WOPG (1460
kHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...
) is an
AM 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
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York C ...
and serving the
Capital District
A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...
. It is owned by Pax et Bonum, Inc. (Peace and Goodness in Latin) and has a
Christian radio format aimed at Roman Catholic listeners, with much of its programming coming from the
EWTN Radio network. WOPG
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...
s with
WOPG-FM at 89.9 FM in
Esperance, New York.
WOPG was the first radio station licensed to Albany. It operates with 5,000
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 ...
s of power
non-directional by day, and employs a
directional antenna
A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna which radiates or receives greater power in specific directions allowing increased performance and reduced interference from unwanted sources. Directional antennas provide increased performance ...
at night to protect other stations on
AM 1460
The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1460 kHz: 1460 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency.
Argentina
* LT29 in Venado Tuerto, Santa Fe
* LU30 in Maipu, Buenos Aires
* LU34 Pigüé, Buenos Aires
* LRK204 in Yerba Buena, T ...
. The transmitter site is on Kenwood Avenue in
Delmar, New York
Delmar is a hamlet in the Town of Bethlehem, in Albany County, New York, United States. It is a suburb of the neighboring city of Albany. The community is bisected by NY Route 443 (Delaware Avenue), a major thoroughfare, main street, and route ...
.
History
According to FCC records, WOPG only dates back to 1947, the year when it was authorized, as WOKO, to replace an earlier station, also WOKO, whose license had been revoked. However, most station histories consider the 1947 authorization to be a direct continuation of the earlier WOKO, which dated to 1924.
Establishment in New York City
The original WOKO was first licensed, with the sequentially issued call letters WDBX, in June 1924 to Otto Baur at 138 Dyckman Street in New York City. The initial authorization was for only 5 watts transmitting on 1290 kHz, and the station referred to itself as "New York's Smallest Radio Station". In 1925 WDBX's power was increased to 50 watts, and its call sign changed to WOKO.
In mid-1926 the station was purchased by Harold E. Smith and moved north of New York City to
Peekskill
Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, from New York City. Established as a village in 1816, it was incorporated as a city in 1940. It lies on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across fr ...
. In early 1928 the station made a move further north, setting up the station's transmitter on
Mount Beacon
Beacon Mountain, locally Mount Beacon, is the highest peak of Hudson Highlands, located south of City of Beacon, New York, in the Town of Fishkill. Its two summits rise above the Hudson River behind the city and can easily be seen from Newbu ...
in southern
Dutchess County and serving
Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie ...
and
Newburgh from the Hotel Windsor in Poughkeepsie. WOKO was billed as "The Voice from the Clouds" for its transmitter site on one of the highest mountains in the Hudson Valley. On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of the
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
's
General Order 40
The Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, dated August 30, 1928, described the standards for a sweeping reorganization of radio broadcasting in the United States. This order grouped the AM radio band transmitting frequencies into thre ...
, WOKO was assigned to 1440 kHz.
The Newburgh-Poukeepsie area of the
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...
was still largely undeveloped, with few advertising opportunities. Without a network affiliation, and limited nighttime hours due to having to share its frequency with WHEC-WABO (now
WHIC
WHIC is a Catholic radio station broadcasting from Rochester, New York. WHIC is located at 1460 on the AM dial. Referred to as '' The Station of the Cross'', WHIC is owned and operated by Holy Family Communications. The station began broadcasting ...
) in Rochester, the station was unprofitable. In late 1929 Harold E. Smith contacted Sam Pickard, vice president in charge of station relations for the
Columbia Broadcasting System
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
(CBS) radio network, to see if WOKO could become a CBS affiliate. Pickard determined that currently the station was not qualified, however, it would be if it were to move to Albany and expand its hours of operation.
["Docket No. 6486"](_blank)
''Federal Communications Commission Reports'' (Vol. 10: April 2, 1943-June 30, 1945), pages 454-469.
