WSPK
Encyclopedia
WSPK is a CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 radio station
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...

 licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie (city), New York
Poughkeepsie is a city in the state of New York, United States, which serves as the county seat of Dutchess County. Poughkeepsie is located in the Hudson River Valley midway between New York City and Albany...

 and broadcasting from studios in Fishkill
Fishkill, New York
Fishkill is an upscale village within the much larger town, Town of Fishkill, one of the fastest growing towns in the region, in Dutchess County, New York, USA. The village population was 1,735 at the 2000 census...

. It is owned by Pamal Broadcasting
Pamal Broadcasting
Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd. is a family-owned radio ownership with stations in medium-to-small markets in the Northeast and Florida. Based in the Albany suburb of Latham, New York, Pamal Broadcasting was founded in 1986 as Albany Broadcasting when business man James J. Morrell entered broadcast...

 and broadcasts on 104.7 MHz at an ERP
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...

 of 7.4 kilowatts from a tower at the top of Mount Beacon in Fishkill.

WSPK's main coverage area is centered on the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...

 with secondary targeting into the eastern Catskills, Northern Westchester County
Westchester County, New York
Westchester County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. Westchester covers an area of and has a population of 949,113 according to the 2010 Census, residing in 45 municipalities...

, the Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury, Connecticut
Danbury is a city in northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It had population at the 2010 census of 80,893. Danbury is the fourth largest city in Fairfield County and is the seventh largest city in Connecticut....

 area, and Pike County, Pennsylvania
Pike County, Pennsylvania
-National protected areas:* Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area * Middle Delaware National Scenic River * Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River -Demographics:...

. For many years, the station's top-of-hour ID mentioned its coverage of parts of five states (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts) and "an itty-bitty piece of Vermont." WSPK reaches the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

 and, until the launch of stations at adjacent frequencies in the early 1990s, Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

 as well. In recent years illegal pirate broadcasters have begun broadcasting on 104.7 in the Bronx and Brooklyn which interfere with K-104's signal in Southern Westchester and the Bronx where the station used to be listenable all the time.

History

Poughkeepsie Newspaper Incorporated, then owner of WKIP, signed on WHVA 104.7 MHz on December 7, 1947. It was the first FM station to sign on between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and the Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

 area. The transmitter site was located on North Mount Beacon in an area that was mainly a bungalow colony above the Mount Beacon Incline Railway
Mount Beacon Incline Railway
The Mount Beacon Incline Railway was a popular tourist attraction in Beacon, New York, USA, and the neighboring Town of Fishkill. It operated for much of the 20th century, providing sweeping views of the Hudson Valley and efforts continue to restore it today....

 and casino. The building and tower had been previously used by WOKO
WDDY
WDDY is an AM radio station licensed to Albany, New York. It broadcasts in HD Radio from facilities located in Delmar, New York, operating with 5000 watts of power on 1460 kHz...

 in the late 1920s. While that site did not work well for AM radio because of the poor ground conductivity, it proved an excellent site for FM radio due to its height advantages.

In its early years, the station played classical music and for a time was a part of a regional network operated by station WQXR
WQEW
WQEW is a Radio Disney affiliate licensed to New York City. Its transmitter is located in Maspeth, Queens. WQEW has a transmitter power of 50,000 watts and is listed as a Clear-channel station...

. In 1950, WHVA was sold to the Rural Radio Network, which later turned into Northeast Radio Corp. The call sign was changed to WRRH. In June 1953, WRRH was sold to Dutchess Broadcasting Corporation, owners of WKIP. This would make the second time the station was co-owned with WKIP. The call letters were changed to WKIP-FM and the station adopted a full time simulcast of WKIP's full service format.

In 1968 WKIP-FM added stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...

 capabilities and split off from its AM sister station with a Top 40 format.

1970 WKIP-FM was sold to Beacon Broadcasting, owner of WBNR, and took on new call letters: WSPK(Stereo Poughkeepsie). With new owners came a 60% simulcast with WBNR
WBNR
WBNR is the callsign of an AM radio station licensed to Beacon, New York and serving the Hudson Valley. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and broadcasts on 1260 kHz at 1,000 watts daytime and 480 watts nighttime, both directional, from a four-tower array at 475 South Avenue in the of...

 that created a varied middle of the road/classical/beautiful music format which was commonplace on many FM stations at the time. The new owners also chose an unusual identifier for an FM frequency: 10-47 (said on-air as "ten-forty-seven").

By 1972, the station changed to a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 format to counter the newly relaunched WPDH
WPDH
WPDH is a mainstream rock radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York, and serving from extreme Northern New Jersey to New York's Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts on 101.5 MHz at 4.4 kilowatts ERP from a tower site on Illinois Mountain in...

. Country did not last long on the frequency and in 1975 WSPK took on a Top 40-leaning album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...

 format which struggled after WPDH took on a truer AOR format. In 1978, the station went to an unusual CHR/Oldies hybrid called "Gold N' Stereo" combining music by Sugarhill Gang, Neil Diamond, The Who, Abba, Free, Prince, and the Monkees. The station itself evolved to a more pure CHR "hit music" format from 1980 through 1981.

