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WBBM, 780 AM, is an all-news radio station located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The station is owned by the CBS Radio division of CBS Corporation. The station's studios are located in the combined CBS Radio facility at Two Prudential Plaza in the Loop neighborhood, and its transmitter is located in Itasca.〔http://www.fybush.com/sites/2008/site-080104.html〕 WBBM is a Class A station which broadcasts on a clear-channel AM frequency, heard at night around much of the Midwest. WBBM is an affiliate of the CBS Radio Network. Since August 1, 2011, much of WBBM's programming has been simulcast over sister station WCFS-FM (105.9). The FM station's call letters were retained and should not be confused with 96.3 WBBM-FM (96.3), a contemporary hit radio station; WCFS's former adult contemporary format was retained in an automated form over its 105.9 HD2 subchannel. WBBM's format is available both in AM and FM with HD Radio.〔http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=25〕 ==History== The station traces its history to 1911, when Leslie and Ralph Atlass, owners of the Mallory Battery Company of Lincoln, Illinois began an amateur spark station. In 1924, it received a commercial license and was assigned the frequency of 1330 AM. It also received its current call letters, which stand for World's Best Battery Maker. In later years, an alternate meaning, "We Broadcast Better Music," was created.〔(The Creswell Chronicle in Creswell, Oregon - Community News and Visitor Information )〕 The Atlasses sold their battery company in 1924 to devote their full attention to WBBM, and moved to Chicago that same year. It became a charter CBS affiliate in 1928. The new network liked what it saw in the station, and bought a controlling interest in 1929. Leslie Atlass remained station manager with a 33 percent interest. CBS bought the remaining stock in 1933. As part of the deal, Atlass became vice president of CBS' Central Division while remaining station manager of WBBM – positions he continued to hold until his retirement in 1959. A series of transmitter power increases over the years culminated in its current transmitter power output of 50,000 watts in 1935, allowing the station to cover much of North America at night. The station operated from studios at various locations in Chicago until 1956. That year, WBBM began operating from a converted arena on North McClurg Court, where it remained until moving to Two Prudential Plaza in 2006. The station maintained a MOR/Personality-based format until 1964, when the programming format was changed to news/talk. WBBM adopted its current all-news format in 1968. The station has been the flagship station of the Chicago Bears since 2000, and in its history has also aired games from the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Blackhawks. On June 5, 2014, the Chicago Cubs announced that radio broadcasts of its games would move from WGN (720 AM) to WBBM for the 2015 season under a seven-year deal. The deal ended the team's 90-year association with WGN; the station had broadcast Cubs games from its establishment in 1924, became its exclusive broadcaster in 1958, and was co-owned with the Cubs by Tribune Company from 1981 to 2009. Cubs games are only broadcast on WBBM's AM feed, except in the event of conflicts with Chicago Bears games; WCFS-FM continues to carry the all-news format throughout the day, including during Cubs broadcasts, in order to keep coverage of news events, and to allow the station to continue streaming online without a looping disclaimer pointing out Major League Baseball's streaming restrictions as many other MLB radio partners are required to do.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-cubs-wgn-wbbm-radio-20140605,0,5683316.story )〕 Over the years, WBBM fended off competition from other all-news stations that were attempted in the market: McLendon-owned WNUS-AM-FM (1390 AM, now WGRB and 107.5 FM, now WGCI-FM), NBC's WNIS-FM (101.1 FM), and from Group W's WMAQ, which came under the CBS umbrella when Westinghouse Electric Corporation purchased CBS in 1995 (sports-talk WSCR took over WMAQ's 670 AM frequency in 2000). For many years, WBBM has been in a spirited battle with rival news/talk/sports station WGN for the position of the #1 radio station in the Chicago market. In the June 2009 ratings period, as estimated by Arbitron, WGN held a slight edge over WBBM in PPM metered listenership ratings. However, since the fall of 2009, WBBM has regained the lead while WGN's listenership began to decline. Another challenge to WBBM's news radio domination from Merlin Media (operated by former Tribune Company executive Randy Michaels), which purchased FM station WKQX (the successor to WNIS-FM) in June 2011 and flipped formats as the female-focused ''FM News 101.1'' the next month, was fended off by WBBM with the launch of the WCFS-FM simulcast. WBBM made very few changes to its format, outside of tweaks to imaging music to sound more clear on FM and the station's Internet stream, and what became WIQI dropped its all-news format for hot adult contemporary on July 17, 2012. The call letters WIQI are being used by a station in Watseka, Illinois. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WBBM (AM)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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