WROW (590 AM) – branded Magic 590-1410 AM and 96.5-100.5 FM – is a commercial radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District, including Albany, Schenectady and Troy. WROW has a radio format featuring soft oldies with an occasional adult standard. It is owned by Pamal Broadcasting, with radio studios and offices in Latham. WROW serves as the local affiliate for CBS Radio News and is the Emergency Alert System (EAS) primary entry point for Northeastern New York state.
By day, WROW transmits 5,000 watts, but to avoid interfering with other stations on 590 AM, it reduces power at night to 1,000 watts and uses a directional antenna. Its four-tower array is on Weisheit Road in Glenmont, near the New York State Thruway. WROW is also heard on FM translator W263CG at 100.5 MHz and on WENU 1410 AM (which itself has a translator on 96.9 FM) in South Glens Falls.
History
Early years
On September 30, 1947, WROW first signed on. A startup company, Hudson Valley Broadcasting, acquired the rights to the frequency. The studios were at 112 State Street and Dr. J.J. Quinlan served as president. At the outset, the station had an affiliation with the Mutual Radio Network, switching to ABC in 1950.
The relationship with ABC was short lived, with WROW taking the CBS affiliation from 980 WTRY in November 1954, in a deal to get the rights to the CBS television network for its soon-to-debut co-owned TV station, WROW-TV channel 41, (today's ABC-affiliated WTEN on channel 10). In 1957, Hudson Valley Broadcasting became the Capital Cities Television Corporation, as Albany is the capital city of New York State. In 1960, the name was changed to Capital Cities Broadcasting, to reflect its increasing radio holdings, including WROW. (WROW is historically notable for being the first station owned by Capital Cities Communications, which in 1985 purchased the American Broadcasting Company, becoming one of the largest media companies in existence at the time of that purchase.)
The CBS Radio affiliation has remained on WROW since 1950, and was shared for a time with 100.9 WKLI-FM, the original home of the Magic format, beginning in 2001.
Beautiful music
In the late 1950s, WROW decided to flip to a Top 40 format, the first such attempt in the Capital District, which was initially a hit. But Capital Cities's success with the beautiful music format in New York City and other markets led WROW to switch to easy listening around 1963.
In October 1966, WROW signed on 95.5 WROW-FM (now WYJB), with the two stations simulcasting. On January 1, 1967, the Federal Communications Commission stopped allowing AM and FM stations in large cities to simulcast, except for 25% of their programming. To get around this rule, WROW-AM-FM began "shadowcasting" which allowed the same commercials to run on both stations, although the music on one station had to be delayed for a short time before it could be heard on the other station. (Most listeners were not even aware of this practice.) The combined signals of WROW and WROW-FM were among the most popular and financially successful radio outlets in the Capital District for most of the 1970s and 1980s.
In 1983, Capital Cities sold WROW-AM-FM to JAG Communications, owner of WLKW-AM-FM in Providence, Rhode Island, for $3.2 million; the company was controlled by John A. Gambling, morning host at WOR in New York City. JAG would sell WROW-AM-FM and WLKW-FM to Wilks/Schwartz Broadcasting for $15.39 million in 1987; the WROW stations soon ended up in the hands of Radio Terrace, owners of WLNA and WHUD in Peekskill a month later.
Switch to news/talk
The aging demographics of the easy listening format led to a split in programming for WROW-AM-FM in 1991, with WROW-AM keeping the easy listening sound. In 1993, the WROW stations were bought by Albany Broadcasting, which soon made changes to both stations. In February 1994, WROW flipped to an all-news format by day with talk programming nights and weekends.
Though a good idea on paper, the news format had low ratings and was a high expense format. In 1996, the station flipped to a full-time talk format. A slow starter at first, the arrival in 1997 of former WQBK host and program director Paul Vandenburgh helped improve ratings and made WROW a formidable second talk station next to talk leader WGY 810 AM.