Albany Radio-October, 1990

[TimeTraveler]

88.3-WVCR-College
89.1-WMHT-Classical
90.3-WAMC-NPR/Classical/Jazz
91.5-WRPI-College/Progressive
92.3-WFLY-Top 40
95.5-WROW-Soft A/C
96.7-WVKZ-Active Rock "PowerRock KZ96-7"
97.7-WKOL-A/C
98.3-WSHZ-Oldies "Super Hit Oldies Sho-FM"
99.5-WGY-Oldies "Oldies 99.5"
100.9-WKLI-Soft A/C
101.3-WSSV-A/C
101.9-WJIV-Bible Thumper
102.7-WEQX-Modern Rock
103.1-WHRL-Jazz/New Age
103.5-WSHQ-Oldies (simulcast of 98.3)
103.9-WQBK-Classic Rock "Q-104"
104.9-WSRD-Oldies
106.5-WPYX-AOR/Classic Rock
107.7-WGNA-Country

590-WROW-Soft A/C
810-WGY-Full service A/C
980-WTRY-Oldies
1160-WMVI-Big Band/Nostalgia
1240-WVKZ-Talk
1300-WQBK-Talk
1330-WHAZ-bible thumper
1400-WABY-Nostalgia
1460-WGNA-Country
1540-WPTR-News

 

[Andrew_MacKenzie]

> 96.7-WVKZ-Active Rock "PowerRock KZ96-7"

Wasn't this around the time of the transistion to the WDRE network?


> 98.3-WSHZ-Oldies "Super Hit Oldies Sho-FM"
> 99.5-WGY-Oldies "Oldies 99.5"

GY-FM had the personalities and the fat signal, but 98.3 had the better library. A now forgotten battle for the oldies format, where oldies fans really benefitted. Both stations were going the extra mile trying to grab audience at this time.


> 101.3-WSSV-A/C

I personally think that this time period was the highlight of 101.3's history. They haven't sounded as good since, either as "The Jockey" or "Star".



++ 102.3 WQQY - Hot AC / would have been about year after this when they moved from West Ave. in Saratoga to Clifton Park and flipped to rock.


> 104.9-WSRD-Oldies

Ya' know... I'm kinda missing those infamous Joey Caruso liners... and the modulation levels that would change as often as the weather.



> 1240-WVKZ-Talk

This must have been right after they stopped simulcasting KZ-96.7. There was nothing like hearing AC/DC on an AM with a POTS STL

 

[TimeTraveler]

> > 96.7-WVKZ-Active Rock "PowerRock KZ96-7"
>
> Wasn't this around the time of the transistion to the WDRE
> network?

Not really...several months later they went top 40, as "Powerhits". In '92,
it went hot a/c as Capital 96.7-WWCP. The DRE network started Memorial Day weekend, 1994, and lasted for a year and a half until the change to Oldies, as WXXO.
>
> > 98.3-WSHZ-Oldies "Super Hit Oldies Sho-FM"
> > 99.5-WGY-Oldies "Oldies 99.5"
>
> GY-FM had the personalities and the fat signal, but 98.3 had
> the better library. A now forgotten battle for the oldies
> format, where oldies fans really benefitted. Both stations
> were going the extra mile trying to grab audience at this
> time.
>
Agreed...and that SHO-FM simulcast was phenomenal, the best Oldies station, that I have ever heard. Plus, you also had WSRD and WTRY-AM, playing Oldies, too.
> > 101.3-WSSV-A/C
>
> I personally think that this time period was the highlight
> of 101.3's history. They haven't sounded as good since,
> either as "The Jockey" or "Star".
>
>
>
> ++ 102.3 WQQY - Hot AC / would have been about year after
> this when they moved from West Ave. in Saratoga to Clifton
> Park and flipped to rock.

That is correct. The problem with the WQQY/WASM signal, was that you really couldn't hear it, south of exit 8....
>
> > 104.9-WSRD-Oldies
>
> Ya' know... I'm kinda missing those infamous Joey Caruso
> liners... and the modulation levels that would change as
> often as the weather.

And don't forget badly needed simulcasts of channel 10 news, a couple of times a day, and Joey Caruso's remotes, too...


>
> > 1240-WVKZ-Talk
>
> This must have been right after they stopped simulcasting
> KZ-96.7. There was nothing like hearing AC/DC on an AM with
> a POTS STL

Oh yeah...they would have Bob Greene do an all over the road show during the mid-day, on 1240AM, and than AC/DC and Guns N Roses, the rest of the day on AM, with 1975 processing...

 

[Anonymous]

Oldies Discussion

I noticed some discussion about the oldies stations of the early 1990s and wanted to add my memories of those days. I started listening to WTRY (then only on 980 AM) back in the Fall of 1989, and they sounded pretty good. However, after Oldies 99.5 came on board in October 1990, with a good FM signal, it wasn't more than a few months before I defected to WGY-FM. Unfortunately, WSHZ and WSHQ didn't penetrate my part of the Capital Region back then, so I didn't listen to them much.

I came back to WTRY in October 1991, Halloween Day in fact, when they went FM on 98.3. The "SHO" simulcast didn't work out, and subsequently, WSHQ went AC. WTRY was, to me, the better oldies station over WGY-FM, with a bigger playlist than WGY-FM, and WGY-FM didn't have as upbeat a presentation. I don't think any jock on WGY-FM was allowed to talk up an intro, or if it did happen, my memory is just horrible and I forgot.

I found I didn't care for WTRY's inception as "Oldies 98 WTRY", from May 1992-April 1993, when their playlist seriously tightened up. I went back to them in April 1993, during their "Real Oldies" days, but finally left oldies for a while when they brought on Imus, and there wasn't any time to hear the oldies in the morning any longer.

In the early-1990s, Steve Bornfeld of the Albany Times Union, who was their then-radio and TV columnist, protested such a glut of oldies stations. Just 4 years later, in November 1994, WTRY-FM went all-70s, leaving no FM oldies stations in the market. What a change! I do remember WXXO, the oldies station on 96.7, and later a return of WTRY to 98.3, so the market wasn't long without oldies.

Anyway, just some memories of oldies in Albany. I find myself glued to WKLI these days, attracted to the oldies I know, plus the standards that I'm enjoying more and more as I age.