Radio WGNA-FM (Country 107.7)

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WGNA-FM (also known as Country 107.7) is a country music-formatted radio station licensed to Albany, New York and serving New York's Capital District. The station is owned by Townsquare Media, and broadcasts at 12.5 kilowatts from the Helderberg Mountains tower farm in New Scotland. WGNA holds the distinction of having the longest unchanged format (in terms of commercial stations) in the Capital District having been a country music station since its launch in November 1973. It is also one of four Albany FM radio stations to have never changed t... See more

Schenectady FM|107.7
518-881-1515
1241 Kings RdSchenectady, NY 12303
WGNA-FM (also known as Country 107.7) is a country music-formatted radio station licensed to Albany, New York and serving New York's Capital District. The station is owned by Townsquare Media, and broadcasts at 12.5 kilowatts from the Helderberg Mountains tower farm in New Scotland. WGNA holds the distinction of having the longest unchanged format (in terms of commercial stations) in the Capital District having been a country music station since its launch in November 1973. It is also one of four Albany FM radio stations to have never changed their call letters (WKBE, WQBK-FM and WFLY are the others).

Though a beacon of stability in Capital Region radio, WGNA originally was not slated to take the country format it has dominated. The 107.7 frequency had been awarded to the then-owners of Christian formatted WHAZ and it was due to sign on with a Christian format itself with the GNA in the calls standing for "Good News Albany". These plans went on hold when WHAZ's owner died several weeks prior to the planned sign-on of WGNA and, in a pinch, his children took over the station. The station signed on with a country music format on December 5, 1973 at 6:00pm. For 5 days the music played uninterrupted with announcers beginning their shifts on December 10 at 6:00am. Going against WOKO, WGNA became a success and made the format permanent with WHAZ eventually being sold off and, in 1978, WOKO leaving the format. A decade later, then-WGNA owner Barnstable Broadcasting purchased WOKO and turned it into an AM simulcast of the WGNA with some breaks for sports coverage.

In the early 1990s, Barnstable sold WGNA to the radio group headed by Merv Griffin who in turn later sold the entire group to Capstar Broadcasting around 1996; two years later, the WGNA stations ended up as part of AMFM, Inc. After AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications in 2000, WGNA AM/FM was sold with WPYX, WABT and WTRY-FM/WTRY-AM to Clear Channel Communications which, in turn, sold WGNA AM/FM, WABT, WQBK-FM, WTMM and WQBJ to Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) in the aftermath of the sale due to market concentration concerns (and, in WGNA's case, revenue share concerns as well). In February 2002, the AM simulcast ended when Regent sold the station to ABC Radio which used it to bring its Radio Disney format to the Capital Region under the calls WDDY.

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