WZCR signed on in 1969 as WHUC-FM, sister to WHUC and the first FM station between Kingston and Albany. Initially airing automated easy listening music, the station would flip to a simulcast of WHUC's successful Top 40 format by 1971, a format it would keep for the next decade. During this time, it was not uncommon for the WHUC stations to appear in the ratings for the Albany market to the point that some Albany businesses advertised on the stations.
With The FCC requiring stations to stop simulcasting, the simulcast was broken in April 1981 with WHUC-FM flipping to Automated AC from Drake Chenault and taking the WRVW calls. This format was selected by the station's current General Manager. The station would take several variations of AC before flipping to country in 1988. Country would only last a couple of years before the station went through a variety of formats, including standards, big band, and an oldies format called 93Gold FM.
WRVW's oldies format was never a winning proposition, with two strong Albany oldies stations, WGY-FM and WTRY dominating the Hudson market. This would continue until early 1995 when Straus Media, owners of WCTW and WCKL in Catskill, bought WHUC and WRVW. Straus had earlier purchased WELV and 99.3 WWWK in Ellenville and all those stations, with the exception of WELV moved to the studios on Route 9G in Hudson.
In the Spring of 1995, WRVW and WWWK joined together as Thunder Country, a satellite-fed "Hot Country" format; with this format change, WRVW took the WTHK calls. WTHK struggled against WGNA-FM to the north and WRWD to the south, however the station did last out the 1990s. It was in 1997 that Straus's Hudson/Catskill stations were relocated to the company's Poughkeepsie headquarters, a move met with some local criticism.
The sale of Straus Media to iHeartMedia (then known as Clear Channel Communications) in 2000 led to the divesture of the Hudson/Catskill stations and WBPM in Kingston to Concord Media, an affiliated holding company. With this sale came the relocation of WTHK and its sister stations to its old facility in Hudson along with a format change that November to its current oldies format with the WZCR calls soon following. Clear Channel would later buy the Hudson/Catskill stations (less WCKL) in early 2003 with satellite-fed programming being soon replaced. WZCR would drop satellite broadcasting and go local in January 2005. The station continues to be a strong ratings leader with the oldies format.
Former logo from 2013-2021
On two occasions (in 2004 and 2005), WZCR was simulcast on WCKL as filler programming while Clear Channel unsuccessfully tried to sell that station due to market concentration concerns.
WCZX is a radio station licensed to Hyde Park, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts at 300 watts ERP from the Illinois Mountain master tower in Marlborough, New York with studios on Pendell Road in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
WVPO is an FM radio station in Lehman Township, Pennsylvania known as "Bigfoot Country 96.7 & 97.3". The station is owned by Seven Mountains Media, programming a country music format.
WRVE is a commercial FM radio station licensed in Schenectady and serving the Capital District and Upper Hudson Valley New York. It broadcasts a Hot Adult Contemporary radio format and calls itself "99.5 The River," referring to the Hudson River. The station is owned by iHeartMedia as one of seven radio stations owned by the company in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy radio market.
WPYX is a commercial radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District. It broadcasts a classic rock radio format and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. WPYX also carries New York Giants football games.
WYKV is a listener-supported, non-commercial Christian Contemporary radio station licensed to Ravena, New York, and serving the Capital District and upper Hudson Valley of New York. The station is owned by Educational Media Foundation and broadcasts at 3,000 watts ERP from a location in Selkirk, New York. It is an owned-and-operated station (O&O) of EMF's K-LOVE network.
WZAD is country music radio station licensed to Wurtsboro, New York that serves the Catskill Mountains region, Orange County, New York, and Pike County, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts with 620 watts ERP from a tower between Wurtsboro and Monticello. Its studios are in Poughkeepsie, New York.
WKXP is a commercial radio station licensed to Kingston, New York, and serving the Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and it broadcasts a soft adult contemporary radio format from its radio studios in Poughkeepsie, New York. Weekday evenings, WKXP carries the nationally syndicated show "Intelligence for Your Life" with John Tesh.
WRNQ is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts an adult contemporary radio format, switching to Christmas music for much of November and December.
