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WGNA-FM (known on-air as ''107.7 WGNA'') is a country music-formatted radio station licensed to Albany, New York and serving New York's Capital District. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts at 12,500 watts effective radiated power from the Helderberg Mountains tower farm in New Scotland. WGNA holds the distinction of having the longest unchanged format (in terms of commercial stations) in the Capital District, having been a country music station since its launch in November 1973 It is also one of three commercial Albany FM radio stations to have never changed their call letters (WQBK-FM and WFLY are the others). WGNA-FM has also been the #1 station (12+, 25-54 adults) in most ratings trends and books in the Albany market though WGY, WFLY, and WYJB have all unseated WGNA from this position on various occasions. Despite attempts by competitors, such as WCDA/WPTR-FM (96.3 FM) in the mid-to-late 1990s, Galaxy Communications' WEGQ (''93.7 The Eagle'') from 2004 to 2005, Pamal's simulcast of WFFG-FM (''Froggy 107.1'') on its Albany 104.9 FM signal in 2005, and most recently, Pamal's second attempt at a country format (also on 104.9 FM, as ''The Cat''), WGNA-FM has faced little significant direct competition on the country music front. ==History== Though a beacon of stability in Capital Region radio, WGNA originally was not slated to take the country format it has dominated. The 107.7 frequency had been awarded to the then-owners of Christian formatted WHAZ and it was due to sign on with a Christian format itself with the GNA in the calls standing for "Good News Albany". These plans went on hold when WHAZ's owner died several weeks prior to the planned sign-on of WGNA and, in a pinch, his children took over the station. The station signed on with a country music format on December 5, 1973 at 6:00pm. For 5 days the music played uninterrupted with announcers beginning their shifts on December 10 at 6:00am. Going against WOKO, WGNA became a success and made the format permanent with WHAZ eventually being sold off and, in 1978, WOKO leaving the format. In 1988, then-WGNA owner Barnstable Broadcasting purchased WOKO and turned it into an AM simulcast of WGNA (with the FM taking the WGNA-FM calls as a result) with some breaks for sports coverage. In 1990, the late Fred Horton became program director at WGNA, leading the station to become #1 in almost every Arbitron book since then. Around this time, Barnstable sold WGNA to the radio group headed by Merv Griffin who in turn later sold the entire group to Capstar Broadcasting in the mid-1990s; two years later, the WGNA stations ended up as part of AMFM, Inc. In 1997, longtime program director Fred Horton left the station to program WYNY in New York City was replaced by R.E. "Buzz" Brindle who programmed Country 107.7 until April 2007. After AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications in 2000, WGNA AM/FM was sold with WPYX, WABT and WTRY-FM/WTRY-AM to Clear Channel Communications which, in turn, sold WGNA AM/FM, WABT, WQBK-FM, WTMM and WQBJ to Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) in the aftermath of the sale due to market concentration concerns (and, in WGNA's case, revenue share concerns as well). In February 2002, the AM simulcast ended when Regent sold the station to ABC Radio (now Citadel Broadcasting) which used it to bring its Radio Disney format to the Capital Region under the calls WDDY. WGNA has enjoyed a fairly stable air staff, as most of WGNA's on-air talent have been a part of the Country 107.7 team for more than 10 years, including: - Sean McMaster and Richie Phillips of the "Sean & Richie" morning show - "Brother" Lou Roberts of the nightly show "Cryin', Lovin', or Leavin'" - John Stanley on Saturday middays. John also holds the distinction of being with WGNA continuously since 1974 Notable departures from the on-air staff include: - Former midday host and music director Bill Earley in April 2007 after having been with the station for 19 years - Longtime midday host Kevin Richards in July 2014 after having also been with the station for 19 years Recent additions to the on-air staff include: - Bethany to the "Sean & Richie" morning show in September 2013, after a successful 5-year stint co-hosting the morning show on WPIG in Olean, NY - Heather Davis in October 2014 to fill the midday position 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WGNA-FM」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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