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WCGS (FM)
WCGS (105.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Little Valley, New York. The station, with its tower on Kyler Hill near the border of Little Valley and Napoli, broadcasts at 5,500 watts, effective radiated power (ERP).
From 2010 to 2021, the Seneca Nation of New York operated the station as WGWE, carrying a locally originated classic hits format targeting the western Southern Tier; the station's signal gave strong coverage to both of the Seneca Nation's populated reservations as well as the cities of Dunkirk, Jamestown, Olean and Bradford, all within a 30-mile radius of Little Valley (such that the previous inhabitant of 105.9 in Jamestown, WOGM-LP, had to change frequencies to 104.7 to accommodate the new signal). It was this 11-year run that is most associated with the WGWE history. Pandemic-related disruptions and consolidation of the other radio stations in Cattaraugus County under one company prompted the Seneca Nation to abandon the station, in which it had previously invested heavily, in 2021.
A brief effort was made to repurpose the signal as a rimshot covering the southern suburbs of Buffalo, New York, when Paul Izard purchased the signal to simulcast his electronic dance music webcast. Izard shut down the station after six weeks and surrendered the license to the FCC.
The station's license was acquired by the Family Life Network effective September 8, 2022; on September 15, 2022, the station changed its call letters to WCGS.
The Seneca Nation had been attempting to enter the radio business for several years prior to WGWE's founding. In the immediate years before acquiring the station, it was applying for noncommercial licenses to operate from the Seneca Nation's capital of Irving. Mutual exclusivity conflicts with out-of-town religious broadcasters prevented these proposals from reaching the air.
The Seneca nation purchased WGWE's construction permit from Randy Michaels's holding company Radioactive, LLC in early 2009 and signed on February 1, 2010. The first song played on WGWE was "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow," a song by Peter La Farge about the Senecas' opposition to the Kinzua Dam that was performed by Johnny Cash on Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian; it would continue to be played every Friday at noon through its entire existence. Originally a locally originated automated station for its first several months, the station began broadcasting what was then Citadel Media's Classic Hits Radio satellite format in late June 2010 in all shifts except weekday mornings and noon; the station disaffiliated from Classic Hits Radio in 2016. Mike "Smitty" Smith, former disc jockey at WPIG, was the station's first manager, hosting the morning drive time show and noon call-in request hours from studios inside the former Uni-Mart in Salamanca. Additional local hosts were added several months later.
Casey Hill and Jesse Garon, both of whom had previously worked with Smitty at WPIG, also held shifts at WGWE for several years before leaving Western New York. Former KFXM disc jockey "Double-D" Danny Dare also worked at the station for short stints in fall 2014 and in 2015. After Hill's and Garon's departures, for a brief time in the mid-2010s, dayparts outside of morning drive and noon were held by younger disc jockeys, including Erika J, JB's Jukebox, and the Austin Hill Show, whom Smith gave loose rein to experiment on-air (JB's Jukebox, for example, would frequently play two copies of the same record simultaneously, with JB using his finger to slightly slow down the CD speed and create a flange effect). Engineer Ace Boogie also held an afternoon drive airshift. Under Smith, the station used minimal jingles and an open-ended playlist ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s.
Smith retired from radio in 2016 to pursue the office of (and eventually serve four years as) mayor of Salamanca. Chris Russell, who had been program director at the cluster of WQRS and WGGO, took over as manager and morning drive host. Russell overhauled and streamlined the station's format into a more professionally styled presentation and more narrowly defined (but still slightly eclectic) playlist, also adding a roster of syndicated programming (much of it brought over from WGGO) on weekends, including reruns of Wolfman Jack and That Thing with Rich Appel. Under Russell's five-year tenure, the station's on-air lineup added market veteran Cindy Scott and held over Brett Maybee and Miss B from the Smitty era.
WCGS (FM)
WCGS (105.9 FM) is a radio station licensed to Little Valley, New York. The station, with its tower on Kyler Hill near the border of Little Valley and Napoli, broadcasts at 5,500 watts, effective radiated power (ERP).
From 2010 to 2021, the Seneca Nation of New York operated the station as WGWE, carrying a locally originated classic hits format targeting the western Southern Tier; the station's signal gave strong coverage to both of the Seneca Nation's populated reservations as well as the cities of Dunkirk, Jamestown, Olean and Bradford, all within a 30-mile radius of Little Valley (such that the previous inhabitant of 105.9 in Jamestown, WOGM-LP, had to change frequencies to 104.7 to accommodate the new signal). It was this 11-year run that is most associated with the WGWE history. Pandemic-related disruptions and consolidation of the other radio stations in Cattaraugus County under one company prompted the Seneca Nation to abandon the station, in which it had previously invested heavily, in 2021.
A brief effort was made to repurpose the signal as a rimshot covering the southern suburbs of Buffalo, New York, when Paul Izard purchased the signal to simulcast his electronic dance music webcast. Izard shut down the station after six weeks and surrendered the license to the FCC.
The station's license was acquired by the Family Life Network effective September 8, 2022; on September 15, 2022, the station changed its call letters to WCGS.
The Seneca Nation had been attempting to enter the radio business for several years prior to WGWE's founding. In the immediate years before acquiring the station, it was applying for noncommercial licenses to operate from the Seneca Nation's capital of Irving. Mutual exclusivity conflicts with out-of-town religious broadcasters prevented these proposals from reaching the air.
The Seneca nation purchased WGWE's construction permit from Randy Michaels's holding company Radioactive, LLC in early 2009 and signed on February 1, 2010. The first song played on WGWE was "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow," a song by Peter La Farge about the Senecas' opposition to the Kinzua Dam that was performed by Johnny Cash on Bitter Tears: Ballads of the American Indian; it would continue to be played every Friday at noon through its entire existence. Originally a locally originated automated station for its first several months, the station began broadcasting what was then Citadel Media's Classic Hits Radio satellite format in late June 2010 in all shifts except weekday mornings and noon; the station disaffiliated from Classic Hits Radio in 2016. Mike "Smitty" Smith, former disc jockey at WPIG, was the station's first manager, hosting the morning drive time show and noon call-in request hours from studios inside the former Uni-Mart in Salamanca. Additional local hosts were added several months later.
Casey Hill and Jesse Garon, both of whom had previously worked with Smitty at WPIG, also held shifts at WGWE for several years before leaving Western New York. Former KFXM disc jockey "Double-D" Danny Dare also worked at the station for short stints in fall 2014 and in 2015. After Hill's and Garon's departures, for a brief time in the mid-2010s, dayparts outside of morning drive and noon were held by younger disc jockeys, including Erika J, JB's Jukebox, and the Austin Hill Show, whom Smith gave loose rein to experiment on-air (JB's Jukebox, for example, would frequently play two copies of the same record simultaneously, with JB using his finger to slightly slow down the CD speed and create a flange effect). Engineer Ace Boogie also held an afternoon drive airshift. Under Smith, the station used minimal jingles and an open-ended playlist ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s.
Smith retired from radio in 2016 to pursue the office of (and eventually serve four years as) mayor of Salamanca. Chris Russell, who had been program director at the cluster of WQRS and WGGO, took over as manager and morning drive host. Russell overhauled and streamlined the station's format into a more professionally styled presentation and more narrowly defined (but still slightly eclectic) playlist, also adding a roster of syndicated programming (much of it brought over from WGGO) on weekends, including reruns of Wolfman Jack and That Thing with Rich Appel. Under Russell's five-year tenure, the station's on-air lineup added market veteran Cindy Scott and held over Brett Maybee and Miss B from the Smitty era.