WGNY (AM)

WGNY (1220 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting an oldies format. Licensed to Newburgh, New York, the station serves Orange, Dutchess and Putnam Counties. Most of the playlist is hits from the 1960s with some 50s and 70s titles. It is owned by the Sunrise Broadcasting Corporation with studios in New Windsor.

By day, WGNY transits 10,000 watts. As 1220 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A station XEB Mexico City, WGNY reduces power at night to 180 watts to avoid interference. It uses a directional antenna with a three-tower array. The transmitter is on Rock Cut Road in Orange Lake. Programming is also heard on 250-watt FM translator W287CY at 105.3 MHz in Newburgh.

Early years
WGNY signed on as the Hudson Valley's first permanent radio station on. Newburgh briefly had a radio station in the early 1920s, using the call sign WCAB, but it was off the air within a few years. WGNY was owned by wealthy real estate developer Robert Wilson Goelet. Goelet built his estate, Glenmere Mansion, in the town of Chester, New York, in 1911. In 1932, he decided to create a radio station that would broadcast from his estate's grounds. (Goelet wanted the call letters WCNY, for "Chester, New York", but as they were already taken, he settled for WGNY to stand for Goelet and Glenmere.)

In 1937, WGNY moved its operations to 161 Broadway in Newburgh. The following year, Goelet sold the station to Merritt C. Speidel and the WGNY Broadcasting Company. Originally powered at 100 watts, WGNY upped its output to 250 watts in 1940 (and eventually 10,000 watts in the 1970s). Billing itself as "The Only Radio Station Between Albany and New York City", WGNY would have Orange County, New York, to itself until Middletown's WALL signed on in 1942. During the 1940s and 50s, WGNY had satellite studios in Middletown and Poughkeepsie.

In 1952, WGNY switched its news affiliation from United Press to the Associated Press (AP). Speidel retired and was replaced as president by George W. Bingham. In 1953, a third station in Orange County signed on, WDLC in Port Jervis But WGNY's listening dominance in the county captured over half the audience as late as the mid-1950s.

More changes came in 1958, when WGNY Broadcasting sold out to Orange County Broadcasting, Inc. The studios were moved to Little Britain Road in New Windsor, where they remain to this day.

WGNY-FM
In the fall of 1966, FM radio came to Orange County, with WFMN ("FM Newburgh") reaching the air on October 29, followed by Middletown's WALL-FM on November 11. WFMN, owned by brothers Wilbur and Donald Nelson, broadcast at 103.1 MHz and moved into 104 Broadway in Newburgh—just down the street from the old WGNY studios. WFMN and WGNY remained competitors until 1974, when WGNY bought out Stereo Newburgh, Inc. (which had bought WFMN the previous year).

WFMN changed its call sign to WGNY-FM in 1985, then to WJGK in 2010. Starting in February 26, 2011, a new WGNY-FM in Rosendale, New York, began duplicating WGNY's AM signal on 98.9 MHz. Meanwhile, translator W231BP in Chester (WGNY's original location) began carrying WJGK's programming at 94.1 FM.

1960s - 1990s
In 1968, Hudson Horizons (Kenneth Cowan, president) acquired WGNY; the following year, the station's lock on Orange County was loosened with the signing-on of WTBQ in Warwick, New York.

In the 1990s, WGNY sought a new transmitter site and a change to 1200 kHz, which would have improved WGNY's signal. The FCC turned down the frequency change, and the Town of New Windsor nixed the new site.

21st century and WDLC simulcast
In recent years, WGNY has switched back and forth between oldies and sports. In March 2005, WGNY-AM-FM began a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Port Jervis' WDLC and WTSX, with the four stations combining air staffs. WGNY began simulcasting a 1955-72 Oldies format with WDLC until January 2007, when WDLC dropped the oldies format in favor of a sports talk format from ESPN Radio. In February 2009, WDLC returned to the WGNY simulcast.

In 2013-14, WGNY saw three format changes in a little over twelve months. First, on April 3, 2013, the station switched back to ESPN Radio. A dispute with the all-sports chain led WGNY to switch back to oldies (simulcasting WGNY-FM) on March 17, 2014. Less than a month later, on April 16, 2014, WGNY re-joined ESPN.

In February 2017, WGNY switched to a country music format simulcasting sister station 103.1 WJGK HD-2 as "Today's Best Country: Fox Country 1220 and Fox Country 103.1 HD2." Sometime in August 2017, WGNY switched back to an Oldies format, simulcasting sister station 98.9 WGNY-FM, as "Oldies 98.9/105.3/1220".