WABY

Infobox Radio station
name = WABY


city = Mechanicville, New York
area =
slogan = The best music is on the moon
branding = "Moon Radio"
frequency = 1160 kHz
airdate = 1979
share = 0.8, #20
share as of = Fa'07
share source = R&R [cite news | first= | last= | coauthors= | title=Albany Market Ratings | date= | url=http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRRatings/DefaultSearch.aspx?MarketName=Albany-Schenectady-Troy&MarketRank=%20 | work =Radio and Records | pages = | date = | language = ]
format = Adult Standards/MOR
power = 5,000 watts
570 watts
erp =
haat =
class = B
facility_id = 41582
coordinates = coord|42|55|12|N|73|42|08|W|region:US_type:city
callsign_meaning =
former_callsigns =
owner = Anastos Media Group, Inc.
licensee =
sister_stations = WVKZ 1240, Saratoga County
webcast = http://stream1.shoutatme.com:7264/
website = http://www.saratogamoon.com/
affiliations = ABC Radio

WABY (1160 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Adult Standards/MOR format. Licensed to Mechanicville, New York, USA, the station serves the Albany area. The station is currently owned by Anastos Media Group, Inc. (an ownership group headed by New York City television news anchor Ernie Anastos) and features programing from ABC Radio. [ cite web|url=http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?call=WABY |title=WABY Facility Record |work=United States Federal Communications Commission, audio division ]

History

WMVI signed on the air in 1979 at 1170 kHz with 250 watts, daytime only operation. It was originally owned by WPTR legend "Boom Boom Branigan" (Joe Motto) who also owned other small AM stations around the Northeast US. The station had a hybrid format of oldies, standards and big-band music, which underwent very little change until the early 1990s. During the late 80's, WMVI had secured a construction permit to switch to 1160 kHz with 50,000 watts daytime power and modest nighttime power. However, ownership could not afford the upgrades the station needed for high-power, directional operation and the permit was left to expire. In the mid-90's, WMVI did secure another permit to switch to 1160 kHz with 5kW days / 570w nights, non-directional. Coming under Branigan's ownership once again in late 1995, WMVI would return after a brief period being off the air with an oldies/variety format which featured Branigan himself as the centerpiece of the station. Though the format proved popular with local listeners, the station had an extremely difficult time retaining advertising accounts due to repeated transmitter & 'telco' STL failures, forcing the station off the air repeatedly, sometimes for days at a time. As station employees moved to more secure jobs and operating funds became scarce, Branigan leased the station in 1998 to a group which aired Black Gospel music. Again, money shortages and aging, unreliable equipment forced Branigan to sell the station outright.

In August 2000, Anastos Media bought WMVI and brought it back on the air as a testing format of 1960s-70s music as "Sunny 1160" before entering a simulcast with co-owned pop-standards station WUAM in Saratoga Springs. Two years later, WMVI would take the abandoned WABY calls as a tribute to its former rival and the station whose death led to its rebirth.

The WUAM portion of the simulcast ended in April 2008, with the format change of WUAM to an audio simulcast of local cable TV news outlet Capital News 9.

The Original WABY

The WABY calls, though relatively new to the 1160 frequency, are a heritage callsign in the Capital District having spent 68 years (1934-2002) on one station, the longest run in the market besides that of WGY. That station came into the Albany market in 1934 when Al Kelert moved radio station WGLC from Hudson Falls, New York to Albany in turn making the first station to broadcast from that city (though not the first one to originate, a distinction held by WOKO, now WDDY). WABY originally broadcasted on 1370 kHz at 250 watts, moving to 1400 kHz in 1941 during the NARBA frequency shift.

The station provided the typical mix of popular music and network programming throughout most of its first 30 years of service. In 1961, the station flipped to a high energy Top 40 format, but was short lived as the competition in that format was intense. By 1968, WABY flipped to a Christian fomat which it would keep until the station was sold in 1982 to local businessman Paul Bendatt who flipped WABY to standards, the first such dedicated station of that format in the market. Getting many key market names, WABY would spend the next 15 years as one of the highest rated standards stations in the United States, eventually adding an FM simulcast on 94.5 MHz in 1995.

Info added 2-28-2008: The history in the above paragraph is not accurate. In the early 1970's, WABY adopted several different music formats. In 1971, an oldies format was installed that while not racking up great ratings, was received relatively well by the tri-city listening audience. (This information comes from a former employee who was there at the time.)

In February 1999, Bendatt sold his stations to Tele-Media, Inc. which flipped the AM side to an all-news format by day with simulcasting of the FM (which itself would flip to adult contemporary that summer) nights and weekends. This arrangement remained through Tele-Media's ownership of the station through Tele-Media's sale of WABY and WKLI to Galaxy Communications in August 2001 and through the flip of 94.5 FM to Classic Rock as WRCZ.

On April 22, 2002, the WABY calls would leave 1400 kHz as Galaxy replaced it with the WHTR calls as it launched a talk radio simulcast with new move in 93.7 FM. The talk format was short lived and that August both 1400 and 93.7 flipped to alternative rock as WKRD. Galaxy would later sell 1400 to Northeast Public Radio (WAMC) in February 2003.

References

External links

* [http://stream1.shoutatme.com:7264/ WABY audio stream] 24 kbit/s stream which can be accessed with dialup connection
*AM station data|WABY
Albany Radio