It was 20 years ago today that All WNY Radio kicked off with a concert at the UAW Hall in Lockport. There were three bands and “cheap beer,” as the newspaper advertisement (seen below) so proudly displayed.
Over the years, we’ve had a lot of bands — and a lot of cheap beer. We’ve had a streetview studio in Kenmore and an office in Niagara Falls.
We’ve added local news and events. Published an insane amount of photos. And made t-shirts galore. We hosted the All WNY Awards and gave out thousands or certificates. And, man, have we had a blast doing it.
We went from one domain name to nearly a dozen … that now all filter into AllWNY.com.
Not everything has worked. After a decade, we decided earlier this year that publishing local news on a daily basis just didn’t make as much sense as we hoped it would when we started doing so in 2016. Similarly, the All WNY Awards went the way of the dodo after a good 12-year run.
But 20 years in, we’re still broadcasting local music. Twenty-four hours a day. Seven days a week.
This weekend, we’ll celebrate by airing that kickoff concert during our “Live From the Archives” programming on both Friday and Saturday nights.
And we’re making a renewed push for new local music. So, artists, send us some new stuff to add to the stream.
And here’s to the next 20 years!
- Scott Leffler
- All WNY
