WZMR

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WZMR
City of license	Altamont, New York
Broadcast area	Capital District
Branding	104.9 The New Edge
Frequency	104.9 MHz
First air date	1999 (early 1970's as WIZR-FM Johnstown)
Format	Active rock
ERP	6,000 watts
HAAT	284.0 meters
Class	A
Facility ID	27551
Transmitter Coordinates	42°38′11.00″N 74°0′2.00″W / 42.6363889, -74.0005556
Former callsigns	WIZR-FM (early 1970s-79, Johnstown) WMYL (1979-84, Johnstown) WSRD (1984-99, Johnstown) WAAP (1999)
Owner	Pamal Broadcasting (6 Johnson Road Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations	WAJZ, WFLY, WKLI, WROW, WYJB
Website	http://www.albanyedge.com

WZMR (104.9 FM, "104.9 The New Edge") is an Active rock music formatted radio station licensed to Altamont and serving New York's Capital District and surrounding areas. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting, and broadcasts at 6 kilowatts ERP from the Helderberg Mountains antenna farm in New Scotland. WZMR is one of several signals to have moved into the Albany market in recent years, prior to its move in March 1999 it was licensed to Johnstown, New York as the sister to WIZR.

[edit] Station history

[edit] The Johnstown years

WIZR-FM, forerunner to today's WZMR, signed on in the early 1970s largely simulcasting the Middle of the road programming of its parent station. Between 1975 and 1977, both stations flipped to Top 40 though WIZR-FM would flip to pop standards as WMYL in May 1979, one of the earliest stations running the Music Of Your Life format which the station's calls. The prior arrangement of AM and FM simulcasting Top 40 returned for five months starting in September 1983 with the FM once again changing to its own format, Oldies-formatted WSRD ("The Wizard") in February 1984. Over the next decade-and-a-half, WSRD became slightly infamous for various reasons ranging from poor audio quality to an air talent going on on-air tirades (which led the station to go to all-satellite fed programming) to its serving as "Albany" affiliate for the New York Mets even though it put virtually no signal over Albany.

[edit] Moving in

In early 1998, longtime WIZR/WSRD owner Joe Caruso obtained a construction permit to move WZMR to the Albany suburb of Altamont, in turn making the station a full Albany signal. That October, Caruso sold the stations to Albany Broadcasting (today's Pamal Broadcasting) for $2.2 million [1]. Albany Broadcasting closed on the stations in March 1999 and near immediately moved WSRD into the Albany market and gave it the new calls WAAP.

These plans were put aside in favor of a Modern adult contemporary format as "The Point", an attempt to capitalize on the then-recent flips of WXLE to rhythmic oldies, WRVE to a more mainstream format, and the then-stunting WKLI. It was WKLI which spoiled these plans as Albany Broadcasting was sued by CBS Radio, then-owners of the "Point" name, on the behalf of WKLI-owner-in-waiting Tele-Media. In response, the station relaunched as WZMR "Z104.9" with a more rock-based playlist and the "Point" name surfaced on WKLI that May.

[edit] Since 1999

Though WZMR was a musically balanced station and won in listener polls, in terms of promotion and personalities it was beaten by the relaunched WCPT. The newness of the 104.9 signal played a role in the struggles as was presence of New York Yankees baseball, a remnant from the original plans for the frequency which were a partial simulcast of sister talk radio station WROW. Even though the Yankee games did give the station some additional audience, research showed that those listeners were not listening to the music and many music listeners were turned off by the games. Sensing a losing battle, WZMR's format changed to smooth jazz on October 18 of that year though the station did air the last game of the 1999 American League Championship Series and the 1999 World Series before Yankee rights moved to WTMM.

WZMR's smooth jazz format did initially well, though flagging numbers by 2002 led to a relaunch of the station as "LoveFM", a format fusing smooth jazz with R&B, in June 2003. The relaunched format did not improve in the ratings, so, facing the potential of selling WZMR to acquire a pending move-in station on 105.7 FM (which Regent Communications, not Albany Broadcasting, eventually bought), they flipped the station to a simulcast of country music WFFG in the Glens Falls market in February 2005; the simulcast never acknowledged 104.9 and 104.9 only broke for Albany Conquest af2 arena football games.

[edit] WZMR today

The current format, "104.9 The New Edge", began on February 13, 2006 after WQBK-FM flipped to classic rock several weeks earlier. Two months after running virtually as a jukebox, the station announced that it had attracted the team of Darwin and Cat from nearby WEQX. On April 24, 2006 the Darwin and Cat Radio Show debuted during morning drive. Shortly there after, the station added its second live day part, "Pi" handling the 7-12am shift. Shawn "Pi" Bolts joined the Edge after having left his position as sidekick on the JR Gach morning show on WBOE. General James was next to follow taking on Midday duties with 104.9 The New Edge. The General had previously worked at WBOE as well as WQBK. The line up was completed with the addition Don Chopps in the afternoons.

In April of 2007, The Edge announced that they had acquired the services of former WPBZ Music Director and Afternoon Host, Nik Rivers to serve as the stations first Program Director. The trio of Pi, General James and Don Chops stopped airing on the station. In their places former WFLY 92.3 afternoon host and music director Christy Taylor took over the midday shift. Rivers assumed afternoon drive duties. And for a brief period Ralph Renna handled the night show. Soon there after, the Edge announced that had secured the services of former Channel 103.1 and WQBK jock Mike The Enforcer to take over the evening show. The weekend staff includes Ralph Renna, Vans, Lynch the host of Metal Storm, Mark David, former WPBZ jock Regin, as well as Sideshow Lou. The line up has been solid and experiencing steady growth since. On March 5, 2008, Cat Noel was a participant in the ABC reality series Wife Swap.^[1]

[edit] References

• Times Union
• Albany Biz Journal
• Arbitron Survey Results

[edit] External links

• WZMR official website
• Edgefest Official website
• Darwin and Cat Radio Show website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WZMR
• Radio Locator information on WZMR
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WZMR