Hubbry Logo
search
logo
WAMC
WAMC
current hub

WAMC

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
WAMC

WAMC-FM (90.3 FM) is a listener-supported non-commercial radio station in Albany, New York. It airs a public radio format focusing on news and talk with some specialty music shows on weekends. Owned by "WAMC Northeast Public Radio", it has its studios on Central Avenue in Albany and its transmitter is atop Mount Greylock in Adams, Massachusetts. Its primary signal encompasses the Capital District, Eastern New York State, Southern Vermont, Western Massachusetts and the Litchfield Hills region of Connecticut. It is a member station of National Public Radio (NPR), American Public Media, Public Radio Exchange and carries the BBC World Service overnight.

Unlike many NPR stations which largely air network programming, five to six hours of WAMC's weekday schedule are produced in-house. WAMC is a charitable, educational, non-commercial broadcaster meeting the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. §501(c)(3)) The station operates The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio, near its studios in Albany.

Dottie Reyonolds chairs WAMC's board of trustees, while Sarah Gilbert is the station's CEO and president. Gilbert succeeded Alan Chartock, who retired in 2023 after leading the station for more than 40 years.

WAMC signed on the air in October 1958. Albert P. Fredette served as the first general manager. WAMC was put on the air by the local hospital and medical school, Albany Medical Center and Albany Medical College. Albany Medical Center is a large tertiary-care hospital serving the upper Hudson Valley, and the medical school is one of the country's ACGME-accredited medical schools. The affiliation with Albany Medical College was the source of the call sign WAMC. In 1981, the station became an independent institution, no longer associated with the medical school.

In its early days, WAMC had a mostly classical music radio format. The earliest years also included broadcasts of health information and lectures from visiting medical professors. Early on, part of WAMC's regular programming was the broadcast of live concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) from Tanglewood and Boston. When the NPR network was founded in 1970, WAMC became one of NPR's original 90 "charter" members.

Around 1980, financial pressures caused the hospital and medical school to begin divesting the station. In 1981, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license on 90.3 FM was transferred to a 501c3 tax-exempt entity, WAMC, Inc., which had been set up by a group of five corporators, including Alan S. Chartock, who became longtime CEO and President, retiring in 2023. WAMC was initially affiliated with the State University of New York and New York State government.

In the years since the transfer, the station has eliminated classical music, except for live BSO concerts. It has become a producer of information-based, non-music programming, providing a variety of interview-format programs to radio stations across the country via the station's in-house subsidiary, National Productions. (WMHT-FM in nearby Schenectady and its network of repeater stations continues to program classical music in the region.)

Listener contributions (often obtained during periodic pledge drives) and corporate contributions have helped the original single station grow over the years into a network of 22 facilities with large primary service contours covering the Capital District, the Adirondacks section of New York, the outer northern suburbs of New York City, Western Massachusetts, Southern Vermont, and parts of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.