| Broadcast area | Capital District |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 590kHz |
| Branding | Magic 590-1410 AM & 96.9-100.5 FM |
| Programming | |
| Format | Oldies |
| Affiliations | WRGB-TV 6 (news and weather partnership) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WAJZ,WENU,WFLY,WINU,WKLI,WYJB | |
| History | |
First air date | September 30, 1947; 78 years ago (1947-09-30) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 54853 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 42°34′24.9″N73°47′9.8″W / 42.573583°N 73.786056°W /42.573583; -73.786056 |
| Translator | 100.5 W263CG (Albany) |
| Repeater | 1410 WENU (South Glens Falls) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WROW (590AM) – brandedMagic 590-1410 AM and 96.5-100.5 FM – is acommercialradio stationlicensed toAlbany, New York, and serving theCapital District, including Albany,Schenectady andTroy. WROW has aradio format featuring hits from the 70's and 80's with a song from the 60's thrown in here and there. It is owned byPamal Broadcasting, withradio studios and offices inLatham. WROW serves as the localaffiliate forCBS Radio News and is theEmergency Alert System (EAS) primary entry point for Northeastern New York state.
By day, WROW transmits 5,000watts, but to avoid interfering with other stations on590 AM, it reduces power at night to 1,000 watts and uses adirectional antenna. Its four-tower array is on Weisheit Road inGlenmont, near theNew York State Thruway.[2] WROW is also heard onFM translatorW263CG at 100.5MHz and onWENU1410 AM (which itself has a translator on 96.9 FM) inSouth Glens Falls.
On September 30, 1947, WROW firstsigned on. A startup company, Hudson Valley Broadcasting, acquired the rights to the frequency.[3] The studios were at 112 State Street and Dr. J.J. Quinlan served as president. At the outset, the station had an affiliation with theMutual Radio Network, switching toABC in 1950.
The relationship with ABC was short lived, with WROW taking theCBS affiliation from 980WTRY in November 1954, in a deal to get the rights to the CBS television network for its soon-to-debut co-owned TV station, WROW-TV channel 41, (today's ABC-affiliatedWTEN on channel 10). In 1957, Hudson Valley Broadcasting became the Capital Cities Television Corporation, as Albany is the capital city ofNew York State. In 1960, the name was changed to Capital Cities Broadcasting, to reflect its increasing radio holdings, including WROW. (WROW is historically notable for being the first station owned byCapital Cities Communications, which in 1985 purchased theAmerican Broadcasting Company, becoming one of the largest media companies in existence at the time of that purchase.)
The CBS Radio affiliation has remained on WROW since 1950, and was shared for a time with 100.9WKLI-FM, the original home of theMagic format, beginning in 2001.
In the late 1950s, WROW decided to flip to aTop 40 format, the first such attempt in the Capital District, which was initially a hit. But Capital Cities' success with thebeautiful music format inNew York City and other markets led WROW to switch toeasy listening around 1963.
In October 1966, WROW signed on 95.5 WROW-FM (nowWYJB), with the two stationssimulcasting. On January 1, 1967, theFederal Communications Commission stopped allowing AM and FM stations in large cities to simulcast, except for 25% of their programming. To get around this rule, WROW-AM-FM began "shadowcasting" which allowed the same commercials to run on both stations, although the music on one station had to be delayed for a short time before it could be heard on the other station. (Most listeners were not even aware of this practice.) The combined signals of WROW and WROW-FM were among the most popular and financially successful radio outlets in the Capital District for most of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1983, Capital Cities sold WROW-AM-FM to JAG Communications, owner ofWLKW-AM-FM inProvidence, Rhode Island, for $3.2 million;[4] the company was controlled byJohn A. Gambling, morning host atWOR in New York City.[5] JAG would sell WROW-AM-FM and WLKW-FM to Wilks/Schwartz Broadcasting for $15.39 million in 1987;[6] the WROW stations soon ended up in the hands of Radio Terrace,[7] owners ofWLNA andWHUD inPeekskill a month later.[8]
The agingdemographics of the easy listening format led to a split in programming for WROW-AM-FM in 1991, with WROW-AM keeping the easy listening sound. In 1993, the WROW stations were bought by Albany Broadcasting, which soon made changes to both stations. In February 1994, WROW flipped to anall-news format by day withtalk programming nights and weekends.
Though a good idea on paper, the news format had low ratings and was a high expense format. In 1996, the station flipped to a full-time talk format. A slow starter at first, the arrival in 1997 of formerWQBK host and program director Paul Vandenburgh helped improve ratings and made WROW a formidable second talk station next to talk leaderWGY810 AM. The station had shows hosted by Capital reporter Fred Dicker; Albany Mayor Jerry Jennings, Dan Lynch, Jaime Roberts and Joe Lirosi and more.
In 2007, WROW began overhauling its programming. Vandenburgh left WROW in October 2007 to become part-owner ofWGDJ1300 AM, a station on WQBK's former frequency. Leaving along with Vandenburgh to go to WGDJ were theLive from the Capitol report withFred Dicker and a weekly interview show with Albany MayorJerry Jennings.Mike and the Mad Dog, which had aired as WROW's afternoon show as a simulcast with 660WFAN inNew York City, was dropped at this time as well.
As a talk station, WROW's local morning show was co-hosted by Steve van Zandt and Jackie Donovan.Syndicated talk shows heard the rest of the day on the station included:The Glenn Beck Program;The Radio Factor withBill O'Reilly;John Gibson,Dave Ramsey,Alan Colmes andJoey Reynolds. Weekend syndicated programs includedBrian and the Judge,Lars Larson, andBill Cunningham; the first two of which previously aired on weekdays. WROW also held a sportsplay-by-play contract with theAlbany River Ratsice hockey team, and that continued after the format change.Siena College men's basketball was once carried on the station, but moved to WGDJ in 2009.
In the past, WROW has aired other daily syndicated shows includingBrian and the Judge (and its predecessor hosted byTony Snow),Laura Ingraham, and a simulcast of theWFAN-basedMike and the Mad Dog. Past local programming has included "Afternoon Drive with Sherman Baldwin," "Live from the State Capitol," now heard on WGDJ, "The Mark Williams Show," and "The Scotto Show," hosted byScott Allen Miller.
WROW ended the talk format on February 8, 2010, citing the difficulty of competing with WGDJ and WGY. The station then adopted its current format, which was moved from WKLI-FM, and wassimulcast on both stations for two weeks, to help listeners adjust to the change.[9][10] By mid-February, WROW was the exclusive radio home of the "Magic" format, with WKLI-FM switching toadult hits.
WROW formerly broadcast inC-QUAM AM stereo, but no longer operates in stereo as of 2017. In April 2018, with the demise ofWINU's sports format, WROW and sister station WKLI-FM became Albany's radio home of theNew York Mets baseball andNew England Patriots football teams for the 2018 season. The Mets were slated to move to WKLI-FM in 2019. However this did not come to pass due to network realignments, and the Patriots also left in 2019, leaving the Albany metro area without radio coverage of either team.
On January 3, 2019, WROW began simulcasting its format onsister stationWENU1410 AM inSouth Glens Falls, also heard on WENU'sFM translator at 96.9 FM.
