WKLI-FM (100.9
FM, "100.9 The Cat") is a
commercial FM radio station,
licensed to
Albany, New York, and serving the
Capital District, including
Schenectady and
Troy. The station is owned by
Pamal Broadcasting
Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd. is a family-owned radio group with twenty-three stations in medium-to-small markets in the Northeast. Based in the Albany suburb of Latham, New York, Pamal Broadcasting was founded in 1987 as Albany Broadcasting Company, w ...
and broadcasts a
country music radio format.
WKLI-FM has an
effective radiated power (ERP) of 6,000
watts. Its
transmitter is off Kings Road near the
New York State Thruway
{{Infobox road
, state = NY
, type = NYST
, alternate_name = Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway
, maint = NYSTA
, map = {{maplink, frame=yes, plain=yes, frame-align=center, frame-width=290, type=line, stroke-width=2, type2=line, from2=New Yor ...
in
Guilderland
Guilderland is a town in Albany County, New York, United States. In the 2020 census, the town had a population of 36,848. The town is named for the Gelderland province in the Netherlands.
The town of Guilderland is on the central-northwest borde ...
near the boundary of
Colonie and
Schenectady, adjacent to the station's former
radio studio
A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enoug ...
s. WKLI-FM now has its studios and offices in the Pamal Broadcasting facility on Johnson Road in
Latham near Crossroads Plaza.
History
The 100.9 frequency signed on in 1972 as WWOM (Wonderful World of Music), an
easy listening station going against up established
beautiful music outlets 95.5
WROW-FM and 103.1
WHRL. Unable to make headway, the station quickly gave up easy listening and went through a variation of formats, including several variants of
adult contemporary (mid-1970s and again starting in 1980),
soft rock
Soft rock is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in Southern California and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, melodic songs with big, lush productions. S ...
(1977–78), and then
album-oriented rock. Briefly in late 1978/early 1979, it identified itself as "WWOM-Albany NY's Best Rock" in its legal ID, putting it into direct competition with 103.9
WQBK-FM.
With the
disco
Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...
craze catching on, the station abruptly flipped to
disco music early in the spring of 1979, and then to
Soft AC in the summer of 1980. During this period, the station struggled in both ratings and revenue.
In 1984, local businessman William Sellwood bought WWOM as a companion to
WABY
WABY (900 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Watervliet, New York and serving the Capital District. The station broadcasts a classic country radio format and is owned by Loud Media.
By day, WABY is powered at 400 watts. But beca ...
(then on 1400 AM). Two years later, Sellwood relaunched the station as "K-Lite 101" with the WKLI calls coming into use. With no FM competition for mainstream adult contemporary music, the station quickly became a success and spent several years in the Top 5 stations (12+) in the market with several
Arbitron ratings
Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio broadcasting audiences. It was founded as the American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by mergin ...
books as the No. 1 in some demographics and time periods, a rarity for a lower powered signal in the Albany market. In 1990, Paul Bendat purchased the station. After WROW-FM flipped to
WYJB in early 1994, WKLI's ratings underwent a decline as listeners flocked to the far stronger signal of WYJB for adult contemporary music.
On January 12, 1996,
WKBE joined WKLI in a simulcast of "K-Lite" (without the '101' brand); however, the format ended just over two months later when WKLI and WKBE flipped to a
Top 40/CHR format as "K-100" at 3 p.m. on March 18. With the flip, the station became one of the charter affiliates of the syndication attempt of the ''Scott & Todd'' morning show from
WPLJ in New York City, which the station played as a homecoming of sorts for
Todd Pettengill (an alum of rival
WFLY). Though ''K-100'' stayed competitive with WFLY and
WRVE, changes in the format and the end of syndication of Scott & Todd in October 1998 marked a quick decline for the station which, by the end of 1998, was seeing ratings not seen in 3 decades.
In February 1999, Paul Bendat sold his stations to Tele-Media, Inc., which relaunched the "K-100" format three months later as
modern adult contemporary "The Point" gaining the new calls of WCPT; the WKLI calls and the old "K-Lite" name moved down to 94.5 FM (now
WYKV
WYKV (94.5 MHz) is a listener-supported, non-commercial Christian Contemporary radio station licensed to Ravena, New York, and serving the Capital District and upper Hudson Valley of New York. The station is owned by Educational Media Foundation ...
). The station struggled to find an audience over the next two years amid staff and management changes as well as corporate problems on Tele-Media's end. Tele-Media sold WCPT and WKBE to Pamal Broadcasting in August 2001 with the sale closing in late October. While WKBE kept a modified version of the "Point" format which remains to this day, WCPT became
adult standards/
soft adult contemporary under the "Magic" name with the WKLI calls returning soon thereafter. Under this format, the station was always one of the top rated stations in the Albany market. As ''Magic'', the station would play Christmas music from mid-November to Christmas Day each year (starting in 2005 and until 2009, the last Christmas season under the format).
Pamal announced on February 8, 2010 that "Magic" would move to sister station
WROW, with WKLI-FM adopting a new format after a brief simulcast period.
After two weeks of simulcasting WROW, and a brief stunt with
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subject ma ...
and
country, the station flipped to a
variety hits format as ''100.9 The Bridge'' on February 24, 2010, with "
Under the Bridge" by
Red Hot Chili Peppers being the first (and final) song of the format.
However, the variety hits format failed to compete with dominant
WRVE and would also take ratings away from sister WYJB, and the station saw its lowest ratings in over a decade. After 18 months under the ''Bridge'' format, WKLI-FM would return to a rock format for the first time since 1979 with a flip to
active rock
Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...
at noon on September 2, 2011 with "
Wicked Garden" by
Stone Temple Pilots being the first song played, putting the station in competition with WQBK-FM once again and, to a lesser extent,
WPYX. By late 2013, the station had gone for more of a
classic rock format in order to compete with dominant classic rock station WPYX.
At Noon on October 10, 2013, WKLI changed their format to
country, branded as "The Cat", simulcasting sister station
WZMR until December 13, when WZMR began stunting with sound effects of a man hiking until Midnight on December 14, 2013, when it flipped to AAA as "104.9 the Peak".
In 2018, with the demise of sister station
WINU's sports format, 100.9 The Cat and sister station WROW 590 added play-by-play of the
New York Mets and
New England Patriots
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...
. WKLI played Patriots games during conflicts with Mets baseball on WROW (which were slated to move to WKLI only starting 2019, however this did not take place due to Mets radio network realignments). The Patriots also left WKLI after the 2018 season, leaving the Albany metro area without Patriots radio broadcasts.
Former logos
File:1009thebridge.png, 100.9 The Bridge
File:WKLI1009.png, Rock 100.9
References
External links
*
{{Pamal Broadcasting
KLI-FM
Country radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1972
1972 establishments in New York (state)
Pamal Broadcasting