WHYN (AM)

WHYN first signed on in 1941, at 1400 kilocycles, with Northampton, Massachusetts, as its original city of license. It was owned by the Pioneer Valley Broadcasting Company and its 250-watt signal primarily covered Northampton and Holyoke, Massachusetts, so its call sign represented Holyoke and Northampton. In 1949, it moved to AM 560, powered at 1,000 watts, located in Holyoke. It was a network affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System.[2]

WHYN added an FM sister station in 1946, the first FM station licensed to the Springfield region.[3] That station took the call letters WHYN-FM and mostly simulcast the AM station's programming.

In the early 1950s, WHYN-AM-FM moved to Springfield and became affiliates of CBS Radio in 1953, dropping Mutual programming. In 1953, television station WHYN-TV Channel 55 was put on the air (today WGGB-TV Channel 40).[4] Around 1960, WHYN-AM-FM began programming Top 40 music.

Over the years, WHYN was known as "Whyn (pronounced WIN) Radio." During the rock and roll era, some of its monikers included "Channel 56," "Radio Five-Six-Oh," "Five-Sixty W - H - Y - N," "Fun Five Sixty" and "The Big Fifty-Six." Many jingles (mainly produced by PAMS) reflected these ongoing themes. In the early '60s, WHYN was the dominant Top 40 radio station competing with rival 1270 WSPR. WHYN's Top 40 sound was so popular, the station not only led in the Springfield ratings, but it was often in the top 10 in nearby Hartford, Connecticut. Some early airchecks of WHYN and its colorful disc jockeys (DJs) are at Northeast Airchecks and ReelRadio. In the 1960s, WHYN-FM ended its simulcast of AM 560 by switching to beautiful music.

Logo under the "NewsTalk 560" branding

WHYN continued as a Top 40 station until young listeners began switching to FM for contemporary music. Automated FM station 102.1 WAQY (branded "Wacky Radio") went on the air in 1972 and took some of WHYN's audience. Jim Rising (James Marshall) was WAQY's first Program Director (circa 1976) after it began live programming. Rising came over from WHYN, where he had been the station's morning host, to program WAQY. He brought along WHYN's Johnny (Bekish) Michaels to be one of the DJs on WAQY.

During the 1980s, WHYN transitioned to a more adult sound, airing adult contemporary music and adding more news and sports. WHYN was the Springfield radio affiliate for the Boston Red Sox until 2007 when 105.5 WVEI-FM (now WWEI) became the Red Sox home in Springfield. WHYN was also affiliated with ABC Radio. By the 1990s, WHYN was adding more talk programming and reducing its reliance on music, until it became a full-time talk station.

The station has undergone several ownership changes over the years starting with the Daily Hampshire Gazette; Guy Gannett Broadcasting (no relation to the present-day Gannett Company); Affiliated Communications (the broadcast division of The Boston Globe); R&R Broadcasting (Robinson & Reece); Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting; Radio Equity Partners; and Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia, the current owner).

In the 1950s and 60s, the Hampden-Hampshire Corporation (a consortium of the Daily Hampshire Gazette, the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram, the Greenfield Recorder, and the Springfield Newspapers) owned WHYN-AM-FM-TV. The stations were sold in 1967 to Guy Gannett Broadcasting. WHYN and WHYN-FM were sold to Affiliated Publications in 1979 while Guy Gannett retained WHYN-TV, which kept its original studio location and changed its call letters to WGGB-TV. The radio stations moved to downtown's "Marketplace" location, where their studios and offices remain, along with co-owned 100.9 WRNX, a country music station.