There's actually a few reasons why GHQ has problems as a talker:
1 - Duplicate programming which has been long-listened to in the valley on WABC.
2 - The HV is very receptive to public radio & talk-heavy WAMC in particular, which covers that area very well.
3 -Anywhere north of Kingston is well within WGY/WROW reaches. Again, duplicate programming with GY in a couple of timeslots. Any listeners there won't reflect in the POK arb's, as it's outta that market.
4 - GHQ is still essentially a daytimer. 78 watts at night may serve Kingston & sleepy little Saugerties, but that's about all.
5- Outside of a billboard here & there and a little cross-promotion, who knew about it? If folks wanted local news in Kingston, they knew to tune to heritage 1490. Without any major promotion, GHQ would have a hell of a time trying to yank listeners away. 920 more-or-less being a tumbleweed on the dial for the last 2 decades hasn't helped at all.
The HV has been a hostile market to the N/T format for quite some time. NYC signals are the main culprit, especially for city commuters who can keep 660/770/880 etc. on throughout their entire drive, while 920 starts petering out south of Poughkeepsie. It's not that GHQ is a bad station per se, actually a pretty run of the mill talker that you'd hear in any market. But there's really nothing that makes it standout in a market that some would consider is over-radioed to begin with.
If Pamal were interested in keeping a N/T station on the air, they'd be well served by doing so on FM. It's the only way that format has a chance of competing. As for 920... standards weren't a huge draw either, and not a sales machine by any sense. A direct simulcast of WROW perhaps?