 9 am-2 pm
• Dave Moore: 2 pm-7 pm
• Jessie Jordan: 7 pm-12 midnight

Current weekend DJs

Saturdays:

• 6 am-9 am: Margo Marano
• 9 am-2 pm: Jenn Ryan/Dave Moore (every other)
• 2 pm-7 pm: Jessie Jordan
• 7 pm-midnight: Angel Donato (8-12 Saturday night '80s)

Sundays:

• 5 am-6 am: Emily Schievert (Women's File)
• 6 am-9 am: Jason Lee
• 9 am-2pm: Andrea Duffy/Margo Marano (every other)
• 2 pm-7 pm: Angel Donato
• 7 pm-midnight: Jessie Jordan

Song tags

WBEB is the only station in the area to feature "song tags," in which, at the completion of the song, a pre-recorded voice-over states the song's name and artist.

External links

• WBEB Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WBEB
• Radio-Locator information on WBEB
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WBEB