WDCZ
 |
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| City | Buffalo, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Western New York |
| Branding | WDCX |
| Frequency | 970 kHz |
| First air date | October 14, 1924 (as WEBR) |
| Format |
Christian (simulcast of WDCX-FM) |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 27668 |
| Callsign meaning | disambiguation of WDCX-FM |
| Former callsigns | WEBR (1924-1993) WNED (1993-2012) |
| Owner | Crawford Broadcasting (Kimtron, Inc.) |
WDCZ is an American radio station in Buffalo, New York broadcasting at 970 kHz.
WDCZ has not originated any programming of its own since 2012. The station operated as a commercial station from its launch in 1924 until 1975, then operated as a public radio station from 1975 to 2012. In its later years, much of its programming was duplicating that of competing FM station WBFO, which eventually prompted the two stations to merge operations (using WBFO's frequency) in 2012. After several months of simulcasting WBFO, the 970 facility was sold off to the owners of religious-formatted WDCX-FM, who in turn switched 970 to a simulcast of WDCX, a status it has held ever since.
WDCZ was launched on October 14, 1924 as WEBR. Fran Striker, later famous for co-creating the Lone Ranger, worked for the station in the early 1930s. From 1936 to 1944, WEBR was an affiliate of the Blue Network (later the American Broadcasting Company) and then with the Mutual Broadcasting System. The station was a commercial operation for its first five decades on air, competing (generally with a measure of success, despite the weakness of its highly directional signal) against competing Buffalo stations. At at least two points in its history it was a sister station to WBEN, during the times when regulatory rules allowed it.
The station changed formats and owners (one of which was the Buffalo Courier-Express) in the early 1970s until the Western New York Public Broadcasting Association, who had owned WNED-TV since 1959, bought WEBR and sister station WREZ-FM (now WNED-FM) in 1975. WEBR adopted an (almost) all-news format a year later (although an evening and overnight jazz program, Jazz In The Nighttime with Al Wallack, remained on the air). In 1993 the station was assigned the WNED calls and all non-news programming was dropped. Unlike its counterpart, WBFO which still had music programming overnight and on the weekend; WNED focused entirely on news and talk programming. Several of the programs on WNED and WBFO (specifically both drive time programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered) overlapped with different production teams for local inserts, each with its own hosts. (In addition, the weekend A Prairie Home Companion aired on both WNED-AM and WNED-FM, an arrangement that continues as of 2013 with WBFO and WNED-FM.)
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