Move to Albany
WOKO received approval from the
Federal Radio Commission
The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) was a government agency that regulated United States radio communication from its creation in 1927 until 1934, when it was succeeded by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FRC was established by t ...
(FRC) to make the changes suggested by Pickard, and on April 17, 1931 was authorized to begin broadcasting full-time from Albany on 1430 kHz.
It was the first radio station licensed to New York's state capital, although
WGY had been broadcasting from nearby
Schenectady
Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...
since 1922. The station became profitable, due to its expanded hours of operation, combined with the ability to carry CBS's dramas, comedies, news, sports,
soap opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
s,
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
s and
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...
broadcasts during the "
Golden Age of Radio." With the implementation of the
North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement in March 1941, stations on 1430 kHz, including WOKO, shifted to 1460 kHz, its assignment ever since.
License revocation and reassignment
WOKO's license came up for its periodic renewal on October 1, 1942. However, as part of the proceedings the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) launched an investigation into whether the station owner, WOKO, Inc., was no longer qualified to be a licensee, because it had repeatedly been deceptive in fully disclosing the company's stockholders. It was eventually determined that, in return for his aid in the station acquiring the CBS network affiliation, Sam Pickard had received control of 240 shares of the company's 1,000 shares of stock, although WOKO's financial reports to the FRC and the FCC in the subsequent twelve years had concealed this information. In 1943 Sam Pickard's wife, Francke, attempted to dispose of the 240 shares for $75,000, but the FCC blocked the sale. On March 27, 1945, the Commission "concluded that the applicant cannot be entrusted with the responsibilities of a licensee" and denied renewal of WOKO's license.
This ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which reversed the FCC's decision on the grounds that "The denial of renewal because of the applicant's failure to show the beneficial ownership of twenty-four per cent of its capital cannot be justified as a penalty for making false statements." However, on subsequent appeal the Supreme Court reversed the Appeals Court decision, and ruled on December 9, 1946 that FCC's deletion of WOKO was appropriate.
At this time WOKO was one of only two stations licensed to Albany, so to limit the disruption of the station going silent the FCC issued a series of temporary authorizations allowing it to continue broadcasting until its successor was operational. A hearing was held reviewing three competing applications for WOKO's replacement, and on October 21, 1947 the FCC chose the Governor Dongan Broadcasting Corporation. Although technically this was a new station unrelated to the original WOKO, the fact that the new station inherited the WOKO call sign and frequency meant that functionally it was a continuation of its predecessor.
As of January 1, 1947 WOKO's CBS affiliation had been lost to upstart WTRY (now
WOFX) in Troy, and WOKO evolved into a locally based format independent of any network, consisting largely of music, a rarity in a medium market in that era. The station also carried
Brooklyn Dodgers baseball games in the 1950s before the team's move to Los Angeles.
In the 1950s and early 60s, WOKO aired a
full service Full service or Full Service may refer to:
* Full-service radio, a wide range of programming
* Full Service Network, a communications company
Entertainment
* "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block from their album ''The Block''
* F ...
,
middle of the road format of popular music, news and sports. In an opening paragraph of
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
's 1962 novel ''
The Spy Who Loved Me'', protagonist Vivienne Michel travels to central New York state and recounts listening to WOKO, with the parenthetical comment "they might have dreamed up a grander callsign!".
Country music
In the late 1960s, WOKO decided to go after an audience that was not well-served in the Capital District. Under station manager Charles Murn, WOKO flipped to
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
. Charlie Heisler was the Chief Engineer. In the early 1960s, WOKO's lineup was led by Geoff Davis (formerly of
WROW
WROW (590 kHz) – branded ''Magic 590 AM and 100.5 FM'' – is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District, including Albany, Schenectady and Troy. WROW has a radio format featuring soft old ...
-Albany and
WINS-New York City). Bob Cathcart, from Hoosick Falls, was the News Anchor.
