WGGO

WGGO
City Salamanca, New York
Broadcast area Western Twin Tiers
Slogan Good Times Great Oldies
Frequency 1590 kHz
First air date June 19, 1957 (as WNYS)
Format Simulcasting WQRS
Power 5,000 watts day
14 watts night
Class D
Facility ID 9409
Callsign meaning Great Golden Oldies
Former callsigns WNYS (1957-1960s)
Owner Assets held by Michael Washington
(Licensed to Sound Communications LLC)

WGGO is an AM radio station located in Salamanca, New York, United States. The station broadcasts at 1590 kHz. Its assets are owned by Michael Washington, with studios and transmitter in Kill Buck. Its license is held by Sound Communications, who has operated the station intermittently since 2017.

History

WGGO signed on June 19, 1957 under the guidance of religious broadcaster George Thayer as WNYS, although they changed their call signs fairly early in their existence. (Thayer is still alive today and continues to produce religious broadcasts.)

One of WGGO's most notable alumni is CBS weatherman Ira Joe Fisher, who worked at the station for his first job in 1963.

In the late 1970s/early 1980s, WGGO's original programming included "Tradio on the Radio" and a top 25 countdown show called "The Most Alive 25". During this time period, one of the evening DJs went by the moniker "Johnny B. Goode", and would end each broadcast day by playing the Chuck Berry hit before sign-off.

WGGO was a local operation well into the 1990s, when it ran a country music and variety format. Some time in the late 1990s, WGGO switched to a satellite nostalgia format ("America's Best Music") from Westwood One. In 2003, the station moved to an MOR format ("Unforgettable Favorites") from ABC Radio, with ABC News Radio updates at the top of each hour.

Prior to 2003 the station was a daytime-only station that, regardless of time of year, would always sign off at 5:00 PM each day. The station now broadcasts at a nominal power level at night.

End of local programming

In 2006, Pembrook Pines Media Group (an ownership group led by Robert Pfuntner) purchased the station's license and assets from previous owner Michael Washington. Pembrook Pines changed the format to sports radio along with sister stations WELM in Elmira and WPIE in Ithaca. The last regularly scheduled local non-brokered program on the station, Tradio, was dropped unceremoniously in 2008. On Sunday September 12, 2010 at 9:22am, the longest running program on WGGO AM, "The Voice Of Living Waters", ended its run; Bill Ferguson, Sr. (1924-2012) started the program in 1963. The program was first called "The Voice of Many Waters" and had as its theme song the song of the same title. The ESPN Radio affiliation moved to WHDL in October 2013, at which point WGGO assumed an adult standards/oldies format.

Sound Communications was slated to buy what is left of Pembrook Pines in 2014, and changed the format to its current one in late 2013 (at the time simulcasting WEHH in Elmira) upon the assumption of a local marketing agreement, but withdrew its bid days before it was to close because of cross-ownership objections. Once those objections were resolved (WEHH was not included in the revised sale, so that simulcast had to be broken), Sound acquired WGGO.

According to property records on file at Cattaraugus County, Sound Communications only purchased WGGO's license; previous owner Michael Washington reacquired the transmitter site, former studio and tower in the Pembrook Pines bankruptcy in 2015.

WGGO flipped to an all-syndicated talk format in early 2016 with content from Salem Radio Network's "The Answer." All of the sports programming on the station (at the time this consisted of Buffalo Bisons baseball and a package of Allegany-Limestone Central School athletics) continued unaffected.

The station was knocked off the air when its tower collapsed as the result of a windstorm in March 2017. At the time, Washington and Sound were in discussion with the insurance company about rebuilding the tower.[1] On March 7, 2018, one day before its license was to be automatically forfeited to the FCC, WGGO returned to the air,[2] airing an automated loop of early-to-mid-1970s soft rock. Two weeks later, the station began simulcasting WQRS; the station's operations have once again been intermittent since mid-April.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.fybush.com/nerw-20170313/
  2. ↑ https://www.fybush.com/nerw-20180312/

Coordinates: 42°10′24″N 78°41′07″W / 42.17333°N 78.68528°W / 42.17333; -78.68528

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