WCMF-FM
 |
|
| City | Rochester, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | South Bristol/Rochester |
| Branding | 96.5 WCMF |
| Slogan | Rochester's Classic Rock |
| Frequency | 96.5 MHz FM (HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1969 |
| Format | Classic rock |
| ERP | 48,000 watts |
| HAAT | 142 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 1905 |
| Callsign meaning | W Community Music Federation |
| Owner |
Entercom Communications (Entercom Rochester License, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WBZA, WBEE, WROC, WPXY-FM |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wcmf.com |
WCMF-FM is a radio station located in the Rochester, New York area and broadcasts at 96.5 FM. Its transmitter is located on Pinnacle Hill in Brighton, Monroe County, New York, and its studios are located at High Falls Studios in downtown Rochester.
WCMF is the heritage classic rock station in the Rochester area.
The current WCMF morning show is now called "The Break Room" and features Tommy Mulé, Pat Duffy, and Kimmy Bernston, with the latter fulfilling the producer role, with traffic reporting done by a rotating cast. Long time co-host Sally Carpenter chose to leave the show in September 2009. She had been broadcasting remotely from Philadelphia, and did not renew her contract, due to the stipulation that she move back to Rochester.
Program Director/Midday host Dave Kane returned to the station in February 2008 after Brother Wease's departure.
In 2012 WCMF became one of two Buffalo Bills radio affiliates in Rochester (the other being sister station WROC).
WCMF is an affiliate of the Sabres Hockey Network. It is one of two affiliates in Rochester (the other being sister station WROC).
The station is currently owned by Entercom Communications, which officially purchased it and several other stations from CBS Radio on November 30, 2007.
WCMF was originally owned by Community Music Service, Inc., hence the "CM" in its call letters. In 1968, the station was owned by a handful of Rochester locals. Several were engineers at General Dynamics, including a lawyer from Harris Beech Wilcox, and several others. The station had a mish-mash of formats from "Candlelight & Wine" in the morning hosted by Bill Rund, to Hard underground rock hosted by Bob Drake (Francati). On Friday evening, a local attorney hosted a very popular Jazz show. The owners were not broadcasters and the station was searching for identity. In 1968, everything changed when the 6am to 10am morning personality left. Drake then program director hired a young black DJ, Herb Hamlett, who had briefly worked at R&B giant WUFO in Buffalo, but was tired of the commute. Hamlett took the morning slot to supposedly play light classics with a show called Sunup in Stereo. Hamlett, realizing that the owners were not hands-on, soon turned up the heat and started mixing in R&B flavor, which was fine with then GM Bill Bennett. Hamlett soon began going out and selling the time himself and soon was also promoted to sales manager. Hamlett and Drake soon realized the emergence of a major coup, and split the format into basically R&B from 6am to 3pm and Underground rock from 3pm to sign off at midnight.
...
Wikipedia