Empire Broadcasting has shuffled the programming at its Albany, NY stations.
After simulcasting Adult Standards “Moon Radio” on 900 WUAM Watervliet, 1160 WABY Mechanicville, and 106.1 W291BY Albany for the past month, 1160 and 106.1 have flipped to Gen X Hits “Mix 106.1“. Launching this past Thursday at 4pm after stunting with Gregorian Chants for a few days, the new format is positioning itself as “The Best Mix of the 80’s, 90’s & 2K” with a 90s centric playlist reminiscent of the format of the former “105.7 Crush-FM” that existed from January 2011 until September 2012.
Prior to the beginning of June, the Adult Standards “Moon” format existed solely on 1160 WABY, while 900 WUAM and 106.1 W291BY simulcasted the audio of Time Warner Cable News 9. Empire has requested new call letters for both AM’s with WABY moving with the Standards format to 900, and 1160 becoming WAIX.
radioguy1
GREAT – 1160 was 5000 watts with a transmitter in Saratoga County. 900 is a 400 watt transmitter located in Albany County. WABY (Mechanicville/Malta, NY Saratoga County) “MOST LOYAL” listeners and ADVERTISERS are in Saratoga County….not in Albany County. The new 900 signal is lost in the RFI “noise” during the day for Saratoga County listeners – is very poor – loaded with background ‘hiss’….for the most part UNLISTENABLE. At night IMPOSSIBLE in Saratoga County as Canadian Clear Channel CHML AM 900 Hamilton, Ontario completely obliterates any chance of reception. Bottom line (IMHO) is Empire Broadcasting cares little about the OLD WABY FORMAT (ADULT STANDARDS) and is more interested in getting it’s WPIX (The Mix) 106.1 FM (60’s-80’s oldies format///with a younger audience) established /// as they are simulcasting that on 1160AM. I have heard about the FCC’s “AM REVITALIZATION” plan and FM TRANSLATORS – but this IMO has little to do with revitalizing AM. Can’t believe these guys didn’t know their listener and advertiser base (Saratoga County), the signal pattern of their AM 900 transmitter and be unaware of the 900khz Canadian CHML 50K clear-channel blowtorch. One man’s opinion…..