WGY (AM)

WGY (AM)

WGY (AM 810 103.1 FM News-Talk WGY) is a radio station licensed to Schenectady, New York and owned by Clear Channel Communications, broadcasting a news and conservative talk radio format. It broadcasts 50,000 Watts non-directional from a single tower in the Town of Rotterdam. It is one of the United States' oldest radio stations as well as the oldest in New York's Capital Region. WGY was the flagship station of General Electric's broadcast group from 1922 until 1983.

By the 1928 Band Plan, 790 kHz was allocated to Oakland, CA, and to KGO (q.v.), which was then owned by General Electric, on an internationally-cleared basis. In order to obtain a cleared channel in Schenectady, NY, for what would become the present-day WGY, GE effected a break-down of 790 kHz, whereby WGY would assume the maximum permissible power, and KGO would be lowered in power to 7.5 kW, which was then lower than the minimum permissible power for a clear channel station, and also was then higher than the then maximum permissible power for a regional channel station. Both stations retained omnidirectional antennas. Therefore, GE effectively removed from the West one of its eight cleared channels and added an additional cleared channel to the East thereby giving the East nine cleared channels and the West only seven. The four other "regions" in the Band Plan all retained their allotted eight cleared channels. In 1941, stations on 790 kHz were moved to 810 kHz and roughly simultaneously, KGO was directionalized and power was increased to 50 kW, the new minimum (and maximum) power for a U.S. cleared channel.