WVCR-FM
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WVCR-FM | |
 |
|
| City of license | Loudonville, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Capital District |
| Branding | 88.3 The Saint |
| Slogan | We Play Anything |
| First air date | 1960 (on 89.1 MhZ) Moved to 88.3 1971 |
| Frequency | 88.3 MHz |
| Format | Variety hits |
| Power | 2.8 kw |
| ERP | 25 kw |
| Class | B1 |
| Callsign meaning | W Voice of College Radio W Voice of the Capital Region |
| Owner | Siena College |
| Website | www.wvcr.com |
WVCR-FM (88.3 The Saint) is a Variety hits radio station owned by, and primarily staffed by students from, Siena College, located near Albany, New York. The station broadcasts on 88.3 MHz at a power equal to 2.8 kilowatts ERP from the Heldeberg Mountains tower farm in New Scotland.
WVCR is perhaps the only non-commercial licensee to emulate the Variety hits format made popular by the Jack FM approach. It uses commercial break-style underwriter announcements and weather provided by local Fox affiliate WXXA-TV, format elements that have been in place dating back to the late 1990s.
On Sundays, WVCR breaks its format for a day of block programming known as Saint Sundays. the programming during this period includes gospel music, Irish music, and big bands. The station also runs a few hours a day of Siena-centric programming including some men and women's basketball games as well as the games of the New York-Penn League's Tri-City ValleyCats.
[edit] History
WVCR-FM first signed on in 1960 on 89.1 MHz as a Top 40 formatted station operated solely by Siena students. Though the station operated with a Class D license from a tower on the Siena campus, the station did reach much of both Albany and Troy. At the same time, a carrier current AM station heard solely on campus signed on, mostly simulcasting the FM signal.
In 1970, PBS station WMHT obtained a full-power construction permit for the 89.1 frequency, paying WVCR to vacate the frequency. With WMHT's help, WVCR would relocate to 88.3 MHz in time for the 1971-72 academic year, upgrading to Class A status with a 360W transmitted signal from Pinnacle Mountain in New Scotland, NY. It was at this time WVCR adopted a more eclectic format common of college radio.
Although the additional height of the Pinnacle Mountian site opened up the possibility of greatly expanded coverage, the WVCR signal was too weak to be reliably received throughout much of the Capital District and especially the Siena College campus. The situation was further worsened by WVCR's failure to transmit in stereo, with stereo broadcasts finally beginning in 1987. As a result, the station experienced a gradual decline in listenership and member morale throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s.
1985 saw a major change at WVCR as a planned dormitory renovation at Plassman Hall forced WVCR to relocate to all new studios across campus. To accomplish this, WVCR-FM spent most of the 1985-86 academic year off the air with the new facilities debuting in December 1986. The relaunch of the station provided the opportunity for a fresh start, and the new student members made many major upgrades to the signal, with the adoption of stereo in 1987, a newer vintage transmitter and antenna in 1988, and the upgrade from class A to B1 status (25000 watts equivalent) in 1989. By 1989, the signal could be reliably be recived on campus for the first time since 1970. An additional power increase took place in Jan of 2001 to bring the signal to its current level.
As the 1990s started, the number of genres on WVCR declined as student interest in the station began to go towards two genres of music, heavy metal and urban contemporary, both underrepresented in the Albany market. By 1995, WVCR's schedule outside of Sundays was made solely of programming in those two formats. The 1996 arrivial of current Siena president Fr. Kevin Mackin, who publically objected to "offensive" programming, put the heavy metal programming in jeopardy and it was replaced prior to the 1997-98 academic year by alternative rock. This arrangement would remain in place until the end of the Fall semester of the 1998-99 academic year.
On December 27, 1998, WVCR ended all rock programming on the station and became a wholly urban-formatted station, a move done in rapid response to the launch of WAJZ. With this move came a upgrade of studio equipment and the expansion of WVCR to a 24-hour broadcast day; previously, it had signed off from 12:00-6:00 AM. Though the format was successful and had an advantage in both signal and establishment, the departure of some popular personalities and the evolution of the format to more commercial material led to a declining listenership both on-campus and in the community. After a 2001 review by Fr. Mackin stated that the trends of the urban format had made it "offensive" as the heavy metal format had been four years earlier, WVCR relaunched as a Top 40 station in September 2001.
Popular on campus, WVCR's Top 40 format struggled to get some traction going against the more established WFLY and the suburban-leaning WKKF. The redundancy of the station in the market and the support of the station in the community paling in comparison to past formats led Siena to switch the format to variety hits on April 9, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WVCR-FM
- Article examining potential relationship between WVCR and Pamal Broadcasting
In-Town:
88.3 | 89.1 | 89.7 | 90.3 | 90.7/94.9 | 90.9 | 91.5 | 92.3 | 93.7 | 94.5 | 95.5 | 96.3 | 96.7
98.3 | 99.5 | 100.9 | 102.3 | 103.1 | 103.9 | 104.5 | 104.9 | 105.7 | 106.5 | 107.7
Outside the Metro
Saratoga Springs/Glens Falls and Vermont: 91.9 | 94.7 | 95.9 | 97.5 | 98.5 | 100.3
101.3 | 101.7 | 102.7 | 107.1
Mohawk Valley: 97.3 | 97.7 | 101.9 | 103.5
Columbia/Greene Counties: 93.5 | 97.9 | 98.5
