WAMC

WAMC is a public radio network headquartered in Albany, New York. As of May 2014, the network comprised 12 transmitters (stations) and 14 translators (relay stations). The organization's legal name is "WAMC" and it is also known as "WAMC Public Radio" or "WAMC/Northeast Public Radio Network".

In addition, the station operates The Linda/WAMC Performing Arts Studio, a performance venue in Albany located near its Central Avenue studios.

A member of NPR and affiliate of Public Radio International and American Public Media, WAMC is a charitable, educational, non-commercial broadcaster meeting the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. §501(c)(3)) It had total annual revenues for the fiscal year 2010 of $6.36 million.

Its corporate officers include Anne Erickson, chair of the board of trustees, and Alan S. Chartock, president and chief executive officer (since 1981).

History

WAMC started in 1958 as a radio station for the local hospital and medical school, Albany Medical Center and Albany Medical College. Albany Medical Center is a large tertiary-care hospital serving the upper Hudson Valley, and the medical school (with which it is affiliated) is one of the country's ACGME-accredited medical schools. The affiliation with Albany Medical Center was the source of the call letters "WAMC".

WAMC (AM)

WAMC is a public radio station licensed to Albany, New York and owned by WAMC, Inc. The station broadcasts at 1400 kHz at 1 kW unlimited, and is an AM repeater of WAMC-FM.

For 68 years, the station held the WABY calls, which were later located on an unrelated radio station broadcasting at 1160 kHz from Mechanicville, New York (which had been WMVI and took the WABY calls as a tribute to the original WABY).

History

WAMC came into the Albany market in 1934 as WABY when Al Kelert moved radio station WGLC from Hudson Falls, New York to Albany in turn making the first station to broadcast from that city (though not the first one to originate, a distinction held by WOKO, now WOPG). WABY originally broadcast on 1370 kHz at 250 watts, moving to 1400 kHz in 1941 during the NARBA frequency shift.

The station provided the typical mix of popular music and network programming throughout most of its first 30 years of service. In 1961, the station changed to a high energy top-40 format, but was short lived as the competition in that format was intense, leaving the format in late 1963. From 1964 to 1971, WABY ran a MOR format, followed by oldies in 1971, and a return to top-40 in 1973. By 1976, it had changed to all-news, using NBC's "News and Information Service." It then switched to country in 1979. In 1981, WABY changed to a Christian format until 1982 when it was flipped to adult standards. Getting many key market names, WABY spent years as one of the highest-rated standards stations in the United States, and added an FM simulcast on 94.5 MHz in 1995.