R.I.P.: George Hamberger, Former Buffalo Radio Personality

Former Buffalo radio personality George C. Hamberger died May 29 after a three-year struggle with multiple myeloma.  He was 74.

George Hamberger 1946-2020

The Buffalo News reports Hamberger first took to the air in 1968 on WYSL-FM and was a full-time deejay for more than 20 years. In recent years, he continued to be heard as a regular guest on WBEN’s Morning Show, providing his perspective on real estate and development.

Returning to Buffalo after college , he was doing marketing with WYSL-AM and its simulcast FM station, which then had studios on the top floor of the Statler Hotel, when one of the FM disc jockeys called in sick.

“The station manager said, ‘You have a nice voice. Why don’t you fill in on the FM?’ ” he recalled recently. “I was on from 6 to 9 that night. Back then, FM was really not a factor, but to keep the license straight with the FCC, they had to separate the programming three hours a day and they needed somebody to come in and play the songs.”

Hamberger said that he and other deejays soon convinced the general manager to give them free rein on FM. One of his claims to fame was that he was the first to spin Led Zeppelin on the radio in Buffalo.

The station became popular, started broadcasting in stereo and was renamed WPHD-FM. He was host of the afternoon drive show.

He was lured to WGR in 1971 and hosted the morning drive show on its FM station before it became 97 Rock. Three years later, WBEN, wanting to attract younger listeners, offered him its afternoon drive program. He had built up ratings when, in 1976, a radio consultant offered him a morning drive program on the West Coast. He turned it down.

Hamberger took over an afternoon shift at WKBW radio, which at that time shared its studios on Main Street with WKBW-TV.

His stint at WKBW ended in a highly publicized flap over a double entendre. It was a comment he made after a commercial for the Dodge Aspen.

“I said, ‘I’ve always appreciated a good-looking As ... pen,’ ” he said. “When I got fired, it made all the papers. People thought it was just a promotional stunt.”

He soon was back on the air at WBEN, which was under new ownership, and was featured after broadcasts of Buffalo Bills football games. He then went to Toronto, where he did the afternoon drive show on CFTR and bought a house there.

In 1983, he came back to Buffalo to be morning host on WGR-AM and turned down a chance in the mid-1980s to replace shock jock Howard Stern on WNBC in New York City. He left WGR in 1987, but returned for a second stint from 1989 to 1991.

After launching a career in real estate, he continued to do radio. In the late 1990s, he hosted Saturday mornings on WHTT-FM.