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| Broadcast area | Orange,Dutchess andPutnam Counties. |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 1220kHz |
| Branding | WGNY 1220/94.5 |
| Programming | |
| Format | News/talk/sports |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Sunrise Broadcasting Corporation |
| WGNY-FM,WJGK | |
| History | |
First air date | February 25, 1933; 92 years ago (1933-2-25) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 63942 |
| Class | D |
| Power | 10,000watts day 180 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°31′53″N74°6′48″W / 41.53139°N 74.11333°W /41.53139; -74.11333 |
| Translator(s) | 94.5 W233BM (Beacon) |
| Repeater(s) | 103.1WJGK-HD2 (Newburgh, New York) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | wgny |
WGNY (1220kHz) is acommercialAMradio station broadcasting annews/talk/sports radioformat.Licensed toNewburgh, New York, the station servesOrange,Dutchess andPutnam Counties. It is owned by the Sunrise Broadcasting Corporation withstudios inNew Windsor.[2]
By day, WGNY transits 10,000watts. As1220 AM is aclear channel frequency reserved forClass A stationXEBMexico City, WGNY reduces power at night to 180 watts to avoid interference. It uses adirectional antenna with a three-tower array. Thetransmitter is on Rock Cut Road inOrange Lake.[3] Programming is also heard on 250-wattFM translatorW233BM at 94.5MHz in Beacon.
WGNYsigned on as theHudson Valley's first permanent radio station onError: All values must be integers(help). Newburgh briefly had a radio station in the early 1920s, using thecall sign WCAB, but it was off the air within a few years. WGNY was owned by wealthy real estate developer Robert Wilson Goelet. Goelet built his estate,Glenmere Mansion, in the town ofChester, New York, in 1911. In 1932, he decided to create a radio station that would broadcast from his estate's grounds. (Goelet wanted the call letters WCNY, for "Chester, New York", but as they were already taken, he settled for WGNY to stand for Goelet and Glenmere.)
In 1937, WGNY moved its operations to 161 Broadway in Newburgh. The following year, Goelet sold the station to Merritt C. Speidel and the WGNY Broadcasting Company. Originally powered at 100 watts, WGNY upped its output to 250 watts in 1940 (and eventually 10,000 watts in the 1970s). Billing itself as "The Only Radio Station BetweenAlbany andNew York City", WGNY would haveOrange County, New York, to itself untilMiddletown'sWALL signed on in 1942. During the 1940s and 50s, WGNY had satellite studios in Middletown andPoughkeepsie.
In 1952, WGNY switched itsnews affiliation fromUnited Press to theAssociated Press (AP). Speidel retired and was replaced as president by George W. Bingham. In 1953, a third station in Orange County signed on,WDLC inPort Jervis But WGNY's listening dominance in the county captured over half the audience as late as the mid-1950s.
More changes came in 1958, when WGNY Broadcasting sold out to Orange County Broadcasting, Inc. The studios were moved to Little Britain Road inNew Windsor, where they remain to this day.
In the fall of 1966, FM radio came to Orange County, with WFMN ("FM Newburgh") reaching the air on October 29, followed by Middletown's WALL-FM on November 11. WFMN, owned by brothers Wilbur and Donald Nelson, broadcast at 103.1 MHz and moved into 104 Broadway in Newburgh—just down the street from the old WGNY studios. WFMN and WGNY remained competitors until 1974, when WGNY bought out Stereo Newburgh, Inc. (which had bought WFMN the previous year).
WFMN changed its call sign to WGNY-FM in 1985, then toWJGK in 2010. Starting in February 26, 2011, a newWGNY-FM inRosendale, New York, began duplicating WGNY's AM signal on 98.9 MHz. Meanwhile, translator W231BP in Chester (WGNY's original location) began carrying WJGK's programming at 94.1 FM.
In 1968, Hudson Horizons (Kenneth Cowan, president) acquired WGNY; the following year, the station's lock on Orange County was loosened with the signing-on ofWTBQ inWarwick, New York.
In 1987, WGNY-AM-FM Newburgh waspurchased from Philip A. Newman by Kelly Guglielmi, who also owned LPTV in Ventner, NJ. Guglielmi was one of dozens of individuals and corporations who submittedletters to the FCC on behalf of WGNY regarding the "Amendment of Part 73 of the Rules to provide for an additional FM ) station class (Class C3) and to increase the maximum transmitting power for Class A FM stations)."
In June 1990, it was reported by the M Street Journal that WGNY had beentransferred from Kelly Guglielmi to CVC Capital Corp.
In the 1990s, WGNY sought a new transmitter site and a change to 1200 kHz, which would have improved WGNY's signal. The FCC turned down the frequency change, and the Town of New Windsor nixed the new site.
In recent years, WGNY has switched back and forth between oldies and sports. In March 2005, WGNY-AM-FM began alocal marketing agreement (LMA) with Port Jervis' WDLC andWTSX, with the four stations combining air staffs. WGNY began simulcasting a 1955-72 Oldies format with WDLC until January 2007, when WDLC dropped the oldies format in favor of a sports talk format fromESPN Radio. In February 2009, WDLC returned to the WGNY simulcast.
In 2013-14, WGNY saw three format changes in a little over twelve months. First, on April 3, 2013, the station switched back toESPN Radio.[4] A dispute with the all-sports chain led WGNY to switch back to oldies (simulcastingWGNY-FM) on March 17, 2014. Less than a month later, on April 16, 2014, WGNY re-joined ESPN.
In February 2017, WGNY switched to acountry music format simulcasting sister station 103.1 WJGK HD-2 as "Today's Best Country: Fox Country 1220 and Fox Country 103.1 HD2."[5]
Sometime in August 2017, WGNY switched back to an Oldies format, simulcasting sister station 98.9 WGNY-FM, as "Oldies 98.9/105.3/1220".
Sometime in October 2024, WGNY switched to a news/talk/sports format and also switched its translator from W287BY Newburgh to W233BM Beacon.