WGY-FM

WGY-FM is a news-talk radio station licensed to Albany, New York that broadcasts at 103.1 FM; the station broadcasts 24 hours a day at 5,600 watts ERP from a non-directional antenna in North Greenbush, New York located near U.S. Route 4. The station, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., serves the New York's Capital District and surrounding areas, including the upper Hudson Valley.

WGY-FM's signal can be heard as far away as Hudson and Catskill to the south, Pittsfield and North Adams to the east, Warrensburg and Glens Falls to the north, and Amsterdam and Cobleskill to the west.

History

Easy Listening/Smooth Jazz 103.1

WGY-FM first signed on in 1966 with an easy listening format under the moniker Whirl and the call letters WHRL. The easy listening format lasted in some form or another for much of the next two decades, evolving to a Soft Adult Contemporary approach in 1987. In 1988, the station flipped to a New Age/Jazz format, and became known as "Easy 103.1" and "The Breeze". By 1993, the station had morphed into a more mainstream "Smooth Jazz" format, that had become common at that time.

WGY (AM)

WGY (AM 810 103.1 FM NewsRadio WGY) is a radio station licensed to Schenectady, New York and owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., broadcasting a news and conservative talk radio format. It broadcasts 50,000 Watts non-directional from a single tower in the Town of Rotterdam. It is one of the United States' oldest radio stations as well as the oldest in New York's Capital Region. WGY was the flagship station of General Electric's broadcast group from 1922 until 1983.

By the 1928 Band Plan, 790 kHz was allocated to Oakland, California, and to KGO (q.v.), which was then owned by General Electric, on an internationally cleared basis. In order to obtain a cleared channel in Schenectady, NY, for what would become the present-day WGY, GE effected a breakdown of 790 kHz, whereby WGY would assume the maximum permissible power, and KGO would be lowered in power to 7.5 kW, which was then lower than the minimum permissible power for a clear channel station (10 kW), and also was then higher than the then maximum permissible power for a regional channel station (5 kW). Both stations retained omnidirectional antennas. Therefore, GE effectively removed from the West one of its eight cleared channels and added another cleared channel to the East thereby giving the East nine cleared channels and the West only seven. The other "regions" in the Band Plan all retained their allotted eight cleared channels. In 1941, stations on 790 kHz were moved to 810 kHz and roughly simultaneously, KGO was directionalized and power was increased to 50 kW, the new minimum (and maximum) power for a U.S. cleared channel.

WGY

WGY refers to several broadcasting stations in the United States.

In the New York Capital District, it refers to the following pioneering stations:

Outside of the New York Capital District: