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Mystery stations

Looking through old log books can lead to some interesting finds. Does anyone know about these stations?

WRVM-680
WRTK-1170
WIRQ-90.9

All of these stations are said to have been in Rochester, yet neither their call signs nor frequencies exist anymore.
 
I'd assume whatever both those AM stations were, they were both daytimers. I used to do AM Drive on 1170 WWVA/Wheeling. Nighttime antenna pattern blankets the Northeast but couldn't be picked up west of Columbus.
 
I recall picking up WRVM 680 at home in Cheektowaga back in the mid 60s. I believe it was a beautiful music format. Yes, it was a daytimer.

This, of course, was before CHFI or CFTR on 680. There may have been a 680 in TO, but it certainly didn't have the power of later years.

If I'm not mistaken, 680 became WNYR, before that station moved to 990.

Nick Seneca
 
WRVM was the predecessor to WNYR, Malrite's very successful Country station that took to the air in the mid-60s.  If I'm not mistaken, there was a time when they were Top 40 possibly before they were beautiful music.

Could the frequency listed (1170) be a typo since WHAM was on 1180? IIRC, WRTK was what WSAY (1370) became when purchased by Lew Dickey (father of current Cumulus owner) after Gordon Brown passed away. It was during this time that he hired Jack Slattery and George Haefner away from WHAM to host the morning show.

WIRQ was licensed to Irondequoit High School during this era. 
 
I'm quite certain the "WRTK 1170" is a typo for "WRTK 1370," which was the short-lived incarnation of the former WSAY between 1982 and 1984, when it became WXXI. WRTK started out as an ABC Talknet affiliate (hence the "Rochester TalK" callsign), but ended up doing satellite country (from Transtar?) at the end.

WRVM was 680's identity between 1957 and 1965. The 250-watt daytimer started out in 1946 as WRNY. The flip to WRVM brought the first top-40 format to the market, and at least one future big name: Johnny Holliday, who's now a big name on the DC sports scene, was a jock at WRVM. (He's still desperately looking for airchecks from his stint there circa 1959!)

In 1965, WRVM became WNYR, the market's first country station - and 15 years later it moved up the dial to full-time operation on 990, where it went through lots and lots of callsigns (can I remember them all? Let's try: WNYR, WEZO, WRMM, WCMF, WDCZ, WLGZ, WRCI, WDCX!) on the way to its present religious format.

And as noted earlier, WIRQ was the Irondequoit HS station that went from 90.9 to 93.3 to 94.3 to 104.7, and now holds a CP to return to 90.9.
 
"WRVM was 680's identity between 1957 and 1965. The 250-watt daytimer started out in 1946 as WRNY. The flip to WRVM brought the first top-40 format to the market, and at least one future big name: Johnny Holliday, who's now a big name on the DC sports scene"

He's now the voice of the University of Maryland Terrapins (he's called at least on Terps run to the NCAA basketball title so far, IIRC). Not to mention the last music personality who ever spun a record on 1010 WINS in New York, the evening before they went all-news in April of 1965.

"In 1965, WRVM became WNYR, the market's first country station - and 15 years later it moved up the dial to full-time operation on 990, where it went through lots and lots of callsigns (can I remember them all? Let's try: WNYR, WEZO, WRMM, WCMF, WDCZ, WLGZ, WRCI, WDCX!) on the way to its present religious format."

Very successful at the country format as "Winner 68" for a lot of years...and also had a strong news department, unusual for a daytimer (although WNYR's strong showing was also unusual for a daytimer in a top 50 market). Jim McLaughlin, later a news star in Buffalo at WKBW and WBEN, was WNYR's first news director back in 1964. My former colleague Mark Giardina later served as ND once WNYR went to 990 and 24/7 operation. That should tell you WNYR was serious about news, and brought in talented people to present it, for a long time, from the 60s deep into the 80s...
 
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