WALK-FM

WALK-FM

City of license	Patchogue, New York
Broadcast area	Long Island
Branding	WALK 97.5
Slogan	Long Island's Best Variety
Frequency	97.5 MHz (also on HD Radio)
First air date	1952
Format	Adult Contemporary
ERP	39,000 watts
HAAT	169 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	10137
Owner	Aloha Station Trust, LLC
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	www.walkradio.com

WALK-FM, known on-air as "WALK 97.5," is a radio station on Long Island with an adult contemporary format. Located on 97.5 FM, the station is licensed to Patchogue, New York. The stations slogan is "Long Island's Best Variety." It can be heard on air frequently during commercials and ends with "WALK 97.5." Its transmitter is located on Telescope Hill in Farmingville, New York.

History

Beginnings

WALK-FM, which first went on the air in 1952 as part of the Island Broadcasting System, is a Clear Channel Communications radio station. As has its sister station in New York City, WLTW, WALK has in recent years run a full schedule of Christmas music during the holiday season.

One of WALK-FM's longest running shows was "Klein til 9 and again til 10" hosted by Bob Klein.

WALK-FM on Good Morning America

The WALK Breakfast Club, the weekday morning show hosted by Mark Daniels and Cindy, was featured on ABC's Good Morning America in December 2005. It was a live report from the WALK-FM studios as the host of GMA asked Mark and Cindy about Holiday music on radio stations. After the report, Cindy accused Mark of paying off the cameraman since the camera was only focusing on Mark. [1]

WALK Today

In mid-2006, WALK-FM started broadcasting in HD Radio. Weeks after, WALK-FM released a second channel on the HD signal (HD-2), a country station, which Clear Channel states that WALK-FM HD-2 is the first country station on Long Island in years. The station can be heard through a HD Radio Device or on the WALK-FM website. [2]

WALK is one of the hundreds of Clear Channel stations that are up for sale after an announcement from the company that it is planning to go private. WALK-FM was purchased by Clear Channel in 2000.

Long-time WALK veteran Dave Shnayer, known as JD Howard on-air, died after a four-year battle with lymphoma. The death was announced the following afternoon by Holly Levis. [3] [4]

WALK dropped "yesterday and today" of its slogan "Long Island's Best Variety" in May 2010. Around that time, the station began decreasing the amount of music from the 1970's to one-to-two songs per hour, basically making the station a borderline Hot AC station.

On May 16th, 2011, Longtime veteran KT Mills was replaced by Nick Parker. Parker was weekend Air Talent at WALK-FM, as well as an On-Air Personality on Z100, New York. The new show, Parker & Friends airs weekday afternoons from 3pm-10pm. The station moved towards an adult top 40 direction by December 26, 2010 due to the demise of WMJC (now WIGX), but reverted to adult contemporary a few months later. However, the station still reports as AC per Mediabase & Nielsen BDS.

On-Airstaff

The current lineup is as follows

• Weekdays:
• Monday thru Friday:
• 2am-5am: Bill Terry
• 5am-10am: Morning Show: The WALK Breakfast Club - Mark Daniels & Cindy with Donna Vaughan - News/Traffic & Pat Pagano - Weather
• 10am-3pm: Patrick Shea
• 3pm-10pm: Nick Parker
• 10pm-2am: Tommy Conway
• Weekends:
• Saturday-Sunday:
• David North, Jeffrey Wands, Kelly Dyson

Awards

In 2007, the station was nominated for the top 25 markets Adult Contemporary station of the year award by Radio & Records magazine. Other nominees included WMJX in Boston, KOST in Los Angeles, WLTW in New York, WBEB, in Philadelphia, and KEZK-FM in St. Louis.

See also

• WALK (AM)

External links

• WALK 97.5
• Total Traffic Corporate Website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WALK
• Radio-Locator information on WALK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WALK