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|---|---|
| Broadcast area | UpperHudson Valley |
| Frequency | 98.5MHz |
| Branding | 98.5 The Cat |
| Programming | |
| Format | Hot adult contemporary |
| Affiliations | Westwood One |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WJIP,WKIP,WRNQ,WPKF,WRWD-FM,WHUC,WBWZ,WZCR,WRWB-FM | |
| History | |
First air date | September 6,1990 |
Former call signs | WQKZ (1990–92) |
Call sign meaning | "Cat" |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 63527 |
| Class | A |
| ERP | 4,700watts |
| HAAT | 114 meters (374 ft) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | 985thecat |
WCTW (98.5FM "98.5 The Cat") is ahot adult contemporary music formattedradio station licensed toCatskill, New York, and servingColumbia andGreene counties as well as the upperHudson Valley, the southernCapital District, andBerkshire County, Massachusetts. The station is owned byiHeartMedia and broadcasts at 4.7 kWERP from the center tower[2] of the three-tower array used by former sister stationWCKL, onRoute 9G inGreenport, New York. WCTW's signal can be received as far north asAlbany and as far south asPoughkeepsie; however, the station begins to mix with co-channelWCKM-FM andWTRY-FM (on 98.3) north of Albany.
The 98.5 frequency, the first FM station in Greene County, first came into being in early 1988 as a construction permit bearing the WCKL-FM calls as a sister toWCKL. Originally, the plans for the station were to simulcast thepopular standards format of WCKL but at some point in 1990 these plans were changed for the 98.5 frequency to go on its own under the new call letters as WQKZ. With those calls, the station would begin testing late that August and on September 6 would sign on with aCHR format asThe Mid-Hudson Valley's Power Station, Z98.5. This is not to be confused with"KZ96.7", a "Rock 40" station that briefly served the Albany-Schenectady-Troy market to the north. Being an all-local station outside of signing off overnights and some weekend programming, Z98.5 attracted listeners fromWBPM, then at 94.3 MHz as "B94", in Kingston. However, its presence in a small, unrated market at a time of Top 40 radio's decline was a challenge. Attracting listeners against established rivals such asWSPK, WBPM, andWFLY made things even worse. The station began to lose money.
In late 1991, Straus Media (owner ofWELV andWWWK in Ellenville) purchased WCKL and WQKZ. Looking to make the pairing of stations more attractive to advertisers and wanting to cut costs, Straus flipped WQKZ to ahot adult contemporary format as WCTW (The Cat) in February 1992 with the station going to satellite-fed programming outside of mornings which retained Z98.5 morning host Bob Johnson. Straus would later buy the cross-river rivals of WCKL and WCTW,Hudson-basedWRVW andWHUC, in early 1995 giving Straus a practical monopoly on radio between Kingston and Albany. This would be followed in July 1996 by Johnson getting a move to afternoons (with the studios moving from Catskill to Poughkeepsie alongside Straus' stations there) with the syndicatedBob & Sheri morning show coming to the station; in fact, WCTW was their first affiliate in syndication.[3]
In 1998, Poughkeepsie based translator W292CM (106.3 MHz) signed on with a simulcast of WCTW's programming. With nearly no promotion, WCTW showed in the Poughkeepsie ratings in the spring of 1999, nearly tying the full-powerWTND, itself a Straus station. Seeing an opportunity, Straus decided to flip WTND to a variation of WCTW under the WCTJ calls that August. W292CM would soon switch to simulcasting sister stationWTHN and now relaysWDST.
The presence of WCTJ was both a blessing and a curse for WCTW. The addition of an audience in a rated market allowed the WCTW end of theCat stations to work with a larger budget and allowed WCTW to phase out satellite programming given the ability to use such tools asvoicetracking. However, the attempt to try to run one station as two became a strain given the distance and differences between the two areas and that air talent was doing double the work with staggered breaks between the two stations. A general glut of Hot AC music in the mid-Hudson Valley did not help matters as well and with Straus's sale to Clear Channel Communications (nowiHeartMedia) in 2000 the days of the WCTJ part of the simulcast were numbered.
WCTW and WCTJ were split in October of that year with WCTJ keeping a frozen, all-automated version of that format until December 23 of that year when it flipped toRhythmic CHRWPKF.
With the Clear Channel purchase of Straus came the later sale of the Catskill stations (and WBPM) to Concord Media, a front company with ties to Clear Channel that existed to warehouse additional stations controlled by Clear Channel. The Clear Channel/Concord combination moved the studios of those stations to a new location in Hudson and, with it, WCTW returned to a mostly-satellite fed format which would remain for the next several years.
In April 2005, WCTW would change its format toadult contemporary with theLite FM branding as part of an expansion of the brand throughout the Hudson Valley in an attempt to compete withPamal Broadcasting-owned rivalsWHUD andWYJB.
In May 2009, WCTW reverted tohot adult contemporary, once again under theCat branding.
42°12′04″N73°50′06″W / 42.201°N 73.835°W /42.201; -73.835