radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Little Valley, New York
Little Valley is a town in Cattaraugus County, New York, United States. The population was 1,672 at the 2020 census. The town is named after its local geographical setting, a relative comparison of two tributaries (the other being the neighbor ...
. The station, with its
tower
A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...
on Fourth Street in the village of Little Valley, broadcasts at 7,000
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wa ...
s,
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would hav ...
(ERP).
From 2010 to 2021, the
Seneca Nation of New York
The Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized Seneca tribe based in western New York. They are one of three federally recognized Seneca entities in the United States, the others being the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (also in western New Y ...
operated the station as WGWE, carrying a locally originated
classic hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 1980s ...
format targeting the western
Southern Tier
The Southern Tier is a geographic subregion of the broader Upstate New York region of New York State, consisting of counties west of the Catskill Mountains in Delaware County and geographically situated along or very near the northern border ...
; the station's signal gave strong coverage to both of the Seneca Nation's populated reservations as well as the cities of
Dunkirk
Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Jamestown, Olean and
Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...
, all within a 30-mile radius of Little Valley (such that the previous inhabitant of 105.9 in Jamestown, WOGM-LP, had to change frequencies to 104.7 to accommodate the new signal). It was this 11-year run that is most associated with the WGWE history. Pandemic-related disruptions and consolidation of the other radio stations in Cattaraugus County under one company prompted the Seneca Nation to abandon the station, in which it had previously invested heavily, in 2021.
A brief effort was made to repurpose the signal as a
rimshot
A rimshot is a percussion technique used to produce an accented snare drum backbeat. The sound is produced by simultaneously hitting the rim and head of a drum with a drum stick.
The sound and various techniques
The sound of rimshots can be ...
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
, when Paul Izard purchased the signal to simulcast his electronic dance music webcast. Izard shut down the station after six weeks and surrendered the license to the FCC."How Not To Buy A Radio Station" by Lance Venta, May 18, 2022 (radioinsight.com)
The station's license was acquired by the
Family Life Network
The Family Life Network is a Christian radio network simulcasting via FM stations across Western and Central New York, as well as northern Pennsylvania from flagship station WCIK. It is owned and operated by the larger Family Life Ministries o ...
effective September 8, 2022; on September 15, 2022, the station changed its call letters to WCGS.
History
The Seneca Nation had been attempting to enter the radio business for several years prior to WGWE's founding. In the immediate years before acquiring the station, it was applying for noncommercial licenses to operate from the Seneca Nation's capital of Irving. Mutual exclusivity conflicts with out-of-town religious broadcasters prevented these proposals from reaching the air.
The Seneca nation purchased WGWE's construction permit from
Randy Michaels Benjamin Homel, known professionally as Randy Michaels, is an American broadcasting executive and a former member of the National Association of Broadcasters TV Board.
Biography
Michaels has been involved in large market radio broadcasting since th ...
's holding company
Radioactive, LLC
Radioactive, LLC is an Ohio limited liability company with extensive business interests in the commercial radio broadcasting industry. It holds many FCC frequency allocation licenses won in FCC spectrum auctions. The sole owner of Radioactive, LL ...
in early 2009 and signed on February 1, 2010. The first song played on WGWE was "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow," a song by
Peter La Farge
Peter La Farge (born Oliver Albee La Farge, April 30, 1931 – October 27, 1965) was a New York City-based folk music, folksinger and songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s. He is known best for his affiliations with Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash.
Early l ...
about the Senecas' opposition to the
Kinzua Dam
The Kinzua Dam, on the Allegheny River in Warren County, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest dams in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It is located within the Allegheny National Forest.
The dam is located east of Warren, Pennsy ...
that was performed by
Johnny Cash
John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...
on '' Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian''; it would continue to be played every Friday at noon through its entire existence. Originally a locally originated automated station for its first several months, the station began broadcasting what was then
Citadel Media
Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which w ...
's Classic Hits Radio satellite format in late June 2010 in all shifts except weekday mornings and noon; the station disaffiliated from Classic Hits Radio in 2016. Mike "Smitty" Smith, former disc jockey at
WPIG
WPIG (95.7 FM) is a radio station located in Olean, New York. Branded as "95.7 The Big Pig", the station operates a broad-based country music format. It is owned by Seven Mountains Media.
History
The station originally signed on as WHDL-FM in 1 ...