K104 history

In 1980, then program director Stew Schantz (formerly of WPDH
WPDH
WPDH is a mainstream rock radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York, and serving from extreme Northern New Jersey to New York's Hudson Valley and Catskills. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts on 101.5 MHz at 4.4 kilowatts ERP from a tower site on Illinois Mountain in...

) re-worked the station's image, branding it K-104. Schantz and the station's sales manager, Chuck Stewart, picked up the idea from a sales conference out west (there, station call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...

s usually begin with a "K" where east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 they usually begin with a "W"). The new name worked wonders for a station which had spent the previous decade adrift. Stew returned to mornings at WPDH but he would later return again to K-104 in the late '80s. Jim Simonetti was WSPK's first PD in its new incarnation as an Adult Top 40 calling itself K-104. He would later transfer to Beacon Broadcasting's WSCR in Scranton,PA. Chris Leide would succeed him as PD.

By the early 1990s, K-104 evolved to a more adult-leaning approach as the CHR format went into a short-term decline. The decline was mainly due to Country Music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

's resurgence immediately following the Persian Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

. With this, the numbers weakened even though there was no real competition for its target audience. In 1996, owner Beacon Broadcasting sold their remaining stations Enterprise Media of Binghamton
Binghamton, New York
Binghamton is a city in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. It is near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers...

. Their ownership was short lived, as they in turn sold WBNR and WSPK to Pamal Broadcasting in 1998. Upon Pamal's take over, Schantz resigned from the station. He later went on to do behind-the-scenes work in Utica, Albany and Pittsfield, MA. Schantz died in June, 2010.

After Schantz's departure, Brian Krysz took on the program director's responsibilities until May 1999, when Scotty Mac (formerly nights in 1991) took over. The changes led to a re-imaged CHR approach which leaned towards dance music, then a rarity in the United States. The station's ratings improved, regaining top position in many key demographics, as well as the 12+ bragging rights. Though in recent years competition has come in the form of WPKF
WPKF
WPKF is a Rhythmic Top 40 radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York and serving the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York state. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and broadcasts at 6 kilowatts ERP from a tower mounted on the roof of the Ross Pavilion at the Hudson River...

 and the station is a perennial #1, K-104 is still a dominant force in the Hudson Valley radio markets.

K-104 is known for its use of VO veteran Mark Driscoll as the station's voice from 1994–1996 and from 1999 thru today.

K107

In early 2003, Pamal Broadcasting purchased WYNY
WXPK
WXPK, , 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.-History:...

 (107.1 MHz), the Westchester County portion of the Y-107/Rhumba 107.1
WYNY (New York)
WYNY was the call letters of radio stations on three different FM frequencies in or around New York City. The stations on the first two frequencies, 97.1 and 103.5, were closely related while the last one, 107.1 on an FM Quadcast, was not....

"quadcast" from Nassau Broadcasting (which itself had bought all four stations from Big City Radio). On April 9 of that year, WYNY took on the WXPK
WXPK
WXPK, , 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.-History:...

 calls and the stations relaunched as K-104 and K-107. Due to various problems keeping the station on the air and generating revenue with the Westchester signal, the simulcast ended one year later when the 107.1 frequency changed to adult album alternative
Adult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....

 as 107.1 The Peak.

Programming

K-104 is one of the few Hudson Valley radio stations (along with co-owned WHUD) that is live 24/7. This allows much better audience interaction than can be found on its voice tracked competitors. Many other Hudson Valley stations, notably Clear Channel stations, are voice-tracked virtually all day long, with almost nobody inside a building that's home to 14 stations.

KFEST

WSPK holds a yearly event known as K*Fest; for more information see K Fest (Radio). In 2007, rapper Akon
Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, better known as simply Akon , is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first...

 threw a boy off the stage into the crowd, an event which attracted media attention. As of November 29, 2007 charges have been filed against Akon
Akon
Aliaune Damala Badara Thiam, better known as simply Akon , is a Senegalese American R&B recording artist and songwriter.According to Forbes, Akon grossed $21 million in 2010, $20 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2008. He rose to prominence in 2004 following the release of "Locked Up", the first...

 regarding this incident. Charges include, Endangering the Welfare of a Minor, a misdemeanor and second-degree harassment
Harassment
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour intended to disturb or upset, and it is characteristically repetitive. In the legal sense, it is intentional behaviour which is found threatening or disturbing...

.

KFEST 2011

WSPK just announced their 16th KFEST. Set to take place on Sunday June 5 at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls. Acts are to include Big Time Rush, Allstar Weekend, Tinie Tempah, Mike Posner, Flo Rida, Jeremih, LMFAO, New Boyz, Shontelle, ISQuare, The Ready Set, Jordan Knight from New Kids On The Block, Shaggey, Ludacris, and up-in-coming Australian Popstar Cody Simpson.

Gates Open At 11:00
Concert Starts: 12:00

Tickets start at $44 for this all day music event!

K104online.com for all the details!

The K104 Christmas Wish

Every Holiday Season K104 conducts an event, The 12 Days Of Christmas wish. Where Listeners have the chance to write about someone they know who has had a rough time through the year and they are given the chance to write a letter and are able to earn the family they are writing about a chance to have a magical holiday season with the 12 days of Christmas wish giving that family a $500 gift certificate to one of the area malls.
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