| City of license | Hyde Park, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Mid-Hudson Valley |
| Branding | 950 WHVW |
| Slogan | "The Heart and Soul of American music." |
| Frequency | 950 kHz |
| First air date | July 4, 1963 |
| Format | Variety (Americana, blues, country, pre-1965 music) |
| Power | 500 watts (day) 57 watts (night) |
| Class | D |
| Facility ID | 41870 |
| Callsign meaning | W Hudson Valley W |
| Former callsigns | WHVW (1963-76) WWWI (1976-78) WHPN (1978-82) |
| Owner | J.P. Ferraro |
| Website | www.whvw.net |
WHVW (950 AM) is a radio station licensed to Hyde Park, New York that is noted for its eclectic format based on old-fashioned blues, jazz, country and Americana music.[1] In a time of corporate ownership of broadcast outlets, it is also one of only three Hudson Valley radio stations (other two: WTBQ, Warwick; WDST, Woodstock) that are independently owned. WHVW broadcasts on 950 kHz with a power of 500 watts daytime and 57 watts nighttime[2] from a tower located off Route 9G in the Town of Hyde Park. Studios are located at 316 Main Street in Poughkeepsie, New York.
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Owned by Ubiquitous Corp., WHVW signed on the air on July 4, 1963 as a daytime-only station broadcasting from a tower just north of the Poughkeepsie/Hyde Park line.[3] Launching with a Top 40 format that superserved the Poughkeepsie area, the station became instantly popular and within a few years was the #1 station in Poughkeepsie with shares at one point totaling more than all other stations combined. In 1966, WHVW-FM signed on at 97.7 MHz.
WHVW was sold to Castle Communications Corp in 1975.[4] It would remain in the Top 40 format until 1976 when the new ownership saw the Top 40 format, still getting good ratings, as having passed its time and flipped the station to all-news (via NBC's News and Information Service) as WHPN, continuing the format after NBC folded the service in 1977. This move reduced the station's audience considerably and in 1978 the format changed again to adult contemporary with the new calls of WWWI coming in. Positioning itself as a more musical alternative to WKIP, the station struggled to find an audience as the station bled money.
In 1982, WWWI's owners filed for bankruptcy and the future of the station was in doubt. While the sale of WJJB (the former WHVW-FM) helped matters, ownership nearly donated WWWI to a Christian group that would later become the genesis of Sound of Life Radio. Instead, the station was sold and upon sale a standards format with the WHVW calls returned to the air.[5] For the next decade, WHVW would change between various oldies and adult standards formats, often changing its format as a result of a higher powered, better funded station coming into competition. WHVW would add a minuscule amount of nighttime power in the mid 1980s, while moving its studios to Market Street in Poughkeepsie. In 1989 the station moved back to the original "Broadcast House" on Route 9G in Hyde Park, NY.
A similar financial crisis in 1992 led to WHVW's sale to current owner Joseph-Paul (J. P.) Ferraro, a former pirate radio broadcaster. Noted by some as an eccentric, Ferraro would change the format to something that would share his musical tastes with the community.
WHVW's musical library is one of the most obscure in the United States, being based mostly on pre-1965 music that was originally issued on 78 rpm records; this music rarely gets airplay anywhere except on some low-powered college or community radio stations. Non-music programming on WHVW includes some weekend religious and ethnic programs, a weekly talk show done with the Poughkeepsie Chamber of Commerce, a high school sports program, and a weekly program hosted by Poughkeepsie Journal columnist and former WEOK morning host Larry Hughes.
The mystique of WHVW's unique format has led to there being something of a cult following of the station. Though not a factor in its own market and not having been rated in many years, WHVW has been profiled by many publications throughout the northeast including a 2001 piece by The New York Times.[1]
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