WAMC (AM)

WAMC
City of license	Albany, New York
Broadcast area	Capital District
Branding	WAMC, Northeast Public Radio
Frequency	1400 kHz
First air date	1934
Format	Public Radio
Power	1000 watts unlimited
Class	C
Facility ID	4683
Transmitter coordinates	42°41′21.00″N 73°47′37.00″W / 42.6891667°N 73.7936111°W / 42.6891667; -73.7936111
Callsign meaning	W Albany Medical College (original licensee of WAMC-FM)
Former callsigns	WABY (1934-2002) WHTR (2002-2003)
Affiliations	National Public Radio
Owner	WAMC, Inc.
Website	http://www.wamc.org/

WAMC is a public radio station licensed to Albany, New York and owned by WAMC, Inc. The station broadcasts at 1400 kHz at 1 kW unlimited, and is an AM repeater of WAMC-FM.

For 68 years, the station held the WABY calls, which were later located on an unrelated radio station broadcasting at 1160 kHz from Mechanicville, New York (which had been WMVI and took the WABY calls as a tribute to the original WABY).

History

WAMC came into the Albany market in 1934 as WABY when Al Kelert moved radio station WGLC from Hudson Falls, New York to Albany in turn making the first station to broadcast from that city (though not the first one to originate, a distinction held by WOKO, now WOPG). WABY originally broadcast on 1370 kHz at 250 watts, moving to 1400 kHz in 1941 during the NARBA frequency shift.

The station provided the typical mix of popular music and network programming throughout most of its first 30 years of service. In 1961, the station changed to a high energy top-40 format, but was short lived as the competition in that format was intense, leaving the format in late 1963. From 1964 to 1971, WABY ran a MOR format, followed by oldies in 1971, and a return to top-40 in 1973. By 1976, it had changed to all-news, using NBC's "News and Information Service." It then switched to country in 1979. In 1981, WABY changed to a Christian format until 1982 when it was flipped to adult standards. Getting many key market names, WABY spent years as one of the highest-rated standards stations in the United States, and added an FM simulcast on 94.5 MHz in 1995.

In February 1999, Bendat sold his stations to Tele-Media, Inc. which switched the AM side to an all-news format by day with simulcasting of the FM (which itself would flip to adult contemporary that summer) nights and weekends. This arrangement remained through Tele-Media's ownership of the station through Tele-Media's sale of WABY and WKLI to Galaxy Communications in August 2001 and through the flip of 94.5 FM to classic rock as WRCZ.

On April 22, 2002, the WABY calls left 1400 kHz as Galaxy replaced it with the WHTR calls and launched a hot talk simulcast with new move in 93.7 FM. The talk format was short-lived and that August 1400 and 93.7 switched to modern rock as WKRD (1400 retained the WHTR calls). Galaxy sold 1400 to Northeast Public Radio (WAMC, Inc.) in February 2003, giving it the WAMC calls (90.3 FM took on the WAMC-FM calls as a result). The WABY callsign was displayed on the WAMC tower until recently, although the current WABY broadcasts from a different location.

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WAMC

Radio-Locator Information on WAMC

Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WAMC

Radio stations in the Albany / Schenectady / Troy market

by FM frequency	88.3 89.1 89.7 89.9 90.3 90.7 90.7 90.7 90.9 91.1 91.5 92.3 92.9 93.1 93.5 93.7 94.5 94.7 94.9 95.5 95.9 96.3 96.7 97.3 97.5 97.7 97.9 98.3 98.5 98.5 99.1 99.5 99.9 100.3 100.9 101.3 101.7 101.9 102.3 102.7 103.1 103.5 103.9 104.5 104.7 104.9 105.7 106.1 106.5 107.1 107.7

by AM frequency	560 590 810¹ 900 930 980 1160 1190 1230 1240 1300 1330 1340 1400 1440 1460 1490 1540 1570

NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.550

Digital radio	810 980 89.1-1 89.1-2 90.3-1 90.3-2 98.3-1 98.3-2 99.5-1 99.5-2 102.3-1 102.3-2 103.1-1 103.1-2 105.7-1 105.7-2 106.5-1 106.5-2 107.7-1 107.7-2

by callsign	W226AC W235AY W256BU W260CH W284BZ W291BY WABY WAIX WAJZ WAMC WAMC-FM WBAR-FM WBPM WCDB WCKL WCKM-FM WCQL WCSS WCTW WDCD WDCD-FM WENT WEQX WEXT WFFG-FM WFLY WFNY WGDJ WGNA-FM WGXC WGY¹ WGY-FM WHAZ WHAZ-FM WHUC WHVP WINU WIZR WJIV WJKE WKBE WKKF WKLI-FM WLJH WMHT-FM WMYY WNYQ WOFX WOPG WOPG-FM WPGL WPTR WPYX WQBJ WQBK-FM WQSH WRIP WROW WRPI WRUC WRVE WSDE WTMM-FM WTRY-FM WVCR-FM WVTL WXL34 WYAI WYJB WYKV WZCR

Defunct stations	WGFM WHRL WRSA WROW-FM WTRI WXKW

New York radio markets Albany–Schenectady–Troy Binghamton Buffalo–Niagara Falls Elmira–Corning Hudson Valley Nassau–Suffolk (Long Island) New York City Olean Plattsburgh Poughkeepsie Rochester Syracuse Utica–Rome Watertown Other New York radio regions Ithaca Jamestown–Dunkirk North Country Saratoga See also List of radio stations in New York Albany television Saratoga radio ¹ = Clear-channel stations with extended nighttime coverage.

NPR member stations in the state of New York

WAMC stations	Albany WAMC (AM)/WAMC-FM Canajoharie WCAN Kingston WAMK Middletown WOSR Mount Kisco WWES Plattsburgh WCEL Stamford WANZ Ticonderoga WANC Utica WRUN-FM

WSKG stations	Binghamton WSKG Binghamton WSQX Corning WSQE Hornell WSQA Ithaca WSQG Oneonta WSQC

NCPR stations	Blue Mountain Lake WXLH Boonville WXLB Canton WSLU Cape Vincent WSLZ Gouverneur WSLG Malone WSLO North Creek WXLG Peru WXLU Saranac Lake WSLL Tupper Lake WXLS Watertown WSLJ

WXXI stations	Houghton WXXY-FM Rochester WXXI-FM Rochester WXXI (AM) Rochester WRUR

WNED stations	Buffalo WNED-FM Buffalo WDCZ Jamestown WNJA

WBFO stations	Buffalo WBFO Jamestown WUBJ Olean WOLN

WCNY stations	Syracuse WCNY Utica WUNY Watertown WJNY

WRVO stations	Oswego WRVO Syracuse WRVD Clayton WRVH Watertown WRVJ Utica WRVN low power translators serving Geneva, Hamilton, Ithaca, Norwich, N. Watertown

Other stations	Brooklyn WNYE Fredonia WCVF Geneva WEOS Hamilton WRCU Jeffersonville WJFF New York City WFUV New York City WNYC Noyack WSUF Poughkeepsie WRHV Schenectady WMHT Schuyler Falls WOXR Southampton WPPB Southampton WRLI Syracuse WAER

See also List of NPR stations

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in New York

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, December 23, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.