WDBY (105.5 FM, "Kicks 105-5") is an American country music radio station licensed to Patterson, New York. The station primarily serves the Greater Danbury listening area. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts from a tower located in Patterson, New York near the Putnam/Dutchess county line. WDBY also operates a booster, WDBY-FM1 in Brookfield, Connecticut, which broadcasts with 1.2 kilowatts.
Though it is the only FM station in Putnam County, WDBY's primary target market is Danbury, Connecticut. Even though the hills in and around Danbury, Connecticut limits the main 105.5 signal, the Brookfield booster has the ability to cover the primary coverage area. WDBY also targets eastern Putnam County as well as southern Dutchess County, where it regularly rates in the Poughkeepsie market. Due to its tower height, WDBY's signal covers most of the RT-22/I-684 corridor. The WDBY studios are located at 1004 Federal Road in Brookfield, Connecticut.
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Early history and Majic 105
The 105.5 frequency first signed on (as a Docket 80-90 station) in the spring of 1981 as WRVH, airing a beautiful music/classical music hybrid format in competition with WHUD and WEZN. Richard Novick, former owner of WKIP and WRNQ in Poughkeepsie, New York was WRVH's first owner/operator. The station's building was constructed with the beautiful music format in mind as all three studios (Production, FM, and AM) had very high ceilings. The production studio's ceiling was also acoustic and at one time chamber music was both played and recorded there. In later years, the large room also doubled as a jock lounge. WRVH was an early success in Putnam County and got better-than-expected numbers in both Dutchess County and Danbury, Connecticut because for many listeners it was one of the few well-signaled stations in the area.
In the mid-1980s, beautiful music began to decline. Listeners were aging out of the format and stations were playing more vocals. Dick Novick then sold WRVH to Ron Graiff and that led the station to switch to Adult Contemporary and become WMJV (MAJIC 105) on July 21, 1986. The call letters stood for Majic (MJ) and the Roman numeral for 5 (V). The station's new main competitor was then Contemporary-formatted WVIP-FM and later WHUD and WDAQ.
In the early 1990s, Majic 105's on-air staff included Bob Stanhope, Dick Farrell and Gary Peters (mornings), PD/MD Al Matthews (middays), Flora Whitelaw, Langdon Towne and Cutler Whitman (afternoons), "Rich Andrews" (aka Joe Thomas), Hank Tuttle and Jim Hartman (nights), John Harrison, Cutler Whitman and Langdon Towne (overnights) and weekenders Joe Rondini, JJ, Jed Taylor and Rob Deldin.
Putnam/Westchester simulcast and Super Station era
In the early 1990s, Majic 105 began to have more competition as the rivals it had as WRVH also evolved to Adult Contemporary, in turn giving the station bigger signaled and heritage competition. In late September 1993 in order to more effectively compete with WHUD and WFAS-FM in Westchester and Putnam County and WDAQ in Danbury, Connecticut Majic 105's owner/manager Ron Graiff acted on impulse and purchased WVIP-FM (106.3 FM) in Mount Kisco, New York from Martin Stone. WVIP-FM by then had encountered tough times, it was airing a gold-based AC format with some dayparts live and some satellite-fed. It had become a shell of its former self. The plan was to expand WMJV's reach via simulcast further south into Westchester County for a bigger and better area-wide signal. The stations could then be heard from Dover Plains to White Plains. On Friday night September 24 at 7PM, Alix Bragga did the last show on WVIP-FM. The last song played was "The Star Spangled Banner" by Whitney Houston. The station then signed off at midnight and was moved overnight from Radio Circle in Mount Kisco, New York to the WMJV studios on RT-292 in West Patterson. On Saturday morning September 25 the plan turned into reality as WVIP-FM became WMJU (the calls meant nothing - it was alphabetically before WMJV and looked similar). The stations were then simulcast and branded as "NY's Super Station" super-serving both Putnam County and Westchester County. Weekender Jed Taylor did the first show at 6 am. The format was upgraded from AC to Hot AC and in time it became Putnam County's Arbitron rated #1 radio station. At its peak, Super Station had a music library of almost 1,300 songs that spanned the 1970s, 1980s up to the mid-1990s and was consistently rotated. All music decisions were made in-house and its positioning statement was "The Most Music and the Best Variety". It was very successful for its time although it lasted just two years.
Super Station was locally programmed by multi-market PD (and former WVIP-AM/FM PD) Al Matthews (middays) with an air staff that included Gary Peters, Ray Graff and John Chipman (mornings), Cutler Whitman and Chris Cimmino (afternoons), APD/MD Jim Hartman (nights), Langdon Towne (overnights) and weekenders Jed Taylor, Alix Bragga, Colleen Brown, KC Kressu, Kyle Kelley, Steve Maiolo, Bobby West, Tim Court, Paul Hoch, Chris Todaro, Jim McCannon, Mike Cannivaro and Rob Deldin. The news department was headed by ND Janice Berliner (mornings), Jennifer Fogarty and Greg Messinger (afternoons). Morning and afternoon traffic reports were handled by Kyle Kelley and Steve Maiolo. The chief engineer was Ron Graiff, the owner, who had been handling these duties since purchasing the station in 1986. Weekend music programs included a local Top 30 Countdown on Friday nights, The Retro Show (dance classics) on Saturday nights and Casey's Hot 20 on Sunday nights. Super Station's jingle package was produced by Jam Creative Productions and the stations liners were voiced by John Driscoll.
