WXPK, (107.1 The Peak), is an Adult Album Alternative rock radio station in White Plains, New York. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and transmits from a tower in the Westchester County Correctional Facility with an ERP of 1.9 KW.
In 1971, WRNW changed to an easy listening format, and then to Top 40. In 1972, the station transitioned to a Progressive Rock format. On Monday, July 9, 1973, WRNW inaugurated transmissions from its new Briarcliff Manor studio on the second floor of a small house at 55 Woodside Avenue. The new transmitter was in Irvington, blanketing White Plains, Yonkers and lower Westchester. It was there, in 1977, that Howard Stern obtained his first paying radio job as a DJ and program director. Meg Griffin, later of WNEW-FM, WPIX, WXRK (K-rock), WFUV and Sirius Satellite Radio, was also Music Director of the station during the mid-70s. Earle Bailey (WLIR, WNEW-FM, WMMR Philadelphia, XM Satellite Radio) manned a shift at the station during the progressive rock era as did Doug Berman, now producer of National Public Radio programs Car Talk and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.
In 1982, the station moved to an adult contemporary (AC) format, first known as Magic 107. It soon adopted the WZFM call letters and became known on-air as Z-107. The AC format was in place until 1991.WZFM was perhaps best known as the home of "The Saturday Night Special," a freewheeling five-hour request 'n' contest good time oldies/comedy series which, over a nine-year run, became the station's highest-rated program. Co-hosts Gary Theroux and Kerin McCue also developed spinoff specials which were syndicated to other outlets, such as "The Halloween Spooktacular" and the 12-hour "Christmas Through The Years." A three CD adaptation of the latter was released by Reader's Digest Records and ultimately sold over six million box sets. "The Saturday Night Special" remained on the air through a call letter change to WXPS The Express until the station was sold to new owners.
In the early 90s, the new owners flipped the station to an alternative rock format as Today's Rock: X-107 with the WRGX call letters. In 1996, the station became part of the Big City Radio trimulcast (and eventual quadcast) with other 107.1 stations on Long Island, in northern New Jersey and, later, the Allentown/Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania area. WRGX and the other two multicast stations switched formats to Country as Y-107. WRGX became known as WWXY and later adopted the call letters of former New York City country station WYNY.
In 2002, The quadcast adopted a Spanish Contemporary music format branded Rumba 107. The format was ill-suited to the quadcast suburban signals, and at the end of the year, Big City Radio filed for bankruptcy and sold the quadcast to Nassau Broadcasting. Nassau broke up the quadcast, leasing WYNY to Pamal Broadcasting under a Local marketing agreement (LMA).
In 2003, Pamal changed the call letters to WXPK and used 107.1 to relay the signal of their CHR station WSPK Poughkeepsie. WXPK became known on-air as K-107. In 2004, Pamal ended the WSPK simulcast and debuted the adult album rock format WXPK has today as The Peak. Pamal completed the purchase of WXPK from Nassau at the end of 2004.
The "Peak Performance Series" brings artists to what the station calls "the world’s most intimate performance venue," the Acme Recording and Mastering studio in Mamaroneck, New York. Select members of the station's listener rewards program, The Peak Listener Advisory Board, are invited to attend. The sessions are recorded and played back on the air. The resulting tracks are exclusive to The Peak and are generally not available for purchase or download, although the station has released compilation albums.
Like format leaders KBCO in Denver and KFOG in San Francisco, The Peak airs a locally produced "10 at 10" weekdays at 10 am and 10 pm. The program features 10 songs from a single year peppered with snippets of popular movies, television shows and commercials from that year. In 2006, the editors of Westchester Magazine named "The Peak’s 10 at 10 hosted by Rob Arrow" the Best Local Radio Show. In the annual "Best of Westchester" 2007 issue, readers voted The Peak best radio station. In 2008, Jimmy Fink was named "Best Radio Personality" by the readers of Westchester Magazine.
Category:Adult album alternative radio stations in the United States XPK Category:Radio stations established in 1960
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