WRWC

Infobox Radio station
name = WRWC


city = Ellenville, New York
area = Hudson Valley, eastern Catskills
branding = "Country 99.3"
slogan = "Continuous Country Favorites"
airdate = 1974
frequency = 99.3 MHz
format = Country music, simulcast of WRWD-FM
power = 115 watts
erp = 6 kw
haat = 497 meters
class = A
callsign_meaning = WRWC=similarity to simulcast partner WRWD
former_callsigns = WELV-FM (1974-89)
WWWK (1989-95)
WTHN (1995-2001)
WFKP (2001-06)
owner = Clear Channel Communications
webcast =
website = [http://www.wrwdfm.com www.wrwdfm.com]
affiliations =

WRWC is a radio station licensed to Ellenville, New York and serving an area including much of the Hudson Valley and the eastern parts of the Catskills. WRWC is owned by Clear Channel Communications and broadcasts on 99.3 MHz at 330 watts power from a tower site on Shawangunk Ridge in Ellenville. The high elevation of this tower site gives the station a fringe coverage area that stretches from the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.

On November 20, 2006, WRWC (then WFKP) flipped from its "LiteFM" adult contemporary format (a "shadowcast" of the same format airing on WRNQ in Poughkeepsie) to two days of love songs as "Cupid 99.3". After that ended, WFKP began playing a "Country Holiday Favorites" format and announced that after Christmas the station will begin simulcasting with sister station WRWD-FM, also from Poughkeepsie. On November 28, new call letters of WRWC would follow.

History

The 99.3 frequency first signed on in 1974 as WELV-FM, sister to AM daytimer WELV (today's WRWD) and the first FM station in Ulster County outside of Kingston. The FM signal allowed WELV to extend its Middle of the Road programming with the two stations simulcasting during daytime hours with the FM continuing after the AM's signoff. This arrangement would continue until late 1988 with Eric Straus (grandson of Nathan Straus, then owner of WMCA in New York City) purchased the stations as the first stations in what would soon become a regional group.

Upon Straus' takeover in early 1989, WELV's long-standing format was broken with WELV-FM flipping to a music-intensive, mainly satellite-fed Adult Contemporary format as WWWK "(K-Lite)" with WELV simulcasting it much of the day. The "K-Lite" format would last until late 1994 when WWWK (and WELV) flipped to a satellite-fed Hot Adult Contemporary format, a format that would serve as a placeholder while Straus waited for a purchase of two stations in Hudson to close.

In the Spring of 1995, WWWK joined with WRVW in Hudson with the two stations simulcasting a satellite "hot country" format known as "Thunder Country" with WWWK changing its calls to WTHN in the process. With the move, the on-air operations for WTHN (and WELV) would move from Ellenville to Hudson, a move that would be short lived as both the Hudson and Ellenville stations would move to Poughkeepsie in 1997 when the format added WTND in that city.

Faced with competition from market dominant WRWD, WVOS-FM in Monticello, and WGNA-FM in Albany, the Thunder Country format never was successful. After Straus Media sold its stations to Clear Channel Communications in 2000, a format change at WTHN became apparent. On December 22, these rumors became truth when WCTJ (the former WTND) and WTHN entered joint stunting as "Variety 96 & 99" and launched as Rhythmic Top 40 that afternoon using Clear Channel's KissFM brand. Shortly after the start of 2001, WTHN would change its calls to WFKP to match that of WCTJ's new WPKF calls.

Though the Kiss format was successful marketwide and on WPKF, WFKP suffered from unsteady ratings in the nearby Newburgh/Middletown market. After a period of declining ratings, WFKP left its simulcast with WPKF in March 2005 to flip to an adult contemporary format as "LiteFM", airing a delayed and localized version of the programming heard on sister WRNQ in Poughkeepsie. However, the experiment proved unwieldy and in the wake of Clear Channel announcing the sale of their Poughkeepsie-area stations the simulcast was terminated on November 20, 2006. Coincidentally, this reunites the former WELV and WELV-FM in terms of programming, at least in the short-term.

External links

*FMQ|WRWC
*FML|WRWC