WBPM is a classic hits radio station licensed to Saugerties, New York, serving the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts at 6,000 watts ERP from a tower in the Town of Kingston, New York, while its studios are in Beacon.
WPKF is a Top 40 (CHR) radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts from a tower mounted on the roof of the Ross Pavilion at the Hudson River Psychiatric Center in Poughkeepsie.
WKBE is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Corinth, New York and serving Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs. It is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts a country music radio format, simulcasting WKLI-FM 100.9 Albany.
WRWD-FM is a country music radio station licensed to Highland, New York and primarily serving the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. The station broadcasts at 330 watts ERP from a tower near Illinois Mountain in Marlborough, New York shared with sister station WBWZ. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. Its studios are in Arlington, New York.
WGHQ is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Kingston, New York and serving the Hudson Valley. WGHQ is owned by Pamal Broadcasting The station airs a mix of adult standards, oldies, and soft adult contemporary formats known as "Magic 92.5".
WRWB-FM is a radio station licensed to Ellenville, New York and serving an area including much of the Hudson Valley and the eastern parts of the Catskills. WRWB-FM is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. and broadcasts with 115 watts effective radiated power from a tower site on Shawangunk Ridge in Ellenville. The high elevation of this tower site gives the station a fringe coverage area that stretches from the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. Its studios are in Arlington, New York.
WCTW is a hot adult contemporary music formatted radio station licensed to Catskill, New York, and serving Columbia and Greene counties as well as the upper Hudson Valley, the southern Capital District, and Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts at 4.7 kW ERP from the center tower of the three-tower array used by former sister station WCKL, on Route 9-G in Greenport, New York. WCTW's signal can be received as far north as Albany and as far south as Poughkeepsie; however, the station begins to mix with co-channel WCKM-FM and WTRY-FM north of Albany.
WKIP is a commercial radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts at 1,000 watts from a two-tower array adjacent to its radio studios in the Arlington section of the Town of Poughkeepsie. It uses a directional antenna in the daytime, but changes to a non-directional antenna at night, an unusual switch from standard practice where many AM stations are non-directional by day and directional at night. Programming is also heard on FM translator W253BV at 98.5 MHz and on WJIP 1370 AM in Ellenville, New York.
Nassau Broadcasting Partners LP was a company based in Princeton, New Jersey that owned radio stations in New England and the Mid-Atlantic United States. Nassau's stations, which included both AM and FM frequencies, were located in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The company was owned and headed by Louis F. Mercatanti. Nassau was predominantly an operator of radio stations in medium and small markets. Nassau formerly owned radio station WCRB in Waltham, a Boston suburb, and located in the Boston market, the 11th largest radio market in the US, according to BIA Financial Network. However that station was sold to WGBH in 2009. Nassau operated radio stations in substantially all of the major formats. The company's most common format was classic rock/classic hits. On October 13, 2011 Nassau Broadcasting entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after their senior lenders petitioned for an involuntary Chapter 7 liquidation in September. The stations were auctioned to various bidders in May 2012 subject to bankruptcy judge and FCC approval. Nassau's last station, WPLY in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, lost its license in 2014 after having shut down in 2011.
WCKL was a radio station licensed to Catskill, New York, United States, to broadcast at 560 kHz. The station lost its license in October 2016 in a consent decree with the FCC in which Brian Dodge admitted lying to the FCC, using various false names and addresses to control radio stations, numerous other violations, and a $100,000 fine to be paid by selling three FM translators to other broadcasters. Earlier, the station had sold to Clear Channel Communications in a $4.3 million package deal which included WCKL, WCTW, WHUC and then-WTHK.
WDLC is a radio station broadcasting a country music format. Licensed to Port Jervis, New York, United States, the station serves the Sussex area.
WJIP is a radio station broadcasting a news/talk radio format. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, through licensee iHM Licenses, LLC, and is licensed to Ellenville, New York, United States. The station broadcasts with a power of 5,000 watts, daytime only, from a single tower located off Irish Cape Road in the hamlet of Napanoch.
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