WLNA (1260 AM) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed A license (American English) or licence (Commonwealth English) 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 part ...

Beacon, New York Beacon is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city located on the Hudson River in Dutchess County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population was 13,769. Beacon is part of the Kiryas ...

, and serving the

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley or Hudson River Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The region stretches from the Capital District (New York), Capital District includi ...

. 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, ...

and calls itself "The Beacon." It

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of 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, simultaneously) ...

s a

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when Radio broadcasting, ...

with

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

WLNA WLNA (1420 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio, commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Peekskill, New York, and serving the Hudson Valley. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and calls itself "The Beacon." It simulca ...

1460 AM 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, ...

Peekskill Peekskill is a city in northwestern Westchester County, New York, United States, north of 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 f ...

and

WGHQ WGHQ (920 kHz) is a commercial AM broadcasting, AM radio station City of license, licensed to Kingston, New York, and serving the Hudson Valley. WGHQ is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and it simulcasts a conservative talk radio format known as "The B ...

920 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 920 kHz: 920 AM is a Regional In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physic ...

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

. The studios are on

New York State Route 52 New York State Route 52 (NY 52) is a state highway in the southeastern part of the state. It generally runs from west to east through five counties, beginning at the New York–Pennsylvania border, Pennsylvania state line in the Dela ...

in Beacon. WBNR is powered at 1,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), 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 quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s by day and 400 watts at night. It has a

directional antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain directio ...

using a two-

tower array A tower array is an arrangement of multiple radio towers which are mast radiators in a phased array. They were originally developed as ground-based tracking radars. Tower arrays can consist of free-standing or guyed towers or a mix of them. Tower ...

at 475 South Avenue in the city of Beacon. Programming is also hear on 100-watt

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

W243EM at 96.5

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

.FCC.gov/W243EM
/REF>

Programming

Weekdays on "The Beacon" (WBNR, WLNA and WGHQ) begin with a local news and interview show, ''Hudson Valley Focus with Tom Sipos''. The rest of the day,

nationally syndicated Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

programs are heard:

Brian Kilmeade Brian Kilmeade (born May 7, 1964) is an American television and radio presenter and political commentator for Fox News. On weekdays, he co-hosts the morning show '' Fox & Friends'' and he hosts the Fox News Radio program ''The Brian Kilmeade Sh ...

Dan Bongino Daniel John Bongino (born December4, 1974) is an American government official, Conservatism in the United States, conservative political commentator, radio host, and former law enforcement officer who has served as the 20th Deputy Director of ...

Charlie Kirk Charles James Kirk (born October 14, 1993) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative political activist, author and Right-wing populism, right-wing populist media personality. With Bill Montgomery (activist), Bill Montgome ...

Joe Pags Joseph John Pagliarulo (born August 1, 1966), also known on the air as Joe Pags, is an American nationally syndicated conservative television and radio talk show host. Biography Born in Amityville, New York, Pagliarulo later lived in nearby C ...

, Bill O'Reilly, ''America at Night with Rick Valdés,

Red Eye Radio ''Red Eye Radio'' is a talk radio program currently hosted by Eric Harley and Gary McNamara. The program is syndicated nationwide by Westwood One, and originates from WBAP in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The show traces its history throug ...

'' and ''

America in the Morning ''America in The Morning'' is a news program airing on numerous talk radio stations, syndicated by Westwood One, a subsidiary of Cumulus Media. The one-hour live program airs weekdays at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time and is hosted by John Tro ...

''. Weekends feature specialty shows on travel, golf, cars and guns. Syndicated weekend hosts include

Dave Ramsey David Lawrence Ramsey III (born September 3, 1960) is an American radio personality who offers financial advice. He is the founder and CEO of Ramsey Solutions and a co-host of '' The Ramsey Show'', a nationally syndicated radio program. He ...

Larry Elder Laurence Allen Elder (born April 27, 1952) is an American conservative political commentator and talk radio host. He hosts ''The Larry Elder Show'', based in California. The show began as a local program on Los Angeles radio station KABC in 199 ...

Hugh Hewitt Hugh Hewitt (born February 22, 1956) is an American conservative political commentator, radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, attorney, academic, and author. He writes about law, society, politics, and media bias in the United States ...

, Mike Gallagher, Rudy Maxa and

Eric Metaxas Eric Metaxas (; born June 27, 1963) is an American author, speaker, and conservative radio host. He has written three biographies, ''Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery'' about William Wilberforce (2007), ' ...

. The Beacon carries live sports including

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in New York City. The Rangers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The team plays ...

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the Na ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

Army Black Knights football The Army Black Knights football team, historically known as the Army Cadets, represents the United States Military Academy in college football. The Black Knights team competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Ath ...

from nearby

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

History

Early years

WBNR

signed on A sign-on (or start-up in Commonwealth countries except Canada) is the beginning of operations for a radio broadcasting, radio or television station, generally at the start of each day. It is the opposite of a sign-off (or closedown in Commonw ...

the air on . It was powered at 1,000 watts and was a

daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

station, required to go off the air at night. It was built, engineered, owned and operated by Robert Gessner and brothers Sy and Al Dresner. The original studio was near Denning's Point, a location on the Hudson River that has an archaeological record going back 5,000 years. Former staffers felt that this explained frequent reports of

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...

activity in the studio building. It was not until 1987 that WBNR was licensed for 480 watts night time operation with a DA2 antenna pattern. For many years it was owned by brothers Robert and Alford Lessner, who were involved in the popular TV show "

Candid Camera ''Candid Camera'' is an American hidden camera and practical joke reality television series. The show was created, developed, and presented by Allen Funt. Various versions of the show have appeared on television from 1948 to 2014. The program ...