, was the station's first manager, hosting the morning
drive time
Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...
show and noon call-in request hours from studios inside the former
Uni-Mart Uni-Mart was a Pennsylvania-based company that owned, operated and franchised numerous convenience stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States (US). In 2008, the company operated 283 convenience stores and gas stations in the US state ...
in Salamanca. Additional local hosts were added several months later.
Casey Hill and Jesse Garon, both of whom had previously worked with Smitty at WPIG, also held shifts at WGWE for several years before leaving Western New York. Former KFXM disc jockey "Double-D" Danny Dare also worked at the station for short stints in fall 2014 and in 2015. After Hill's and Garon's departures, for a brief time in the mid-2010s, dayparts outside of morning drive and noon were held by younger disc jockeys, including Erika J, JB's Jukebox, and the Austin Hill Show, whom Smith gave loose rein to experiment on-air (JB's Jukebox, for example, would frequently play two copies of the same record simultaneously, with JB using his finger to slightly slow down the CD speed and create a flange effect). Engineer Ace Boogie also held an afternoon drive airshift. Under Smith, the station used minimal jingles and an open-ended playlist ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s.
Smith retired from radio in 2016 to pursue the office of (and eventually serve four years as) mayor of Salamanca. Chris Russell, who had been program director at the cluster of
WQRS
WQRS (98.3 FM) is a radio station in Salamanca, New York in the Olean, New York broadcasting area. The station broadcasts a classic rock format, with its license owned by Seven Mountains Media, the dominant commercial broadcaster in Cattarau ...
and
WGGO
WGGO is an AM radio station located in Salamanca, New York, United States. The station broadcasts at 1590 kHz. WGGO is owned by Holy Family Communications as part of its network of Catholic radio stations, The Station of the Cross.
WGGO's l ...
, took over as manager and morning drive host. Russell overhauled and streamlined the station's format into a more professionally styled presentation and more narrowly defined (but still slightly eclectic) playlist, also adding a roster of syndicated programming (much of it brought over from WGGO) on weekends, including reruns of
Wolfman Jack
Robert Weston Smith (January 21, 1938July 1, 1995), known as Wolfman Jack, was an American disc jockey active from 1960 till his death in 1995. Famous for his gravelly voice, he credited it for his success, saying, "It's kept meat and potatoes ...
and ''That Thing with Rich Appel''. Under Russell's five-year tenure, the station's on-air lineup added market veteran Cindy Scott and held over Brett Maybee and Miss B from the Smitty era.
Throughout its existence, a portion of its programming was set aside for Native American content, including daily airings of National Native News and a local show devoted to native music, "Gae:no'." The station was also a partner for the
Native American Music Awards
The Native American Music Awards (also known as the NAMAs or "Nammys") are an awards program presented annually by Elbel Productions, Inc., The Native American Music Awards Inc., and The Native American Music Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profi ...
, airing several ceremonies. The station also carried a roster of mostly local sports that included
Buffalo Bandits
The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse team in the East Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). They play at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The Bandits played in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League from 1992 to 1997, t ...
indoor lacrosse, St. Bonaventure Bonnies women's basketball (the station was also slated to carry the college's men's lacrosse team but shut down before that team began play), high school athletics, Southern Tier Diesel adult amateur football,
Olean Oilers
The Olean Oilers were a minor league baseball team located in Olean, New York which played primarily in the New York–Pennsylvania League from 1939 to 1966, with a hiatus in 1960. Starting in 1959, the team shared nicknames with its major league a ...
collegiate summer baseball, and youth football and lacrosse. As recently as 2020, the Seneca Nation—which abolished Seneca Holdings and took over operations of the station directly under its Seneca Media and Communications Center arm after Russell's arrival—had planned on maintaining and expanding the station, including the eventual addition of FM 96.7 as a simulcast, an agreement that ultimately lasted only three days.
