WSBR

Fred S. Grunwald, operating as Boca Broadcasters, obtained the construction permit for a new daytime-only AM station in Boca Raton on July 5, 1962. Initially assigned the call letters WFSG (for his initials), they were changed to WSBR before going on air in May 1965. It was the first radio station licensed to Boca Raton.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39851932/|title=Boca Radio Station Equipment Arrives|date=January 30, 1965|work=Palm Beach Post|page=7|access-date=November 30, 2019}} The station maintained a transmitter at the Everglades Game Farm and studios in downtown Boca Raton. Grunwald was a surgeon who lived in Washington, D.C., but his interest in electronics led him to start a station.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39852094/|title=Surgeon Builds Radio Station: He Leads A 'Double Life'|page=10|work=Palm Beach Post|date=April 3, 1965|access-date=November 30, 2019}} Grunwald sold the station in 1967 to Burbach Radio (named for its principals Robert Burstein and John Laubach), which owned two stations in Pennsylvania.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39852499/|date=August 22, 1967|work=Fort Lauderdale News|page=13|access-date=November 30, 2019|title=Operation and management of radio station WSBR...}} In 1978, the station was approved to begin broadcasting at night.[https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=66972 FCC History Cards for WSBR]

From its inception in 1965, WSBR served as primarily a middle-of-the-road station, but in the late 1970s, it shifted to a big band and standards format.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39852732/|work=Palm Beach Post|page=B4|date=June 17, 1982|title=Boca's Big Band Radio Puts a Group Together|first=Bob|last=Brink|access-date=November 30, 2019}} The station was sold in 1982 to Sam Cook Digges, under the name Goldcoast Communications. Cook Digges, a retired CBS Radio president, immediately exchanged the station's ABC Radio affiliation for one with CBS and finally began nighttime broadcasts.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39852807/|title=Business|page=B5|access-date=November 30, 2019|work=Palm Beach Post|date=June 17, 1982}} One other addition also had to do with its ownership: Cook Digges was on the board of directors of the New England Patriots, and team owner Billy Sullivan—who had a home in Atlantis—was a part-owner of Goldcoast, so WSBR began broadcasting Patriots games.{{cite news|pages=D1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39853121/ D3]|first=Steve|last=Hummer|title=Passing The Buck To Defense|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39853154/|work=Palm Beach Post|date=September 9, 1983|access-date=November 30, 2019}}

1985 and 1986 saw a series of ownership changes for WSBR. Cook Digges sold his shares to Edmund Byrne, which resulted in a new Boca Raton Broadcasting Corporation becoming the licensee. However, Malcolm Kahn and George Delson, who chose to trade as Beach Boca Broadcasting, bought the station within a year. Under Kahn's management, WSBR added more talk programming.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39853567/|title=WSBR's Cole offers his easygoing style to a new audience|work=Sun-Sentinel|date=July 5, 1987|access-date=November 30, 2019|page=12|first=Andy|last=Ney}}

In 1988, SMH Broadcasting acquired WSBR. Howard Goldsmith, the head of SMH, inherited a station that was losing money and immediately changed the station to business talk as "MoneyTalk Radio" in April 1989.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/39853652/|title=Battle stations! AM radio fights for niche|work=Palm Beach Post|date=May 20, 1990|page=3B|access-date=November 30, 2019|first=Geraldine|last=Fabrikant}} The new WSBR carried brokered time programs made available initially to stock brokers, commodities brokers, bond brokers, investment brokers and mortgage brokers. Non-business talk programs still remained from the Kahn era: Palm Beach resident Herbert Swope and newspaper columnist Greg Allen had daily programs, with the rest of the broadcast day devoted to a combination of "per inquiry" informercials and programming via satellite from the Business Radio Network.

On December 31, 2014, WHFS (1010 AM) in Tampa Bay began to simulcast WSBR.

WSBR and WHSR, the co-owned brokered ethnic station that also used the Nob Hill Road transmitter site, ceased operations at midnight on December 1, 2019; Beasley had sold the associated land to the city of Parkland, Florida in early September 2019 for $7,100,000, with plans by the city to develop a park.{{Cite web|url=http://parklandnews.net/the-week-in-parkland-government-september-p606-189.htm|title=The Week In Parkland Government: September 9–13|date=September 9, 2019|website=ParklandNews.net|access-date=December 1, 2019|quote=24.38 acres located at 8400 Nob Hill Board on the northeast corner of Hillsboro Boulevard and Nob Hill Road. Purchase price $7,100,000 using available reserves for capital. This purchase would allow for the development of a future park consisting of 36 total acres.}} The remaining Beasley station based in Boca Raton, WWNN, absorbed WSBR's imaging and much of its programming; it also began broadcasting over its two translators in Boca Raton and Lauderdale Lakes.{{cite news|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/florida-jewish-journal/palm/fl-jj-boca-raton-shalom-south-florida-radio-move-20191127-20191121-wjyiu5slifdpxn2ac2lvuvlae4-story.html?outputType=amp|work=Sun-Sentinel|title= 'Shalom South Florida' radio show's move will 'provide broader reach'|first=Sergio|last=Carmona|access-date=December 1, 2019|date=November 14, 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://radioinsight.com/headlines/182110/7-1-million-land-sale-leads-to-sign-off-of-two-south-florida-ams/|title=$7.1 Million Land Sale Leads To Sign-Off Of Two South Florida AMs|last=Venta|first=Lance|date=December 1, 2019|website=RadioInsight.com|access-date=December 1, 2019}}

On June 2, 2015, WSBR began simulcasting on translator W245BC (96.9 FM), which is licensed to Lauderdale Lakes. This translator adds coverage in east-central and northwestern Broward County. Both translators began broadcasting WWNN at the closure of WSBR.

{{RadioTranslators

| callsign = WWNN (formerly WSBR)

| width =

| call1 = W245BC

| freq1 = 96.9

| city1 = Lauderdale Lakes, Florida

| fid1 = 138625

| watts1 = 250

| haat1 = 118

| class1 = D

| coord1 =

| notes1 =

| call2 = W280DU

| freq2 = 103.9

| city2 = Boca Raton, Florida

| fid2 = 142696

| watts2 = 250

| haat2 = 150

| class2 = D

| coord2 =

| notes2 =

}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/publicFacilityDetails.html?facilityId=60634 Facility details for Facility ID 60634 (WSBR)] in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• [https://cdbs.recnet.com/corres/?doc=66972 FCC History Cards for WSBR] (covering 1962-1981 as WFSC / WSBR)
• [https://www.facebook.com/am740wsbr/ AM 740 WSBR Facebook]

{{West Palm Beach Radio}}

{{Beasley Broadcast Group}}

SBR

SBR

Category:Boca Raton, Florida

Category:Radio stations established in 1965

Category:1965 establishments in Florida

Category:Radio stations disestablished in 2021

Category:2021 disestablishments in Florida

Category:Defunct radio stations in the United States

SBR