." The station served the community with a

full service Full service or Full Service may refer to: Entertainment Books * ''Full Service'' (book), a 2012 memoir by Scotty Bowers * '' Full Service No Waiting'', a 1998 album by Peter Case Music * "Full Service", a song by the New Kids on the Block fr ...

, middle of the road (MOR) music format, local news and sports. It was heavily involved with Beacon community events and was the

flagship station In broadcasting, a flagship (also known as a flagship station or key station) is the broadcast station which originates a television network, or a particular radio or television program that plays a key role in the branding of and consumer loyal ...

for

Changes in ownership

In 1970, Lance Broadcasting, then owners of WBNR, acquired

WSPK WSPK (104.7 FM, "K104.7") is a contemporary hit radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York. Its studios are located on NY 52 Business in the town of Fishkill (with a Beacon address). It is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and transmits from ...

104.7 FM from

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

–based Olympian Broadcasting.''Broadcasting Yearbook 1972 page B-144. Retrieved Oct. 27, 2024.
/ref> Olympian was also the owner of

WKIP WKIP (1450 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York. The station is owned by iHeartMedia, and broadcasts at 1,000 watts from a two-tower array adjacent to its studios in the Arlington section of the Town of Poughkeep ...

1450 AM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on AM broadcasting, AM frequency 1450 kHz: 1450 AM is a Regional and Local broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRJ211 in San Juan. * LRI203 El Sol in Buenos Aires. Bermuda *VSB Canada ...

, along with the mountain top transmitter site on North Mount Beacon. In the 1980s and 1990s, radio listeners increasingly tuned to FM stations for music. That hurt the ratings on WBNR. In 1994, WBNR and WSPK were sold to Enterprise Media of

Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...

. Both stations were subsequently sold to Pamal Broadcasting in October 1997. The studios moved from their original 1959 location at 475 South Avenue in Beacon to the newly reconstructed "Broadcast Center" at 715 Fishkill Avenue (

NY Route 52 New York State Route 52 (NY 52) is a state highway in the southeastern part of the state. It generally runs from west to east through five counties, beginning at the New York–Pennsylvania border, Pennsylvania state line in the Dela ...

), in

Fishkill, New York Fishkill is a village within the town of Fishkill in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The village is in the eastern part of the town of Fishkill on U.S. Route 9. It is north of Interstate 84. NY 52 is the main street. It is part of ...

Classic Country, Classic Hits and Conservative Talk

On Monday, March 24, 2014, WBNR and

switched to "

Real Country Real Country is a 24-hour radio format produced by Westwood One. Real Country is marketed at the demographic of men aged 35 to 64. Its programming consists of a fairly broad playlist of "Today's Stars and the Legends." Classic country is the ...

," a national music format. The stations began playing classic country hits of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. On December 3, 2019, WBNR began simulcasting on

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...

station W243EM at

96.5 FM The following radio broadcasting, radio stations broadcast on FM broadcasting, FM frequency 96.5 MHz: Argentina * Acqua (radio station), Acqua in Pinamar, Buenos Aires * Aire de San Javier in San Javier, Santa Fe * Arequito (radio station), A ...

. That gave listeners in and around Beacon the option of tuning in WBNR on the FM dial. On March 15, 2021, WBNR changed from classic country to a simulcast of co-owned classic hits station 92.9

WBPM WBPM (92.9 FM) is a classic hits radio station licensed to Saugerties, New York, serving the Mid-Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts at 6,000 watts ERP from a tower in the Town of Kingston, ...

in Suagerties.Magic Comes To The Hudson Valley
Radioinsight - March 14, 2021 On October 14, 2024, WBNR ended its simulcast of WBPM. It switched to a

format, simulcast with

and

1420 AM The following radio stations broadcast on AM frequency 1420 kHz: 1420 AM is a Regional broadcast frequency. Argentina * LRI220 in Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires Mexico * XEEW-AM in Matamoros, Tamaulipas * XEF-AM in Ciudad Juárez, Chi ...

. The stations began airing talk hosts from

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

and were branded as "The Beacon".A New Beacon is Lit in the Hudson Valley
Radioinsight - October 15, 2024 They became

network affiliate In the broadcasting industry (particularly in North America, and even more in the United States), a network affiliate or affiliated station is a local broadcaster, owned by a company other than the owner of the network, which carries some or a ...

s of

ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News (United States), ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five-minute newscasts on the hour ...

Translator

Previous logo

References

External links

;FM translator * * {{Pamal Broadcasting 1959 establishments in New York (state) Beacon, New York News and talk radio stations in the United States Pamal Broadcasting Radio stations established in 1959 BNR