Sold stations, format changes and relocations
On Monday October 2, 1995 Ron Graiff sold the stations (along with Country AM sister WPUT, 1510 AM) to Gary Starr, owner of WINE and WRKI in Brookfield, Connecticut. He dropped the "Super Station" brand, changed the call letters to WVYB/WVIB (to remind listeners of the old WVIP-FM) and flipped the format back to a gold-based AC branded as "B-105/B-106". In essence it reverted to what WVIP-FM was airing prior to it being sold in September 1993. That afternoon at 3PM Chris Cimmino and then Chris Todaro did the last Super Station show. The last song played was "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp. At 7PM Jim Hartman did the first B-105/B-106 show. The new format was put into place and the music library was then drastically cut. Lorna Potter took over as general/sales manager. PD Al Matthews left and Emily Anton took over middays. The I-95 PD's Lou Rizzo and then Tim Sheehan were the program directors (though they were still based at WRKI) and Alan Sneed (based in Atlanta, Georgia) was hired as a programming and music consultant. Then, in about four weeks time, the stations were sold again to Commodore Media Inc. (Commodore Media would later be sold to Capstar Broadcasting) and the two stations were then split up from its simulcast, format, call letters and location. The entire staff except for the morning show were let go. WVYB's new calls were WAXB (the B-105 brand was kept) with an oldies format via satellite from Westwood One except for its live morning show with John Chipman and Steve Maiolo. The station was moved to the WRKI studios in Brookfield, Connecticut and its Arbitron market was changed from Poughkeepsie, New York to Danbury, Connecticut. In October 2008 Cumulus Media sold the West Patterson, New York property and its new owners tore down the long unused studio building. It has now become a newly built residential location.
WVIB's new calls were WZZN (The Zone-slogan though not used) with a short-lived jazz and then short-lived classic rock format also via satellite except for its live morning show with Emily Anton. Both formats were unsuccessful. The station was moved to the WFAS studios in Hartsdale, New York and eventually changed its calls to WFAF (sounds like WFAS) to become a northern simulcast of WFAS-FM and its AC format. On February 29, 2012 Cumulus dropped the WFAS/WFAF simulcast and started simulcasting country WDBY on it, in essence returning it to what it had been during its Super Station years albeit now with country. The calls were changed to WDVY (sounds like WDBY).
In 2006, when its iron-clad 40-year lease was up, WFAF's tower was moved from atop Darlington Castle to the Fox Lane Campus in Bedford and since then, its signal is not as strong due to a decrease in both terrain and tower height. Due to economic conditions and signal issues, the 106.3 frequency has never been a stand-alone FM since its sale and split from WVIP back in late September 1993. It has been and still is a simulcasted signal-first with WMJV/WVYB, then WFAS, for a short time WPDH and then again WFAS and now WDBY. Cumulus eventually sold WDVY to Family Stations and on January 14, 2013, country was out and non-commercial religion was in. WPUT also flipped its satellite format from Country to Adult Standards and then to ESPN Sports. The daytime-only station was licensed to Brewster, New York before the station went off-air in 2014 & its license was deleted in 2015.
From B-105 to Y-105 to Kicks 105-5
When Capstar Broadcasting was purchased by AM/FM Inc. (a subsidiary of what would become Clear Channel Communications) in 1999, the company was forced to divest its holdings in the northern suburbs of New York City due to Federal Communications Commission market concentration concerns. When Aurora Communications purchased those stations WAXB saw an increase in its budget that allowed the station to eliminate satellite fed programming. With this came a modified name, "B105.5", and modified oldies that leaned as recent as the early 80s. However, Aurora's ownership was to be short-lived as in 2000 a failed buyout by Nassau Broadcasting took place which was followed in 2001 by Aurora being bought out by Cumulus Media.
After Cumulus took control of the Aurora stations in April 2002, control of the Danbury]cluster became separate from their Hudson Valley cluster. Though WAXB had good ratings in both Danbury, Connecticut and Dutchess County with oldies, listeners were aging out of the format and Cumulus management sensed a hole for a more contemporary competitor against market rival WDAQ. WAXB flipped to Adult Top 40 on September 26, 2002 as Y-105 after two days of stunting and taking the new WDBY calls (DanBurY) that October. (The WAXB calls returned to the market in 2011 on 850 AM in Ridgefield, a sister station to WDAQ.) It forced 98Q to move to a more Top 40 approach in both music and presentation. Y-105 later evolved from a Bright AC to a Hot AC. On January 12, 2009, Y-105 hired longtime 98Q morning host Mr. Morning to host its morning show. WDBY switched to its current country format on January 11, 2010.
On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Townsquare Media would acquire 53 Cumulus stations, including WDBY, for $238 million. The deal is part of Cumulus' acquisition of Dial Global; Townsquare and Dial Global are both controlled by Oaktree Capital Management. The sale to Townsquare was completed on November 14, 2013.
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HD radio
Cumulus Broadcasting began upgrading its stations to HD Radio broadcasting in 2005. One of the first ten stations to be upgraded was WDBY.
References
External links
- Kicks 105.5 WDBY official website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WDBY
- Radio-Locator information on WDBY
- Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WDBY
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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