Last week, Buddy Shula — whose company, Radio One Buffalo, recently purchased the 1270 AM signal in Buffalo from Cumulus — announced the station was relaunching with a familiar format. 1270 The Patriot, a new conservative talk station, will hit the market on July 4th.
Earlier this year, Cumulus announced plans to shutter the 5,000-watt daytime signal as one of its underperforming brands. Previously, the station aired the Westwood One suite of news/talk programs, with no local presence in the market.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to ask why conservative talk would be the choice for a new owner after a company like Cumulus was unable to make nationally syndicated news/talk radio work in the market.
But when asked why conservative talk made the most sense for his new station, Buddy Shula had a quick reply.
“There is no conservative station in Buffalo,” said Shula. “WBEN is not conservative. They’re going the other way.”
He said that on particular instance of listening to WBEN, the Audacy news/talk station in the market, led him to believe that there was “an open lane” for conservative talk in the city.
“I was thinking of a lot of formats for it … I was listening to WBEN one day — and this is honest — they’re talking about what kind of sandwich do you like? And begging for phone calls about what kind of sandwich do you like. The host is like ‘Well, ketchup is pretty good. Do you like pickles?’ and I’m like ‘Oh my god, this is ridiculous.’ I’m very serious,” said Shula. “That’s when I said ‘The lane is talk radio. Conservative talk radio.’
“Buffalo is pretty conservative outside of right in the city. Outside of that, it’s pretty conservative. However you feel politically, there’s an open lane,” he continued.
Furthering Shula’s stance that conservative talk radio was the way to go was the availability of The Sean Hannity Show in the market.
“Knowing he was available was the catalyst,” said Shula, who shared he was “somewhere in the middle” politically. “I watch everything — CNN, Fox (News), MSNBC. I just wanted names conservatives would know. And I worked with Premiere, they really came to the table. They had some great things. Glenn Beck is a name I knew. Clay (Travis) and Buck (Sexton) are a younger generation of conservatives that I knew their names … that’s how I picked.”
The station’s full line-up will consist of:
6-9 AM: Your Morning Show with Michael DelGiorno
9 AM-12 PM: The Glenn Beck Program
12-3 PM: The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show
3-6 PM: The Sean Hannity Show
6-9 PM: The Jesse Kelly Show
9 PM-12 AM: The VINCE Show
12-1 AM: No Spin News with Bill O’Reilly
1-6 AM: Red Eye Radio
The station will also feature a weekend show hosted by State Rep. David DiPietro (R), as well as programs from Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson, Tony Katz, Charlie Kirk, Chris Plante, and Lars Larson, among others.
Throughout the day, the station will broadcast news updates from Townhall and financial reports from CNBC and Bloomberg. Shula shared that he attempted to partner with Fox News Radio for news updates, but was rebuffed, saying he “was shocked and still scratching my head” noting that he believed that the investment of George Soros would make the network reevaluate its relationship with Audacy.
Shula has had success on the AM band in Buffalo. In addition to 1270 The Patriot, he also owns popular oldies station WECK, which is heard on 1230 AM in the market.
And while Buddy Shula gets set to put the new news/talk brand on the air, he believed the station’s strategy was a simple one that would lead to success.
“I just tried to cater to what conservatives like,” he concluded. “I feel like we have destination listening hosts. We’re gonna stick to the hosts that you know. The ones you know and the ones you don’t, that are the next wave of conservative talk.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
Buddy’s a smart man, zagging when everyone else “zigs”. Imaging and positioning of the station will be tantamount to its success. When WECK became “The Big WECK” – it added a fullness to an otherwise “graveyard” frequency. Wishing you success, Buddy
He won’t be able to beat WBEN without a good NEWS department. WBEN is the station Western New York turns to for information.