Everything about Wgy totally explained
WGY is a 50,000
watt radio station licensed to
Schenectady,
New York. It is one of the
United States's oldest radio stations as well as the oldest in New York's
Capital Region. WGY is the heritage
clear channel occupant of the 810
kHz frequency and has a signal which blankets much of the Northeast by day and much of the eastern
United States by night, being heard as far away as
Chicago. Owned and operated by
Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts a
talk radio format and is operated out of the company's
Albany complex in
Latham, just outside of Schenectady. WGY's main competitors in the region are
WROW and
WGDJ.
History
From its sign-on in 1922 until 1983, WGY was the flagship station of
General Electric's broadcasting group, joined later by pioneering sister stations in television (
WRGB, signed on 1928) and FM radio (W2XOY, later WGFM and today
WRVE, signed on 1939). In 1926, WGY became an early affiliate of the
NBC Red network, and after the split of the sister NBC Blue network into today's
ABC, WGY remained with NBC through the decades. As the golden age of radio ended, WGY evolved into a full service
middle of the road station, evolving its format as programming tastes seemed fit. The station changed from full service middle of the road to news/talk on Memorial Day Weekend, 1994.
In 1983, WGY and WGFM were sold to local owners and for the next several years bounced around a series of owners before
Dame Media acquired the stations in late 1993. In 1998, Dame sold its entire group to Clear Channel, whose ownership remains to this day.
Programming
WGY's schedule is typical for a heritage large-signal news/talk station outside of major markets with a balance of local and syndicated talk programming plus frequent news updates. Newscasts air every 30 minutes with more frequent coverage in cases of breaking news or inclement weather. Top-of-hour newscasts are approximately six to seven minutes long and usually include two minutes of
Fox News Radio national news, a few minutes of local news, traffic ("WGY All-Day Traffic"), and weather ("WGY Storm Team Forecast"); some weekend newscasts substitute sports for traffic. Bottom-of-the-hour updates, lasting around three minutes, usually consist of a lead national story, some local news, and a weather report. Shorter weather updates are also broadcast at :20 and :50 past the hour.
During
Don Weeks and the WGY Morning News (weekdays 5:30-9:00 AM), this format is altered in that there are also local news updates at :20 and :50 past the hour, sports updates at :15 and :45, and "Traffic and Weather on the Eights" to go along with the normal news updates. WGY carried
ABC News Radio from July 1994 until August 2005, when
Clear Channel Communications switched the majority of its news/talk radio stations to Fox News Radio as a boost to that network's launch.
Paul Harvey would remain on WGY for an additional year though.
Besides Weeks, WGY's other weekday local show is hosted by
Al Roney (9:00AM-Noon). Jason Keller, who hosts mornings on sister station WHRL, was in the 6:00-7:00 PM time slot until mid-August 2007. Handling local talk on the weekends is WGY veteran Joe Gallagher (6:00-10:00 AM), and Jamie Roberts (Sun. 11:00-1:00 PM) Notable syndicated hosts on WGY include
Rush Limbaugh,
Sean Hannity,
Michael Savage,
Phil Hendrie,
Kim Komando, and
George Noory (
Coast to Coast AM).
Three notable former WGY hosts are
Mike Gallagher (who hosted afternoon drive in the mid-1990s before moving to
WABC and is now part of the
Salem Radio Network),
J. R. Gach (controversial shock jock) and
Andrew Wilkow of
Sirius Satellite Radio (who did part of afternoon drive and later late mornings from 2003-2006).
Schedule
The complete program schedule can be found directly from
WGY's schedule page
.
Weekdays
Saturday
5:00-5:30 AM: Wall Street Journal This Weekend with Gordon Deal
5:30-10:00 AM: Joe Gallagher
10:00-11:00 AM: The Mutual Fund Show with Adam Bold
11:00 AM-12:00 PM: Travel Today with Peter Greenberg
12:00-3:00 PM: Mike McConnell's The Weekend
3:00-7:00 PM: Dr. Dean Edell
7:00-9:00 PM: Bob Costas' Costas on the Radio
9:00 PM-1:00 AM: Coast to Coast Live with Ian Punnett
Sunday
1:00 AM-5:00 AM: Coast-to-Coast AM with Art Bell
6:00 AM-10:00 AM: Joe Gallagher
10:00 AM-11:00 AM: The Fagan Financial Report
11:00 AM-1:00 PM: Jamie Roberts
1:00 PM-4:00 PM: Kim Komando
4:00 PM-7:00 PM: Money Talk with Bob Brinker
7:00 PM-8:00 PM: Eco Radio Network with Pete Muscanelli (local paid programming)
8:00 PM-9:00 PM: Let's Talk Money with Steven Bouchey, CFP
9:00 PM-9:30 PM: Optimal Funding's Digest of Homes Radio Show
9:30 PM-10:30 PM: Infomercials
10:30 PM-11:00 PM: The Lutheran Hour
10:00 PM to 10:30PM: Paid Programming
10:30 PM-11:00 PM: The Lutheran Hour
11:00 PM-11:30PM: Clear View with Read Shepherd
11:30 PM-12:00 AM: InfoTrak with Chris Witting
12:00 AM-5:00 AM: Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell
News Team
Chuck Custer - News/Program Director
W. Read Shepherd - Afternoon Anchor
Jim Knapp - Anchor/Reporter
Matt Delsignore - Anchor/Reporter
Ali Skinner - Morning Anchor
Streaming audio
In late 2005, WGY began streaming its local shows on their website (the combination of affiliate contracts and/or hosts with pay services preclude full streaming). In May 2006, WGY began posting the most recent top-of-hour newscast on the website for on-demand streaming as well as podcasts of newscasts and key features.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Wgy'.
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