WSYR-FM
WSYR-FM is a news/talk radio station serving Syracuse and central New York. The iHeartMedia-owned outlet broadcasts at 106.9 MHz with an ERP of 9 kW and is licensed to Solvay, New York. It is currently a simulcast of WSYR (570 AM).
| City | Solvay, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Syracuse, New York |
| Frequency | 106.9 MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | Newsradio 570 WSYR |
| Slogan | Syracuse's News, Weather & Traffic |
| Programming | |
| Format | FM/HD1: News/talk HD2: Urban adult contemporary (WHEN simulcast) HD3: Christian worship "Air1" |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | iHeartMedia (iHM Licenses, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WBBS, WHEN, WSYR, WWHT, WYYY |
| History | |
| First air date | May 20, 1949 |
| Former call signs | WMBO-FM (1949–1970) WRLX (1970–1981) WPCX (1981–1997) WHCD (1997–2001) WPHR (2001–2005) WPHR-FM (2005–2011) |
| Call sign meaning | same as WSYR (AM) SYRacuse |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 25018 |
| Class | B1 |
| ERP | 9,000 watts |
| HAAT | 124 meters (407 ft) |
| Translator(s) | 101.3 W267AL (Syracuse; relays HD3) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | https://wsyr.iheart.com/ |
History
The original WSYR-FM, on 94.5 MHz, has since been rebranded as WYYY. It remains WSYR's sister station and carries an adult contemporary music format. For several years, the WSYR-FM call sign had been parked on the current WPHR-FM (FM 94.7) in Gifford, Florida.
The current WSYR-FM has been licensed for most of its time on air to the city of Auburn, New York. It signed on May 20, 1949[1] as WMBO-FM. It became WRLX on February 13, 1970.[2] The station was run by Humans and not automation, with turntables and tape cartridge machines providing the " Beautiful Music " format with one slogan being " Relax with WRLX " (The WRLX call sign is now used by a station in West Palm Beach, Florida, also owned by iHeartMedia.) In 1981, the station changed its call sign and re-branded as WPCX, " Pix 106 " and featured Bob Paris in the morning. Paris had been the morning drive personality for WSEN-FM in Syracuse, New York in the 1970s when it featured a country music format. Then by 1997, the station began targeting the area as Smooth Jazz WHCD. By 2000 it would flip to Urban Contemporary, in an attempt to complement their Rhythmic-leaning Top 40 sister station WWHT (who later shifted to Rhythmic Top 40 full-time by November 2011) and to fill the void left open by WRDS, who lasted one year in the format. After three years they would evolve into an urban AC direction, focusing on targeting the African-American community and in the process allowing WWHT to expand their Rhythmic-heavy playlist with the R&B/Hip-Hop product. For the first three years as an urban AC, there was no competitor until WOLF-FM flipped to the MOViN format.
On August 28, 2009, at 5 pm, Power 106.9 dropped the Urban AC format for a country format, branding itself as "Young Country 106.9." This was despite the fact that station owner Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) already had a country music outlet in the Syracuse area, the market leader WBBS in Fulton, a more mainstream country station. The move was ostensibly an effort to hedge its bets against competition from WOLF-FM in DeRuyter, which Clear Channel sold in March 2009 and changed to country music at the same time as WPHR did. As it turned out, the country format on WPHR was a weekend-long stunt; the station switched back to its regular format that Monday morning (August 31).[3] The station, after the stunt, moved to its current location in Solvay, which gives it greater coverage over the city of Syracuse but far less over the Finger Lakes. Coverage was very large in the central NY area down into PA and up into Canada in the 1970s when the station was WRLX and it also ran a Subcarrier music program similar to the old style Muzak of those days.
In December 2010, five domains suggesting that 106.9 would be changing to a simulcast of WSYR/570 were registered and parked at GoDaddy. Later discovered, none of those domains were registered/owned by the station or used. WSYR already simulcasts on WPHR's HD Radio digital subchannel.[4][5] Concurrently with the discovery, WHEN/620 adopted an identical format and branding as "Power 620." The "Power 106.9" Website was rebranded as "Power620.com" at the same time. As of December 27, Clear Channel has filed to swap call signs with WSYR-FM in Gifford, Florida.[6] The format change took effect Sunday evening, January 2, 2011. News on the station is provided by Fox Radio, the station simulcasts mostly talk radio during the week, including The Glenn Beck Program, The Rush Limbaugh Show, The Sean Hannity Show, The Savage Nation, and Coast to Coast AM, as well as local shows, The Morning News with Joe Galuski, and The Bob Lonsberry Show.
For a time, the FM side gained priority in on-air advertising and on the Web site banner; at the outset, the simulcast was branded "Newsradio 106.9 WSYR."[7] However, the AM side remained the primary station, and over the next two years most references to the FM side were cut back, to the extent that the station now refers to itself as "Newsradio 570 WSYR, Now on 106.9 FM."
References
- Broadcasting & Cable Yearbook 2009 (PDF). 2009. p. D-371. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- "WRLX (WSYR-FM) history cards" (PDF). CDBS Public Access. Federal Communications Commission. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- WPHR is reportedly back to its former "Power" urban format as of 8 AM., Scott Fybush NorthEast Radio Watch, August 31, 2009.
- http://radioinsight.com/2010/am-to-fm-talk-move-in-syracuse/
- Naughton, Peter (2010-12-20). WSYR to begin FM simulcast? cnyradio.com. Retrieved 2010-12-21.
- Naughton, Peter (2010-12-27). CC & Aloha File to Swap WSYR-FM / WPHR-FM Calls. cnyradio.com. Retrieved 2010-12-27.
- "Urban AC Goes To AM, Talk Coming To FM in Syracuse" from Radioinsight (January 2, 2011)
External links
- WSYR's website
- CNYMedia's Syracuse FM history
- WSYR in the FCC's FM station database
- WSYR on Radio-Locator
- WSYR in Nielsen Audio's FM station database