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1570 am history

T

thebeach33445

Hey Guys:

Can anybody please help me out with the history of 1570 before it became WBUG Country Bug in 1990.

Thank you very much for your help.

T.J.
 
1570 in Amsterdam, WAFS, " Amsterdams Finest Station", debuted in 1961. It played a lot of old standard and Dave Garroway tapes. Somewhere around 1969-1970, the call was changed to WKOL by then owner Irving Segal, a local jeweler. "KOL" means "voice" in hebrew. It went through a few ownership changes; their was an owner whose last name was Carpenter. Under Carpenter it played mostly The was a group that included several part owners through the 70's. On December 9, 1977, fire destroyed the entire station at is transmitter location about 1.5 mile S. of Amsterdam. (I was part of the 3-man crew that put together a temporary radio station)In the late 60's and through the 70's it had a rock format and had been country a couple of different times. Barry Frank brought country in about 1971 or so. About 1989, Local businessman Joseph Isabel bought WKOL along with then WKOL-FM. Since he already owned WCSS AM, he at the time could not operate two AMs in the same city. So plans were made to move 1570 to Ballston Spa. The CP was all approved but it never happened. 1570 was dark for a while and was bought eventually (abt 1990)by Wm. (Bud) Walker from Ulster county who was a station owner down there. Walker had a CP for 101.1- Fort Plain. He used a satellite country format and simulcasted on both what was re-named WBUG- 1570 and new 101.1 WLKO. WLKO later was changed to WBUG-FM. For a while, their was a trimulcast with WBGG 900AM in Saratoga Springs. Walker sold 1570 and 101.1 perhaps 3 or 4 years later to Roser communications of Utica. A trimulcast resulted with WLFH 1230, Little Falls- Herkimer. About 6 years ago, the call was changed to WVTL. The Valleys Talk Leader featuring some local and some syndicated talk shows. Today it features some local talk and "beautiful music"
 
Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. 1570 AM is not crap to me. It's corny and old fashioned at times but it's refreshing compared to the canned formats of most stations today. Bob Cudmore with his morning talk show brings back a radio era before the extremist my way or the highway nuts took over. The music has an interesting variety of "easy listening" hits some of which I haven't heard in years. I regret the signal is weak where I live or I would listen more.
 
The Dude thinks everything is 'crap' these days. I guess it's an easy opinion to form when you dont actually listen.

As for 1570, wasn't that co-owned with WSCG in Corinth for a time? I remember seeing ad's in the Gazette featuring the coverage of the two stations - which were not simulcast at the time. (AM 1570 being AC, 93'SCG being a really good country station).

Local legend Bob Cudmore, and Dave Greene with the weather. Of course us night owls remember that name, don't we? (think Trivia). Back when overnight talk radio wasn't dominated by a certain 'Coast' show. Oh wait, there was that King guy.... :)
 
AMonFM said:
The Dude thinks everything is 'crap' these days. I guess it's an easy opinion to form when you dont actually listen.
Click to expand...

Ah man!!

I did listen to 1.57 bud when they first changed,i wasnt impressed!!

Im mostly listening to 1.3 these days :)
 
Yes, WSCG and WKOL were co-owned by Jedco Broadcasting. WSCG went on the air in Dec. 1981. Put on the air by Jedco which already owned WKOL 1570. Forgot to mention that previously. Oddly enough I worked at WSCG briefly in 1988 into 1989 when Ed Stanley owner of Jedco sold 93.5. I was his last overnight board operator. Not sure how long after WSCG signed on that WKOL was sold.
 
In 1957, Walt Gaines, former manager of WCSS, filed an application for a station on 1570 and was granted a temporary CP as WGAV. The station was testing from 1 am - 4 am and was up and ready to go when WCSS challenged the application. When it was successfully denied, someone else filed for the channel and WAFS took to the air in 1958. It changed calls to WKOL in March of 1967, because - and I quote a newspaper article of that day - "The letters, WKOL, were researched and found to be the most pleasing when often repeated by announcers." The station went dark in 1989, and retook to the air in 1990 as WBUG. I think that call died in 2004 when it was changed to WVTL. The transmitter site is the same one built in 1966 in the Town of Florida. Both 1570 AM and translator 104.7 FM (W284BZ) operate from the same stick.
 
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