WGHQ

WGHQ

City of license	Kingston, New York
Broadcast area	Hudson Valley
Branding	Hudson Valley Talk Radio
Slogan	"Your Local News and Weather Authority"
Frequency	920 kHz
First air date	1955
Format	News Talk
Power	5,000 watts (day) 78 watts (night)
Class	D
Facility ID	27396
Transmitter coordinates	41°53′10″N 73°58′16.5684″W / 41.88611°N 73.971269000°W / 41.88611; -73.971269000
Callsign meaning	W General HeadQuarters
Former callsigns	WSKN (1955-1960)
Affiliations	Premiere Radio Networks, NBC Radio
Owner	Pamal Broadcasting (6 Johnson Road Licenses, Inc.)
Sister stations	WBNR, WBPM, WHUD, WLNA, WSPK, WXPK
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	Hudson Valley Radio Network

WGHQ (920 AM) is a United States 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 78  watts nighttime, both directional, from a three-tower array located south of Port Ewen, New York.^[1]

History

WGHQ 920 kHz first signed on the air in mid-1955, originally as WSKN^[2] 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 1960 the call letters were changed to WGHQ, 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.^[3]

WGHQ was the second radio station licensed to Kingston (after WKNY).^[4] In 1965, WGHQ-FM was licensed on (later the original WBPM, now WKXP) 94.3 MHz. It was a full time simulcast the AM's programming for much of the next decade.^[5] 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.

In 1978 the 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 forced the station to drop the news and change to an all music format. In 1988, WGHQ was licensed for 78 watts nighttime power, however, the station dropped local programming, going instead to mainly satellite syndicated music programming.

WGHQ would remain Adult Standards for most of the 1990s. In 1999 the Maxwells sold WGHQ and WBPM to WRWD/WBWZ local radio owner Roberts Radio Group. This began a period of multiple format changes which eroded whatever audience was left for AM radio. Roberts Radio sold to Clear Channel in mid 2000. The format changes continued through the Clear Channel ownership until WGHQ along with WBPM 92.9 MHz was sold to Pamal Broadcasting in April 2007.

Pamal Broadcasting changed the format from Talk Radio to Adult Standards in July 2007, keeping locally originated "Kingston Community Radio," produced by Walter Maxwell, in its 7-9 am time slot.^{[citation needed]}

On December 20, 2013, Pamal announced that WGHQ will cease operations on December 31, 2013.^[6] Soon afterwards, Tri-State Public Communications, who operates WHDD AM-FM in Sharon, Connecticut and WLHV in Annandale-on-Hudson as public radio station Robin Hood Radio, announced that it was in negotiations to acquire the station through a donation, a move that will require repairs to the station's transmitter in Port Ewen; should this occur, the "Kingston Community Radio" program would remain on WGHQ. As of January 1, 2014 WGHQ was re-transmitting Robin Hood Radio programming except during the 7-9 AM time slot Monday Thru Saturday. A LMA is in effect until paperwork is filed and approved by the FCC for the donation of WGHQ to Robin Hood Radio.^[7]

Programming

Currently, the station's format is content re-transmitted from Robin Hood Radio. WGHQ airs one hour of The Breakfast Club followed by "Kingston Community Radio." The rest of the broadcast schedule consists of local and regional programs with a few NPR programs from Robin Hood Radio.

References

External links

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