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INDIANAPOLIS — WIBC has just entered its ninth decade of delivering news, sports, information and entertainment to listeners across Indianapolis and central Indiana.

It was Oct. 30, 1938 that WIBC first went on the air on 1050 AM as a 1000-watt daytime-only station.  In 1941, the station moved frequencies to 1070 AM, where it became one of the top radio stations in the country.

WIBC became known for being the flagship station for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network and has originated the broadcast for the Indianapolis 500 since 1946.  Over the years, WIBC has also served as the flagship stations for the Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis Colts and NASCAR’s Brickyard 400.

On Dec. 26, 2007, after nearly 70 years on the AM dial, the station moved to the FM dial to 93.1 FM, while the 1070 AM frequency became an all-sports station called “The Fan.”

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR SOME OF WIBC’S OLD JINGLES:

Coincidentally, on the same day that WIBC first went on the air, Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds” broadcast aired on many other stations across the country.  The broadcast aired on CBS at 8 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1938.  

After “The War of the Worlds” broadcast, a Princeton professor estimated that six million people heard the show that evening and that nearly a third of the listeners thought it was a real newscast and that the Martian invasion was real.   

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR THE ORIGINAL BROADCAST OF “THE WAR OF THE WORLDS” FROM OCT. 30, 1938:

 

Photo: C.J. Miller / Emmis Communications