WDCD (AM) - History

History

WDCD signed on August 10, 1948 as WPTR, with 10,000 watts of power from its current location in Colonie. The call letters were requested as such to reflect the original owner, Patroon Broadcasting Company. The studios were located in the Hotel Ten Brock in Troy. In 1953, the station gained the ABC Radio affiliation from exiting WXKW, and primarily programmed a mix of popular and country music along with news & sports. It was during this period that 1540 increased power to 50,000 watts full time to combat nighttime interference from co-channel stations KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa and ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas (although the official explanation to the Federal Communications Commission was the "poor ground conductivity" at the transmitter site).

WPTR also had a partnership with a local FM station (W47A/WBCA, the first independent FM radio station in the United States) to produce pre-recorded programming in WBCA's state-of-the-art Schenectady studios.

On September 16, 1953, American Airlines Flight 723 flew between the north and center towers of the station's 3 tower array. The aircraft crashed about 1/2 mile away, just north of Central Avenue (NY Route 5) killing all 28 persons on board. To date, this is the worst aviation accident in the Albany area.

By 1957, the studios were located in the Hendrick Hudson Hotel in Troy In an effort to become more competitive with the more established stations in the region, a new "Top 40" format was introduced to Capital District listeners. WTRY also had top 40 programs at the time, but did not devote the entire broadcast day to it. Popular hosts on WPTR included Boom Boom Brannigan, Charlie Brown, and Bob Badger. Brannigan would stay with the station until 1974. The popular rock-and-roll format had a loyal following among listeners both locally, and throughout the northeastern United States, as well as a good portion of eastern and Maritime Canada. In fact, WPTR had a stronger skywave signal in the western Boston suburbs than Boston's own top 40 station, WMEX. By the early 1960s, WTRY had switched to top 40 music programming full time, and a ratings war of sorts began between the two stations that lasted well into the 1970s. For much of its top 40 heyday, WPTR was the number-one rated station in the Capital District. In 1960, the studios were moved to the more prominent 1860 Central Avenue location in Colonie, where they remained until a fire severely damaged the interior of the building in 1964. A new 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) broadcast facility was constructed at the transmitter site, and programming originated from what became known as the 'Gold studios' until 2005 when the building was demolished. Programming now originates from new digital facilities inside the transmitter building.

With FM stations becoming increasingly popular with younger listeners, WPTR's ratings entered a steady decline in the mid-1970s, and in 1980 the station's owner, Rust Communications (which also owned WFLY, an FM station that had adopted a top 40 format a year earlier) finally submitted and flipped WPTR to country music in 1980 with veteran jock J.W. Wagner at the helm during morning drive. The station regained some popularity, and when ownership did some improvements (including adding AM Stereo), the station stayed relatively successful. However, competition from FM rival WGNA led WPTR to leave the format in 1988, subsequently trying different talk, sports, and news formats with meager results each time. In 1995, Albany Broadcasting sold WPTR to Crawford Broadcasting, with the sale closing that September.

Upon taking over, Crawford changed the call sign to WDCD, in honor of founder Don Crawford. (Albany Broadcasting reclaimed the WPTR calls the following March, on the former WCDA.) The format was changed to contemporary Christian music and related Christian programming. In 2000, the company brought its secular "Legends" adult standards music format to the station, along with the classic WPTR call letters and Boom Boom Brannigan as morning host; WDCD's religious programming was continued at 96.7 FM, which had simulcast AM 1540 since May 1996. The "Legends" format was a ratings success (putting WPTR back in the top 10 for the first time in 15 years), but a financial pitfall. The situation was greatly complicated when WKLI-FM entered the nostalgia format in November 2001. In 2004, WPTR and WDCD swapped formats and call letters, returning AM 1540 to Christian programming. (Several months later, WPTR at the 96.7 FM frequency dropped "Legends" for contemporary Christian music, but flipped to oldies, reviving the "Legends" identity, in 2011 due to faltering ratings as a result of the arrival of the satellite K-LOVE and Air 1 networks in the Albany market; later that year, the station flipped again to a simulcast of WDCD.)

WDCD began broadcasting in HD digital radio in 2006, the second AM station in the area to do so. Recently, WDCD had not been broadcasting in HD Radio, and also signed off between 9-10 every night. WDCD temporarily left the air on April 1, 2012 to make plans for a new format.