This station carried the call sign WSMB from its founding until 2006.
It signed on
the airwaves April 1, 1925, as New Orleans' first professional radio station, a
joint commercial venture by the local Saenger Theatre and the Maison Blanche
department store. Programming was provided by the Saenger, allowing Maison Blanche
to sell radio sets in the store so customers could hear the station's programming.
For most of its early history, the studios were located on the thirteenth floor of
the Maison Blanche Building on Canal Street, a few blocks from the theater. By the
1930s, WSMB was an affiliate of the NBC Red Network, carrying its schedule of
dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts
during the Golden Age of Radio.[3]
Switch to MOR and talk
As network programming shifted to TV in the 1960s, WSMB moved to a full service
format of middle of the road music (MOR), news and talk. WSMB found success in the
ratings, primarily on the strength of morning drive time personalities Roy Roberts
and Jeff Hugg, known as Nut and Jeff, and midday political talk show host, Keith
Rush. Musically, the station in the 1960s was a mix of pop standards and the softer
sounds of rock and roll. In the 1970s, WSMB moved to a more adult contemporary
music sound. The station played moderate amounts of music during morning and
afternoon drive times while being music intensive and leaning toward oldies
overnights and weekends.
By 1980, as music listening shifted to FM, WSMB's ratings had dropped. The station
gradually cut back on music through the early 1980s. By 1985, WSMB was strictly
news and talk, using the ABC Radio Information Network and its Talk Radio service.
[4] Moving to all talk still did not bring ratings up. In 1988, WSMB was sold to
Winton Communications, which kept the talk format in place but could not improve
the ratings.
Move to all-talk and sports
In 1996, WSMB was bought by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, which also owned the
news-talk powerhouse 870 WWL. Sinclair turned WSMB into a sister station of WWL,
running talk programs that were not available on AM 870, and adding WWL's
newsgathering expertise. In 1999, Sinclair sold its New Orleans radio stations to
Entercom. WWWL began broadcasting sporting events that were bumped from WWL due to
scheduling conflicts, including basketball and football from LSU and Tulane
University. The station was the radio home of the New Orleans Brass minor league
hockey team from 1997 to 2002 and has sometimes been a local radio outlet for
national broadcasts of NFL football.
With all the sporting events on WSMB's schedule, it became an all-sports station
between 1999 and 2001. Programming at that time included syndicated shows from ESPN
Radio and an afternoon show hosted by local sports commentator Kaare Johnson. Other
local personalities heard on the station included sports trainer Mackie Shilstone.
There was a period where most programming consisted of psychological call-in shows,
featuring hosts such as Dr. Laura and Dr. Joy Browne. From 2005 until November
2006, the station carried a progressive talk radio format as an affiliate of Air
America Radio. The Food Show with Tom Fitzmorris remained on the air through all
these format changes. It is the longest-running talk show of any kind in New
Orleans, airing weekdays since July 18, 1988, and now heard on WWL-FM HD2 or in
podcast format.
