NorthEast Radio Watch 2/16/2026: WGR Preps FM Move

In this week’s issue… WGR to add FM – Canadian AM sets exit date – Remembering NYC’s Ross, Ottawa’s Green – NBC sells NECN

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*One of the worst-kept secrets in western NEW YORK radio isn’t a secret anymore. While Audacy still hasn’t publicly confirmed that it’s dropping its country “Wolf” format on Buffalo rimshot WLKK (107.7 Wethersfield Township) and flipping it to a simulcast of WGR (550)’s sports format, the company filed last week to change WLKK’s callsign to WGR-FM – well, sort of.

Geek with me here for a moment: Audacy’s filing for WLKK’s new calls in the FCC’s LMS licensing system actually requested the new calls WZGR, but that was just a technicality. Among the LMS system’s many quirks and flaws is its inability to handle a three-letter callsign, and an exhibit from Audacy notes that it’s really requesting WGR-FM for 107.7.

Whenever the flip becomes official, it will end five years of country on 107.7 following the 2021 flip that took 107.7 from “Alt” to “Wolf.” Even if Audacy’s only intention with Wolf was to shave away a little bit of the ratings of Townsquare’s top country station, WYRK (106.5), WLKK has been a very minor player in the market – and that’s even including its in-city Buffalo translator, W284AP (104.7).

It’s not yet clear whether the 104.7 translator (fed by an HD subchannel of WKSE 98.5) will also come along for the WGR ride, and of course WGR’s new FM incarnation won’t come with the Bills or the Sabres, who are wrapping up their association with WGR and looking for a new radio home for their next seasons.

Buffalo sports listeners with long memories (and do Buffalo sports fans ever have long memories!) will remember that there’s been sports on 107.7 before, when Adelphia owned the station as WNSA from 2000 until 2004. Back then, WNSA drew a fringe audience in Rochester, too – and that raises a question of what becomes of Audacy’s sports station here, “95.7 the Fan” (WROC 950/WBEE-HD2) and whether it will also become a full or partial WGR simulcast.