WROW

WROW (590 AM, "Magic 590 AM") is a radio station broadcasting to Albany, New York, with its towers in Glenmont, New York. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting (dba Albany Broadcasting) and runs an oldies format under the branding Magic 590. The station serves as the CBS Radio News affiliate for the Albany market.

WROW is historically notable for being the station which launched Capital Cities Communications which in 1985 purchased the American Broadcasting Company and became one of the largest media companies in existence at the time of that purchase.

History

WROW signed on in 1947 when a startup company, the Hudson Valley Broadcasting Company, acquired the rights to the frequency. At the outset, the station had the Mutual affiliation, switching to ABC in 1950. The relationship with ABC was short lived as in 1954 WROW took WTRY's CBS affiliation in order to get the rights to the CBS television affiliation for its new start-up TV sister station WROW-TV (today's WTEN). In 1957, Hudson Valley Broadcasting became Capital Cities Television Corporation (later, Capital Cities Broadcasting in 1960, to reflect its increasing radio holdings including, WROW). The CBS affiliation has remained on WROW ever since, and was shared with sister station WKLI-FM (100.9), the original home of the Magic format, beginning in 2001.