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WWLE 1170 Cornwall

N

NYCHVRadio

Does anyone have any information on WWLE 1170AM?

All I can find is: It's broadcasting from Cornwall and that it's a CNN affiliate.

Does anyone know anything else about this station?

Thanks.
 
At this time and for the past few years, the station has died a slow death under the control of Hudson Valley Press (formerly known as Hudson Valley Black Press) owner Chuck Stewart.

They do not broadcast local news and have only very few local shows (if they still have them at all). Most of the time, they simulcast what you see on CNN Headline News Cable TV.

This frequency could be a valuable community radio station in Eastern Orange and Western Dutchess/Putnam counties and would provide needed competition for WGNY-AM if it were actually tended to.
 
WWLE has been deteriorating for years because, while low power (800 watts) daytime only stations made sense in the mid sixties when the frequency signed on, with all the competition from the multitude of stations available on FM now they don’t anymore. The owners can’t afford to put any money into it they are really just keeping the transmitter warm. WWLE can’t broadcast at night because of clear channel 1170 WWVA in WHEELING, West Virginia. I am not defending them it’s just a fact.
 
It should be noted that WWLE has a construction permit for 2500 watts days and 500 watts nights. Under the CP the station will change frequency from 1170 to 1150. The day signal will use for towers with a pattern that is pretty much an expanded version of their current array. The night signal will use three towers and will be beamed generally Southeast, but it should still put a fairly respectable signal into the Newburgh-Beacon area.

When I worked there in the early 70s we were 1000 watts with four towers, daytime -- no presunrise, no post-sunset. For those who remember the station in those days, it's MOR format was top notch with decent major market sounding announcers. Don Kirby from Philly and Bill Beal from New Orleans come to mind, as well as the daily syndicated mid-day show with Jerry Marshall (ex-WNEW). The PAMS "Smart Set" package (also used by WRCV in Philly and by BBC Radio 2) also helped to give the station a great on-air presence.

I think that comments some have made about the daytime only nature of the station throughout its history are dead on. As I remember the station signed on in 1969 and by the late 70s it was already in deep trouble. But I do remember friends at WALL at the time of WWLE's institution saying, "damn, they sound good." High praise coming from the one station in Orange County that nobody could touch in those days.

Trivia Question: What does WWLE stand for?
Answer: "William L. Edmunds", the original owner of the station's construction permit.

The CP was sold to a consortium that included future Yonkers Mayor Angelo Martinelli and long time broadcaster John Farrina (who was the real force behind the station's professional sound.) It later traded hands several times, and was dark for quite some time.
 
I worked at 1170 in the mid-80's. By 1983 (I don't know the date it changed) it was WCRR. It was owned by a couple of people. In late 84-early 85 it was sold to Victor S. Goldberg and changed it's calls to WVSG. I don't know the history before or after that. The Studios were located in Cornwall-On-Hudson on Hudson St, across from the Post Office between the park and the School. Anybody know what happen to the folks that worked there then?
 
Which is really a shame because you get the station pretty much from Sloatsburg to Kingston on the New York State Thurway. Lots of rhubes passing through to spend money in the good old Hudson Valley.

It seems like something a little more productive could be done with this.

Then again, the same could be said for WALL.
 
I was a newscaster and weekend DJ back in 1977 through 1978. The station was competitive with WGNY and WBNR. The station manager at the time (and morning man) John Roberts lacked any creativity and refused to allow the air staff to "speak with the audience" instead wanted you to talk at the audience. Our afternoon man, Charlie Leverich and I would chat back and forth on air and within 5 minutes the phone would ring and we would get repremanded. Dare we ever put a listener on air!!!!
Sadly, any air staff that wanted to do more than read commericals and announce the next song left. That's when the station started it's decline. The last time I heard it about three years later, it was doing radio auctions. Now I read it just broadcasts CNN. Too sad for a station that could play with the big boys if they tried.
 
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