The station's country format lasted until 1978 after competition from FM rival 107.7
WGNA-FM
WGNA-FM (107.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts a country music radio format.
WGNA-FM has an effective radiated power (E ...
led WOKO to change formats. For a short time it tried
disco music
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 piano ...
. Coming into the format right after the peak of the disco fad and having to battle two decades of country heritage, the new format failed. In early 1980, WOKO returned to country. Though initially regaining some audience, the flip of the more powerful 1540
WPTR to country later that year wiped away any gains the station had made.
All News and Oldies
On August 23, 1982, WOKO ended its second attempt at country by flipping to an
all-news radio format, carrying the audio from
CNN Headline News (then CNN2) most of the day with sports from the
Enterprise Radio Network
Enterprise Radio Network was an all-sports radio network which operated briefly in 1981. It featured sports newscasts twice an hour, and sports talk during the evening and overnight.
Creation and programming
Enterprise Radio was created by Scott R ...
at night. With this flip came the new
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assigne ...
: WWCN, with the last two letters standing for CNN. Though low in overhead, the new station also retained the low ratings of the previous format and soon added some
talk
Talk may refer to:
Communication
* Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people
* Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people
* Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct
...
programming. WWCN continued to struggle and left the format in early 1987.
The demise of WWCN led to the return of the WOKO call letters, this time running an
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
format and converting to
C-QUAM AM stereo (only the second station in the market, behind WPTR, to do so). This format was short lived.
WOKO was purchased by Barnstable Broadcasting, then owners of WGNA-FM, with the sale closing in late 1988. Barnstable then took WOKO to a WGNA
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...
most of the day. It did air some separate special programming and
Albany-Colonie Yankees
The Albany-Colonie Yankees were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the Double-A Eastern League from 1983 to 1994. They were located in Colonie, New York, and played their home games at Heritage Park. The team was known as the Albany A ...
games, when not carrying country music programming. The AM station switched its call sign to WGNA while the FM station became WGNA-FM. This arrangement would last for over a decade through several owners.
Regent Communications
Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wit ...
acquired WGNA-AM-FM in 2000, and the 1460 frequency was put up for sale.
Radio Disney
In March 2002, Regent sold the station to the
Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
, who had converted it to the
Radio Disney children's radio Children's radio is a radio format aimed primarily at preteen children. Examples include the now defunct Radio Disney network of radio stations, Kids Place Live satellite radio channel and in the UK Fun Kids.
Stations
See also
*List of childre ...
format on February 28, 2002. It was the only Disney-owned outlet in Upstate New York, although a local owner in the Syracuse area converted one of his AM stations to Radio Disney as well.
The call letters for 1460 were then changed to WDDY. The Disney format lasted more than a decade. But in June 2013, Disney put WDDY and six other Disney stations in medium-sized
radio market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...
s up for sale, in order to refocus the network's broadcast distribution on Top-25 markets.
On September 29, 2013, WDDY dropped the Radio Disney programming and went
dark
Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lu ...
.
Catholic Radio
In October, Disney filed to sell WDDY to Pax et Bonum, owner of 89.9
WOPG-FM in
Esperance. The acquisition was made to improve the signal for Catholic Radio in the Capital District.
Pax et Bonum converted the station to noncommercial operation as a simulcast of WOPG-FM's
Catholic radio
Christian radio is a Christian media radio format that focus on programming with a Christian message. Many such broadcasters play contemporary Christian music, though many programs include sermons, radio dramas, as well as news and talk pro ...
programming, from studios at the AM station's Delmar transmitter site. The sale was consummated on January 17, 2014, the station resumed operations on January 29, 2014,
and its call sign was changed to WOPG on February 27, 2014.
References
External links
FCC History Cards for WOPG(covering WOKO from its reauthorization in 1947 to 1981)
{{coord, 42, 37, 21, N, 73, 48, 09, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title
OPG (AM)
Radio stations established in 1924
1924 establishments in New York City
Catholic radio stations
Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company
OPG (AM)