WEOK - History To 1999

History To 1999

WEOK signed on in 1949 as a daytimer and the second station licensed to Poughkeepsie after WKIP. The station chose the WEOK calls given that their original choice, WPOK (for POughKeepsie) was unavailable and the WEOK calls sounded familiar. In the 1950s and 1960s WEOK was a full-service Middle of the Road radio station. Programming included news blocks in the morning and noon time house. Late mornings were reserved for The Hyde Park Show, The Rhinebeck Show and Pleasant Valley Shows. Radio station personalities would broadcast live from area shopping centers. In the 1960s WEOK added its Talkback show after the noon news. The mainstay telephone talk show was hosted by Raphael Mark and later by Larry Hughes.

In the late 1960s, in response to Top 40 WHVW, the station would feature rock & roll tunes in Ralph Aregale;'s afternoon show. In 1962 added an FM signal at 101.5 MHz (now WPDH). It simulcast WEOK during the day and had a series of block programing at night ranging from classical, jazz, show tunes and folk music hosted by Raphael. The station began to lean toward soft rock and was more an adult contemporary station by 1970.

In 1972, the Dyson family bought the WEOK stations and changes took place at both frequencies. While the FM side went on its own, the AM side began to lean towards Top 40 in what today would be considered Hot Adult Contemporary. Weekends included specialty programming including the start of the "Solid Gold Jukebox" hosted by WKIP refugee Rick McCaffrey (now of WBPM). This format lasted until 1981 when WEOK flipped to country in the wave of the "Urban Cowboy" fad. It failed in the ratings and left the format in 1983. Though WEOK returned to what it had left, it leaned more on oldies and flipped entirely to oldies in 1986. Two years later, this format was replaced when WEOK changed to pop standards as a charter affiliate of Unistar's "AM Only" format, better known today as Westwood One's "Popular Standards" while retaining local programming drive times and parts of weekends. WEOK's oldies format and some of the air staff (including Rick McCaffery) informally migrated to WCZX. In 1993 WCZX became a sister to WEOK through a local marketing agreement, then an outright purchase in 1996.