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WGGO
WGGO is an AM radio station located in Salamanca, New York, United States. The station broadcasts at 1590 kHz. WGGO is owned by Holy Family Communications as part of its network of Catholic radio stations, The Station of the Cross.
WGGO's licensed 5,000-watt daytime signal, the strongest AM signal in southwestern New York, covers all of Cattaraugus County and much of Chautauqua, Allegany, and McKean Counties as well as the Southtowns of Erie County. Further north, an FCC oversight meant that WRSB's signal interfered with WGGO's near Buffalo, a factor that was rectified when WRSB moved to AM 1600 in 2023.
WGGO signed on June 19, 1957, with the call sign WNYS; it changed to WGGO within a year of signing on. Initial plans for the station were for it to be based in Great Valley. Religious broadcaster George Thayer built the station's transmitter; he continued to produce religious broadcasts until his death in 2020. It was initially owned by the Schaeffer family, doing business as the Cattaraugus Broadcast Service.
One of WGGO's most notable alumni is CBS weatherman Ira Joe Fisher, who worked at the station for his first job in 1963. Barry Lillis, a longtime weatherman at WGRZ and later WEBR, began his radio career at WGGO. Pete Hubbell, the son of Buffalo sportscaster Ralph Hubbell, had an early career stop at WGGO; he would later become the longtime sports director 30 miles west at Jamestown's WJTN for three decades.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, WGGO's original programming included "Tradio on the Radio" and a top 25 countdown show called "The Most Alive 25". During this time period, one of the evening DJs went by the moniker "Johnny B. Goode", and would end each broadcast day by playing the Chuck Berry hit before sign-off.
WGGO was a local operation well into the 1990s, when it ran a country music and variety format. Some time in the late 1990s, WGGO switched to a satellite nostalgia format ("America's Best Music") from Westwood One. In 2003, the station moved to an MOR format ("Unforgettable Favorites") from ABC Radio, with ABC News Radio updates at the top of each hour.
Prior to 2003 the station was a daytime-only station that, regardless of time of year, would always sign off at 5:00 PM each day. The station now broadcasts at a nominal power level at night.
In 2006, Pembrook Pines Media Group (an ownership group led by Robert Pfuntner) purchased the station's license and assets from previous owner Michael Washington. Pembrook Pines changed the format to sports radio along with sister stations WELM in Elmira and WPIE in Ithaca. The last regularly scheduled local non-brokered program on the station, Tradio, was dropped unceremoniously in 2008. On Sunday September 12, 2010 at 9:22am, the longest running program on WGGO AM, "The Voice Of Living Waters", ended its run; Bill Ferguson, Sr. (1924–2012) started the program in 1963. The program was first called "The Voice of Many Waters" and had as its theme song the song of the same title. The ESPN Radio affiliation moved to WHDL in October 2013, at which point WGGO assumed an adult standards/oldies format.
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WGGO
WGGO is an AM radio station located in Salamanca, New York, United States. The station broadcasts at 1590 kHz. WGGO is owned by Holy Family Communications as part of its network of Catholic radio stations, The Station of the Cross.
WGGO's licensed 5,000-watt daytime signal, the strongest AM signal in southwestern New York, covers all of Cattaraugus County and much of Chautauqua, Allegany, and McKean Counties as well as the Southtowns of Erie County. Further north, an FCC oversight meant that WRSB's signal interfered with WGGO's near Buffalo, a factor that was rectified when WRSB moved to AM 1600 in 2023.
WGGO signed on June 19, 1957, with the call sign WNYS; it changed to WGGO within a year of signing on. Initial plans for the station were for it to be based in Great Valley. Religious broadcaster George Thayer built the station's transmitter; he continued to produce religious broadcasts until his death in 2020. It was initially owned by the Schaeffer family, doing business as the Cattaraugus Broadcast Service.
One of WGGO's most notable alumni is CBS weatherman Ira Joe Fisher, who worked at the station for his first job in 1963. Barry Lillis, a longtime weatherman at WGRZ and later WEBR, began his radio career at WGGO. Pete Hubbell, the son of Buffalo sportscaster Ralph Hubbell, had an early career stop at WGGO; he would later become the longtime sports director 30 miles west at Jamestown's WJTN for three decades.
In the late 1970s/early 1980s, WGGO's original programming included "Tradio on the Radio" and a top 25 countdown show called "The Most Alive 25". During this time period, one of the evening DJs went by the moniker "Johnny B. Goode", and would end each broadcast day by playing the Chuck Berry hit before sign-off.
WGGO was a local operation well into the 1990s, when it ran a country music and variety format. Some time in the late 1990s, WGGO switched to a satellite nostalgia format ("America's Best Music") from Westwood One. In 2003, the station moved to an MOR format ("Unforgettable Favorites") from ABC Radio, with ABC News Radio updates at the top of each hour.
Prior to 2003 the station was a daytime-only station that, regardless of time of year, would always sign off at 5:00 PM each day. The station now broadcasts at a nominal power level at night.
In 2006, Pembrook Pines Media Group (an ownership group led by Robert Pfuntner) purchased the station's license and assets from previous owner Michael Washington. Pembrook Pines changed the format to sports radio along with sister stations WELM in Elmira and WPIE in Ithaca. The last regularly scheduled local non-brokered program on the station, Tradio, was dropped unceremoniously in 2008. On Sunday September 12, 2010 at 9:22am, the longest running program on WGGO AM, "The Voice Of Living Waters", ended its run; Bill Ferguson, Sr. (1924–2012) started the program in 1963. The program was first called "The Voice of Many Waters" and had as its theme song the song of the same title. The ESPN Radio affiliation moved to WHDL in October 2013, at which point WGGO assumed an adult standards/oldies format.