WROW

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WROW

City of license	Albany, New York
Broadcast area	Capital District
Branding	AM 590 WROW
First air date	1947
Frequency	590 kHz
Format	Talk radio
ERP	5000 watts day, 1000 watts night
Class	B
Owner	Pamal Broadcasting
Website	www.wrow.com

WROW is an AM radio station broadcasting on 590 kHz licensed to Albany, New York with its tower in Glenmont, New York. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting (dba Albany Broadcasting) and runs a talk radio format under the branding News-Talk Radio 590. The station is the CBS News affiliate for the Albany market and airs local news updates every half-hour. WROW's main competitor in this region is 810 WGY.

WROW is historically notable for being the station which launched Capital Cities Communications which in 1985 purchased the American Broadcasting Company and became one of the largest media companies in existence at the time of that purchase.

[edit] History

WROW signed on in 1947 when a startup company, the Hudson Valley Communications Company (forerunner to Capital Cities), acquired the rights to the frequency. At the outset, the station had the Mutual affiliation, switching to ABC in 1950. The relationship with ABC was short lived as in 1954 WROW took WTRY's CBS affiliation in order to get the rights to the CBS television affiliation for new acquisition WROW-TV (today's WTEN). The CBS affiliation has remained on WROW ever since though in 2001 CBS's top-of-hour newscasts began to also be aired on sister station WKLI.

With the golden age of radio soon ending, WROW decided to flip to a Top 40 format (the first such attempt in the Capital District) in the late 1950s. Though initially successful, internal changes at Capital Cities led to WROW to be pushed to take on an easy listening format which it did around 1963. At this point, WROW signed on sister station WROW-FM (today's WYJB) which simulcasted the station, then began to "shadowcast" (delayed simulcast) WROW after the FCC forced such simulcasts to be broken up to stimulate FM. The combined signal of WROW and WROW-FM led to the station(s) being one of the more popular stations in the Capital District for most of the 1970s and 1980s.

In 1983, Capital Cities sold the WROW stations to Dot Broadcasting, a group of local broadcasters. Soon thereafter, WROW would be sold once again to another local ownership group. Through this, not much changed though the aging of the easy listening format led to a split of WROW and WROW-FM in 1991 with WROW keeping the easy listening format. In late 1993, the WROW stations were bought by current owner Albany Broadcasting which put changes in both stations soon thereafter. In February 1994, WROW flipped to an all-news format by day with talk programming nights and weekends. Though a good idea on paper, the news format had low ratings and was a high expense format and in 1996 the station flipped to its current talk format. A slow starter at first, the arrival for former WQBK host and program director Paul Vandenburgh to identical positions in 1997 helped matters and made the station a formidable second talk station next to WGY.

[edit] Programming

The station's key local programming is in mornings, with Paul Vandenburgh hosting the station's morning show from 6:00-10:00 AM and "Live from the State Capitol" with New York Post columnist Fred Dicker from 10:00-11:00 AM. On Fridays, Albany mayor Gerald D. Jennings hosts a call-in show from 9:00-10:00 AM. Various other local shows air on weekends.

Syndicated talk shows on the station include:

• Brian and the Judge (11:00 AM-Noon)
• The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly (Noon-2:00 PM)
• Mike and the Mad Dog (via WFAN New York) (2:00-6:00 PM)
  • WROW's syndication of Mike and the Mad Dog is unique in that, unlike in most syndication, the show is a straight pickup of what airs on WFAN including jingles and the occasional inadvertent advertisement.
• Jay Severin (7:00-10:00 PM, to be replaced)
• Alan Colmes (10:00 PM-1:00 AM, to be replaced)
• Joey Reynolds (1:00-6:00 AM)

Weekend syndicated programs include Dennis Prager, Lars Larson, and Matt Drudge; the first two of which previously aired on weekdays. The audio feed of NBC's Meet The Press also airs, though two hours after the program is broadcast on Albany NBC affiliate WNYT.

[edit] External links

• WROW's Website