Y-107: WWXY, WWYY and WWZY
The third WYNY was born on December 5, 1996. [1] A broadcast group called Big City Radio bought three class A FM stations, each located about 45 miles from New York City.
Big City Radio shut down local operations for two of the stations and began programming country music out of their Westchester County, New York station, licensed to Briarcliff Manor, New York and located north of New York City, first under the call letters WWXY and soon after as WYNY. Because WYNY's signal barely reached New York City and had no signal to the south or east, Big City simulcast the programming on a station on the Jersey Shore, licensed to Long Branch, New Jersey which was named WWZY and was also on the 107.1 frequency. The same scenario occurred at their Hampton Bays, New York-licensed 107.1, located on Long Island, which was named WWVY but became WWXY when the Briarcliff Manor signal became WYNY. The entire trimulcast was labeled and branded as "New Country Y-107".
In 1998, Big City Radio acquired 107.1 WRNJ-FM, located in Belvidere, New Jersey, which served the Lehigh Valley to the far west. Unlike the other Y-107 stations, WRNJ had been a country station prior to its acquisition by Big City. Renamed WWYY, its addition formed a quadcast.
- Notes
The intent of this scheme was to reach the New York City market with a grade B signal and bring country music to a city without such a station. In addition, the communities surrounding New York City received a good signal, given three stations were located in suburban areas and one station was rural. This was not unique to New York; Big City Radio had a trimulcast in Los Angeles and multiple simulcasts in Chicago, and Phoenix, Arizona. Luckily for Big City, the suburban coverage worked fairly well in New York City as country listeners were more apt to live in suburbs, the area covered better by Y-107, than in New York City itself.
The country music format usually pulled low ratings in the actual New York City market, but in embedded markets like Long Island, the ratings were fair. On the Jersey Shore, as well as in north-central Jersey, Westchester County, and the Lehigh Valley, Y-107 pulled from fair to very good ratings. The station was profitable.
In 1998, Hispanic investors bought into Big City Radio. They flipped the company's low-rated trimulcast in Los Angeles, also called Y107 (but airing a rock format), to a tropical Spanish-language format. This move sparked rumors that the Y-107 quadcast in New York could change format. Denials were made while simulcast networks in other markets went to Spanish-language formats; Phoenix, on KMYL in 2000, and Chicago, on WXXY-FM in 2001.
Still Y-107 held on to the country format. In 2001, rumors began to heat up again that a change was in the air. At the start of 2002, Big City Radio announced that indeed the rumors would now be true, but not until May. As with 103.5 WYNY, the air personalities all were given the opportunity to say goodbye, but they did this less melodramatically than in 1996. In its last week as a country format, Y-107 was automated except for mornings; finally, on May 7, Garth Brooks' "The Dance" closed out the country format on Y-107. [2]
After a day of stunting with construction sounds, Big City Radio flipped the quadcast to Spanish contemporary hits under the branding "Rumba 107.1", but leaving the WYNY call letters in place. The format did horribly. A major reason for this, and many of Big City Radio's other Spanish conversions, was that the signal combinations worked together to serve metropolitan areas, but failed to hit the urban areas which typically have Hispanic populations. Regardless of programming, while suburban residents (and rural farmers in the case of one 107.1) were able to pick up the 107.1 signals, urban-dwelling Hispanics were unable to pick up the signals. In not only New York but also Chicago, former-Big City Radio stations adopted English-language formats once they were resold.
Quadcast demise
At about the same time, Big City Radio was in debt and filed for bankruptcy. They sold their stations as units in many cases to Hispanic-based companies including Spanish Broadcast System, Hispanic Broadcasting Company, and Entravision Communications. The New York area quadcast, however, was sold to Nassau Broadcasting Partners. Nassau initially considered returning the country format to the quadcast, but instead opted to break up the quadcast, selling three of the four stations in April 2003.
WWZY was sold to Press Communications, which retained the call letters and began broadcasting a soft oldies format under the moniker "The Breeze." Later, two equally-small New Jersey stations began simulcasting WWZY to form a new trimulcast.
WWXY on Long Island was sold to The Morey Organization/Jarad Broadcasting, which initially simulcast WLIR (92.7 FM). By early 2004, it was superseded by a relocated WLIR-FM.
In Westchester County, WYNY was sold to Pamal Broadcasting and initially simulcast WSPK "K104", a CHR station in Poughkeepsie, New York, as WXPK, but adopted an AAA format as "The Peak", retaining the same call letters.
Nassau retained the Lehigh Valley station, WWYY, which kept those call letters and launched an adult contemporary format as "Lite 107".
