WGHQ

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WGHQ
City of license	Kingston, New York
Broadcast area	Hudson Valley
Branding	Timeless Favorites
Slogan	The Sound of the Valley
Frequency	920 kHz
First air date	1955
Format	Standards
Power	5 kW daytime, 78 watts nighttime
Class	D
Callsign meaning	W General HeadQuarters
Owner	Pamal Broadcasting (6 Johnson Road Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations	WBNR, WBPM, WHUD, WLNA, WSPK, WXPK
Website	The Sound of The Valley

WGHQ (The Sound of the Valley) is the callsign of a radio station licensed to Kingston, New York and serving the Hudson Valley as well as a part of the Capital District market. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts on 920 kHz at 5 kilowatts daytime and 7  watts nighttime, both directional, from a three-tower array located just south of Kingston.

[edit] History

WGHQ 920 kHz first signed on the air in mid-1955, originally as WSKN¹ licensed to Saugerties, New York with 1000 watts of power daytime only. Its transmitters and studio were located on the Glasco Turnpike, in the Town of Saugerties. In March of 1960 the call letters were changed to WGHQ², the City of License was changed to Kingston, the transmitter site was moved to Route 9W, just south of Port Ewen, NY. The stations operating power was increased to 5,000 watts, still a daytimer.

WGHQ was the second radio station licensed to Kingston (after WKNY), eventually taking the ABC affiliation for the market. In 1965, WGHQ added an FM signal, WGHQ-FM (later the original WBPM, now WKXP) at 94.3 MHz, which would simulcast the AM's programming for much of the next decade. From its inception, WGHQ aired a somewhat Kingston-centric full service middle of the road format which had a vast daytime advantage to WKNY, but WKNY was a full time station.

The first non-evolution change to take place to WGHQ was in 1978 when original owner Harry Thayer transferred ownership to the station to his daughter Jean Maxwell and her husband Walter. Initially, the station kept its focus but rising costs and the decline of full service formats on AM led to the station taking an all music format. In 1988, WGHQ added a small amount of nighttime power (78 watts) but at the price of the station going mainly to satellite-fed programming, later changing format to a standards format fed in part by ABC Radio Networks.

WGHQ would remain standards for most of the 1990s at which point the Maxwells sold WGHQ and WBPM to WRWD/WBWZ owner Roberts Radio in early 1999. That October, WGHQ changed format to a satellite-fed talk radio format in the wake of WEOK flipping from standards to talk. The talk format did not last long as Roberts Radio was sold to Clear Channel in 2000 and WGHQ returned back to standards (this time as Music of Your Life) under its new ownership.

In late 2004, Clear Channel began to diversify their AM holdings in the Hudson Valley, all of which had been running standards in an ad hoc network as the "Hudson Valley Nostalgia Network". Being by far the best signal in the market, WGHQ changed format to talk radio and picked up syndicated shows including Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Gallagher, Laura Ingraham, and Coast to Coast AM. Ironically, the one local weekday show on the station ("Kingston Community Radio", airing 7:00-9:00 a.m.) is a show produced by an organization headed by former owner Walter Maxwell.

In June 2006, it was announced that WGHQ and sister WBPM would be acquired by Pamal Broadcasting as part of a multi-market swap between Pamal and Clear Channel.

On February 1, 2007, Pamal Broadcasting took control of WBPM and WGHQ from Clear Channel by use of an LMA. At this time, WGHQ kept two of the syndicated talk shows, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh for several months, while simulcasting WBNR and WLNA Standards format as "The Sound of the Valley" for the rest of the dayparts. WBPM changed format to Classic Hits 92.9.

The sale to Pamal Broadcasting was consummated in April of 2007. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh were dropped from the station in July 2007, making the format an almost one hundred percent simulcast of WBNR and WLNA (excepting Kingston Community Radio, still heard from 7-9 am weekdays).

The station also broadcasts local sports from Army Black Knights football, other men's and women's Black Knights sports teams and single A minor league baseball from the Hudson Valley Renegades.

A possible relocation to the station's original studios in Kingston (or elsewhere in that city) also exists as Pamal has hinted running WBPM and WGHQ separate from their main cluster in the market.

[edit] References

1. Construction permit, FCC file number BR-3284, WSKN 920 kc Saugerties, NY dated May 1955
2. License renewal application, FCC file number BR-3284, WGHQ, Kingston, NY dated May 12, 1960

[edit] External links

• Kingston Community Radio
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WGHQ
• Radio Locator Information on WGHQ
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WGHQ