Editing WWKB (section)

===Top 40 era===
[[File:WKBW radio advertisement (1958).gif|thumb|right|170px|In 1958, WKBW introduced its energetic "FUTURSonic" format.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/broadcastingtele55unse/page/n180/mode/1up "WKBW"] (advertisement), ''Broadcasting'', July 14, 1958, page 67.</ref>]]On July 4, 1958, a few months before companion station [[WKBW-TV]] (channel 7) was launched, WKBW radio abandoned its adult approach and was converted into a personality-driven full service [[Top 40]] [[music radio]] station, featuring foreground personalities, a tight playlist of current hits and an aggressive local news department, which it continued to program with great success for over 20 years.<ref>[https://buffalobroadcasters.com/archives-history/wkbw-am-history/ "KB goes Kaboom with Futuresonic Radio!"] by Martin Biniasz (buffalobroadcasters.com)</ref> It was one of the first stations to present traffic reports in cooperation with police and state and local authorities. Churchill sold WKBW-AM-TV to Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1961, earning a handsome return on his original investment of 35 years earlier.

During the exclusive [[Monkees]] "Sleepy Jean"/"[[Daydream Believer]]" broadcast in 1967, a recording was made in Sidi Yahia, [[Morocco]].<ref>[http://fmdx.usclargo.com/hearditonam/ I Heard it on the AM Radio-WKBW heard in Morocco-1967]</ref><ref>[http://fmdx.usclargo.com/hearditonam/WKBW%201520%20MonKees%20Exclusive.ra audio file of WKBW playing "Sleepy Jean"/"Daydream Believer"-1967]</ref> On Halloween Night 1968, writer Dan Kriegler and then-program director [[Jefferson Kaye]] (later the voice of [[WPVI-TV]] in [[Philadelphia]], co-owned with WKBW-TV in 1971) commemorated the 30th anniversary of Orson Welles' 1938 ''[[The War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama)|War of the Worlds]]'' by [[The War of the Worlds (1968 radio drama)|re-making the infamous broadcast]], updating the storyline and changing locations to make it significant to Buffalo listeners. Kaye (the voice of [[NFL Films]]) did another equally well-received remake of "War of the Worlds" in 1972 using a revised script and some new cast members including Jackson Armstrong and newsmen Jim McLaughlin and Joe Downey. Both versions have been recorded and collected by aficionados of classic radio programming.

During the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, WKBW became a major force in pop radio over the East Coast. KB had a 50,000-watt transmitter (the maximum power allowed) at their transmitter site in Hamburg. This high power blanketed the entire eastern U.S. with [[Top 40]] music every night, and the station actually had a better signal at night in the western Boston suburbs than Boston's own Top 40 station, [[WMEX (AM)|WMEX]], located at 1510, right next door to WKBW. Disk jockeys included future ''[[Price Is Right]]'' announcer [[Rod Roddy]], [[Dick Biondi]], [[Danny Neaverth]], [[Big Jack Armstrong|Jack Armstrong]], [[Joey Reynolds]], Steve Mitchell, [[Bud Ballou]], [[Norm Marshall]], [[Tom Shannon (broadcaster)|Tom Shannon]], and the Amazin' [[Jim Quinn]]. [[Art Wander]] served as news director from 1956 to 1958, followed by [[Irv Weinstein]] from 1958 to 1964; [[Stan Barron]], a holdover from the pre-rock and roll era, handled sports until his departure in 1965. Mike Joseph, later creator of the [[Hot Hits]] format, was a major off-air contributor to the station's approach to the "futuresonic" Top-40 format.<ref>{{cite web |title=NERW 5/14/18: "Hot Hits" Creator Dies |url=https://www.fybush.com/nerw-20180514/ |website=fybush.com |access-date=August 27, 2019 |date=May 14, 2018}}</ref>

Beginning in the late 1960s, WKBW devoted a nightly hour of programming to [[progressive rock (radio format)|underground music]] with its "Mixed Bag" block, one of the few commercial AM stations to embrace the [[free-form radio|freeform]] format; it was highly unusual for a 50,000-watt AM station to embrace the format that had theretofore been largely an [[FM radio|FM]] and noncommercial phenomenon.<ref>Schlaerth, J. Don (February 12, 1969). "Underground Music Comes to the Surface." ''[[Buffalo Evening News]]''.</ref> In 1969, WKBW became the first radio station to air cuts from [[The Beatles]]' unreleased ''Get Back'' album. The recordings had been compiled from material The Beatles recorded in London in January 1969, the same sessions that would be used in The Beatles' ''Let It Be album'', released in May 1970. Although WKBW was the first station to air the "Get Back" tapes, [[WWBX|WBCN]] in Boston would be better known for playing them, as its broadcast of the tapes was preserved on a high-quality reel, which spawned several widely circulated bootlegs of The Beatles.

A recreated example of WKBW as an early 1960s-era pop radio station can be found on Ron Jacobs' "Cruisin' 1960" ([[Watermark Inc.|Increase Records]] INCR 5–2005). This recreation features [[Dick Biondi]] and includes several classic rock and pop songs of that era, contemporary commercials, and DJ patter.