WRRV
Encyclopedia : W : WR : WRR : WRRV
WRRV is an alternative rock radio station licensed to Middletown, New York and serving the lower Hudson Valley and Catskills of New York state. The station is owned by Cumulus Media and broadcasts at 6 kilowatts ERP from a tower on the northwest edge of Middletown.
WRRV's programming is simulcast on 96.9 WRRB Arlington, New York which serves the Mid-Hudson Valley and vicinity. Though on paper WRRV is seen as the primary station, in reality it is a two-frequency station and to an extent WRRB is the dominant frequency based on cume and sales (and the fact that, since 2000, the station has been run out of the longtime studios of sister WPDH on Pendell Road in Poughkeepsie).
History to 1995
92.7 signed on the air in 1966 as WALL-FM, sister to WALL originally running easy listening, then simulcasting the popular top 40 format of the AM side. Around 1979, the WALL stations were sold to a group headed by New York City disc jockey Bruce Morrow ("Cousin Brucie") and 92.7 changed format to an adult contemporary/oldies hybrid as WKGL "92 Karat Gold". Upon the Morrow-led group leaving radio ownership in 1985, "92 Karat Radio" was replaced by "92rock7", a Top 40/Rock hybrid which leaned heavily on new rock and included some of the area's brightest air personalities. Though it had developed a cult following, the new owners sold WKGL and ratings dominant sister station, WALL in 1988 to Orange and Rockland Utilities, the then-locally based electricity provider for much of the station's coverage area and today a unit of Con Edison.O&R, looking for a better bottom line, saw the flagging ratings of "92rock7" and made changes at the station. Over 1988 into 1989, WKGL evolved into "The Orange" WKOJ with a more traditional mainstream rock format. Unable to recapture it's cult following, by 1993 the station lost several key personalities and fell far behind WPDH. Anxious to leave radio ownership amid early deregulation, O&R sold their radio holdings to Rob Dyson's Crystal Radio Group--owners of WPDH--in late 1994. On April 3 1995 at 6:00 a.m., WKOJ's format gave way to "The Rock Revolution" of WRRV.
Evolutions of WRRV's format
At the outset, WRRV's format was typical of any new alternative station that signed on during that time and evolved as such over the first several years of the format. In June 1997, the playlist began became slightly more eclectic in an attempt to win over (or, more accurately, keep) former WDST listeners who lost the station after Crystal bought their 96.9 simulcast into Poughkeepsie and added WRRV's programming to that frequency.In February 1999, WRRV did a quiet but sudden shift to a Modern AC-heavy approach; this move was the opposite of the leaning of other stations in the format in a harder direction akin to active rock. In time, the station evolved back to a more mainstream alternative sound though in comparison to the format as a whole WRRV still leans slightly towards some modern pop and was able to weather an attack on its northern end from the active rock-formatted WRKW for two years. WRRV's ratings have been successful regardless of approach and is among the higher rated of modern rock stations in the US.
As with the other Crystal stations, WRRV and WRRB were sold to Aurora Communications in October of 2000 which, in turn, was bought out a year later by current owner Cumulus Media. WRRV is notable in being only one of two stations (WKNY in Kingston the other) from the Aurora purchase to face no major changes by Cumulus.
Current airstaff
- 6:00-10:00 a.m.: "Music All Morning" with (station PD Andrew) Boris and Sarah -- Andrew Boris, Sarah Nenni
- 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: Simon
- *12:00-1:00 p.m.: "WRRV Naked Lunch with Simon" (an hour of requests)
- 3:00-7:00 p.m.: John Gilmore
- *5:00-6:00 p.m.: "5 O'clock Road Rage with Gilmore" (an hour of harder-edged music)
- 7:00 p.m.-Midnight: (Matt) Schwenker!
- *9:00 p.m. *"Buzzcuts with Schwenker" (Top 5 songs of the day)
- *10:00 p.m.: "10:00 Block with Schwenker" (a three-song block picked by a listener)
- Weekend air talent: Ripper, Rex, Valerie
- Sundays 9:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m.: "Out of Order with Jed The Fish" (The top 20 songs in no particular order)
- Sundays 11:00 p.m.-12:00 p.m.: "Now Here This with Schwenker" (New music, local music, and the best music)
External links
| Radio stations in the Mid-Hudson Valley market (Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, and Ulster Counties in New York) |
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