Posted on 09/20/2010 8:13:46 AM PDT by raccoonradio
LATHAM, NY - News/Talk WGY-AM, New York State’s first radio station, today is making an historic change in its operations by adding a 24-hour simulcast on FM radio at 103.1 FM. “810 WGY has one of the strongest signals in the country, powering our highly-rated News-Talk giant,” said Kristen Delaney, Vice President and Market Manager of Clear Channel Radio Albany. “We are expecting significant ratings growth by simulcasting on 103.1, which has changed its call letters from WHRL to WGY-FM.”
“The decision to simulcast our 24-hour news/talk format on the FM will open up our content to an even wider audience. Despite the huge audience we currently enjoy, the fact is a significant portion of the Capital Region audience never thinks to visit the AM dial,” said Delaney. “We know there are thousands of potential listeners who will be hungry for our stimulating talk shows, Don Weeks, Joe Gallagher and our award-winning coverage of news and weather.”
WGY features Hall of Fame broadcaster Don Weeks and Chuck Custer on “The WGY Morning News” weekday mornings, and a talk line-up that includes heavyweights Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
The historic simulcast began at 12:01am today.
This has happened in other cities like Providence RI (WPRO) and Worcester MA (WTAG) which have added simulcasts on FM radio (some have moved outright to FM and put something else on AM)
—”No static, no static at all”. No losing the signal
under an overpass
—What’s an AM radio? Younger people especially basically stick to FM
—If you have an mp3 player with a radio it most likely has FM only. (Note: there are such things as portable HD radios which have FM only; however, some AM signals can be heard on HD-3s of FM signals. For example in Boston, WBZ-FM (98.5) HD3
carries WBZ AM 1030 while WMKK-FM (93.7) HD 3 carries
WEEI 850)
Hopefully the FM signal will cover a pretty wide range, too
Sounds like Radio Free America ... or, Free America Radio ... this is great!
It’s nice and clear in Albany, but in Schenectady/Niskayuna, it still is clear, but starts buzzing a bit. There’s less of that on the AM band, but then again the AM band sounds like it’s being broadcast from the bottom of a swimming pool.
WSB is also doing this in Atlanta, simulcasting on 95.5 FM, which used to be a Rap/Hip-Hop station. I doubt it has anything to do with history and more to do with trying to make dead FM stations profitable.
Before Beck we used to have a local guy, Al Roni, He was really good; helped in getting the 1st Tea Party in Albany.
He was replaced by Beck, wish they had found a spot for Al in the line up.
"The very slow growth in FM radio during the 1950s and 1960s was due, in part, to the simulcasting of radio programming over co-owned AM and FM stations. In 1964, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) acted to force the independence of FM stations by severely restricting the number of hours that AM and FM stations could simulcast during any given broadcast day, although protests by radio station owners delayed implementation of the rule until 1 January 1967. (Ironically, the FCC removed the restrictions on AM-FM simulcasting a quarter of a century later so that struggling AM stations could simulcast the programming of their stronger FM sister stations.)"
The buzzing is really bad driving along the Mohawk in Schenectady/Niskayuna. Not so bad on AM for WGY, but other stations it is.
>>the fact is a significant portion of the Capital Region audience never thinks to visit the AM dial
AM radio, what’s that? Though to be honest some news/talk
stations do OK on AM. For the most part these days AM is
some news/talk, foreign language, religion, foreign language,
Radio Disney, and foreign language. Oh yeah—did I mention
foreign language? “For English-—please press _two_...”
In the Boston area sometimes I have trouble with AM signals.
There’s one spot where there’s so much electrical interference that talk station WRKO is destroyed—mere
miles away from their transmitter. FM: No static, no static at all, as Steely Dan once sang. (Inevitably though, there are comments of “keep talk on AM! FM should be for music!”)
Boston for the record does have mostly conservative talk
on 96.9, sports talk on 98.5, and liberal talk (read: NPR)
on 89.7 and 90.9
But some, as the station says, never think to visit the
AM dial.
I tried the FM station and it doesn’t come in. I was hoping it would work since the AM sound fluctuates.
Yes; the FM station being converted was WHRL with a Modern Rock format. I guess the ratings weren’t too good.
WGY is a great local station with a great lineup of talkers. I’m not a fan of Hannity so I wish they would replace him with Medved or Al Roney. Al Roney is now on AM 1300 from 3-6. AM 1300 is a good local station but it’s signal sounds like it’s powered by a guy on a bicycle.
I can get 770 from NY all the way down to North Carolina, and I listen regularly in PA. Won’t happen on FM.
Why did Al rooney lose his spot? Wish they could place him when savage has his repeat hour or whatever it is he has. He confuses me LOL.
Yes there was a point of course when AM was dominant and FM wasn’t too good...in part because some didn’t have FM radios yet (cars with AM only for example) and technology had inferior transmitting and receiving for FM signals. They did simulcast an AM signal on FM. But the FCC wanted diverse
programming so said they couldn’t do it, after awhile.
But that quote does say that FM growth was slowed by the fact that it was repeating programming already on AM..but then:
>>Ironically, the FCC removed the restrictions on AM-FM simulcasting a quarter of a century later so that struggling AM stations could simulcast the programming of their stronger FM sister stations.
When I was in New Orleans for a visit I noticed they had local talk on WWL 870 and also an FM sister station
while Clear Channel had its “Rush Radio” brand at 99.5
(they have “Rush Radio” in Boston too, at AM 1200) with
Beck, Rush, Hannity, and local hosts like John Osterlind.
Powerful FM signal (formerly a rocker: Rock-New-Orleans).
WRNO, Rush Radio, is FM only though, not AM/FM simulcast.
They pretty much have to carry him and would prefer him live. They are owned by Clear Channel I believe and some markets like New Orleans and Boston have “Rush Radio” in which they may have a local morning host (in Boston, Jeff Katz) then Beck, Rush, Hannity, maybe Levin, Jason Lewis, etc. Clear Channel’s syndication arm does Rush, Hannity, Lewis, Beck
so they want them on.
(In Boston they run Levin tape delayed 9-mid and just started re-running an hour of Rush at 6 “for people who couldn’t hear him at work”)
Before 590 WROW went to oldies, I used to listen to John Gibson on the ride home, Savage can be a little much sometimes. John had a good show; it seemed most of his callers were Dems & Obamabots...He had some really good debates with the libs.
Gibson may be on XM satellite radio; I have XM and am pretty sure they have a “Fox News Talk” channel. Let me check:
http://www.xmradio.com/foxnewstalk
FOX NEWS TALK Channel 168 on XM
9 am ET Kilmeade and Friends
12p John Gibson
3p Tom Sullivan etc
When/where is Levin on?? I like Mark.
Why did Al rooney lose his spot?
They dropped him for Beck. Another poster just told me he's on our local (Assuming your local) 1300 AM from 3-6 PM.
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