Closure
With Seven Mountains Media buying out all three of WGWE's privately held competitors— Community Broadcasters,
Andrulonis Media
Andrulonis Media, LLC is a multimedia marketing firm that owns several radio stations in the United States. It is controlled by the Andrulonis family and currently has stations based in the Grand Strand of South Carolina and Cumberland County in No ...
and Sound Communications; the Seneca Nation announced on March 1, 2021 that it would be shutting down WGWE on March 31, a decision made directly by the Seneca Nation council. In its filing with the FCC, the Seneca Nation noted that it had sustained "long-term losses" operating the station, which had escalated into "financial distress" during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. The filing requested a suspension of operations, which would allow up to one year for the Seneca Nation to either relaunch or sell the station. WGWE ended programming at 10:09 p.m., with a farewell statement from Russell, a montage of end-themed songs, a final playing of "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow," and ending programming with
Van Halen
Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. Credited with "restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene", Van Halen was known for its energetic live shows and for the virtuosity of its lead gu ...
's cover of " Happy Trails."
"Gae:no'" was later picked up for
syndication
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
through Native Voice One. Russell and Scott, being nationally syndicated on air personalities, had their shows picked up by WXMT-FM in Bradford, PA The former studios were sold off to a neighboring restaurant. Seven Mountains Media established a translator in Salamanca on the nearby 105.5 frequency to simulcast WOLY, its own classic hits station.
Ownership by Paul Izard
In September 2021, the Seneca Nation sold the WGWE license to Paul Izard for $25,000. Izard operate Energy Radio Buffalo an electronic dance music webcaster. Izard's efforts targeted the Buffalo market 40 miles away; WGWE's signal in theory covered much of the southern portion of the area but faced adjacent-channel interference from a
Family Life Network
The Family Life Network is a Christian radio network simulcasting via FM stations across Western and Central New York, as well as northern Pennsylvania from flagship station WCIK. It is owned and operated by the larger Family Life Ministries o ...
translator in Buffalo on 106.1 and cross-border interference from
CHRE-FM
CHRE-FM (105.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, serving Niagara Region. It is owned by Bell Media and is branded as ''Move 105.7''. CHRE broadcasts an adult contemporary format. CHRE shares studios with its ...
WJZR
WXXI-FM (91.5 MHz) is a public, listener-supported radio station in Rochester, New York, airing a classical music radio format. Its programs can also be heard in Houghton on WXXY 90.3 FM and also on a digital subchannel of WXXI-TV on 22.7. The ...
to the northeast on 105.9, limiting the northern reach of the signal. The sale was consummated on December 23, 2021; WGWE began simulcasting Energy Radio Buffalo on March 2.
The format lasted only six weeks on-air; on April 14, Izard surrendered the WGWE license to the FCC and shut down both the station and the webcast, with the FCC cancelling the station's license four days later. Izard blamed the failure on undisclosed physical problems with the WGWE transmitter that he, having no background in radio engineering, had no knowledge of how to fix, as well as a lease agreement on the WGWE broadcast tower with terms that Izard did not comprehend when agreeing to buy the license. Izard's short-lived tenure as WGWE owner was the subject of a cautionary tale, "How Not to Buy a Radio Station," on the radio trade industry Web site ''Radio Insight'', which documented the opaque and obscure method in which most radio stations are bought and sold in the United States.
Sale to Family Life Network and transformation into WCGS
On April 29, 2022, Family Life—owner of the 106.1 translator that interfered with WGWE—offered to purchase the WGWE license for $1 and assumption of debts on the condition that Izard request a reversal of his cancellation request. The FCC granted the request and reactivated the license that month. FLN already has four full-service signals in the Olean market— WCOP,
WCOQ
WCOQ (101.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Alfred (village), New York, Alfred, New York, United States, the station is currently owned by Family Life Network.
From 1999 to 2021, WCOQ wa ...
, WCOR and WCOV—meaning it would have to divest or surrender one of those licenses to acquire WGWE. In anticipation of the sale, Izard resumed operating the station on May 30, carrying
Memorial Day
Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...
special programming live from Buffalo. The sale was filed with the FCC in early June, with the sale price increased to a nominal $10. Izard transferred control of WGWE to Family Life on July 15 under a
local marketing agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or tim ...
while officially maintaining ownership until the sale was consummated on September 8, 2022; he has continued to operate Energy Radio Buffalo as an online-only Webcast with all programming intact. On September 15, 2022, the station changed its call letters to WCGS.
Family Life already held, and still holds, a construction permit for WCOI, a station with nearly identical coverage to WCGS on 91.9, which would be licensed to Ellicottville. WCOI is listed as a Family Life station coming soon, whereas WCGS is not listed at all.List of Family Life radio stations retrieved October 9, 2022