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WAMC

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WAMC
WAMC logo
Broadcast areaPrimary: Albany Capital District of New York; parts of Eastern New York; Southern Vermont, Western Massachusetts, Upper Northwest Connecticut
Secondary: West-Central Connecticut, southwestern New Hampshire, northwestern New Jersey, northeast Pennsylvania, a small portion of Quebec.[1]
FrequencySee table below
BrandingWAMC, Northeast Public Radio
Programming
FormatPublic Radio
Ownership
OwnerWAMC
History
First air date
1958 (1958)
Call sign meaning
Albany Medical College/Center
Technical information
Translator(s)See tables below
Links
WebcastListen live
Websitewww.wamc.org

WAMC is a public radio network headquartered in Albany, New York. The network has 12 broadcast radio stations (transmitters) and 16 broadcast relay stations (translators,repeaters).[3] One of the stations is an AM station: WAMC (AM) 1400 in Albany. [4] The organization's legal name is "WAMC" and it is also known as "WAMC Public Radio" or "WAMC Northeast Public Radio."

In addition, the station operates The Linda/WAMC Performing Arts Studio, a performance venue in Albany located near its Central Avenue studios.

A member of NPR and affiliate of Public Radio International and American Public Media, WAMC is a charitable, educational, non-commercial broadcaster meeting the requirements of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. §501(c)(3))[5] It had total annual revenues for the fiscal year 2010 of $6.36 million.

Its corporate officers include Anne Erickson, chair of the board of trustees, and Alan S. Chartock, president and chief executive officer (since 1981).

History

WAMC started in 1958 as a radio station for the local hospital and medical school, Albany Medical Center and Albany Medical College. Albany Medical Center is a large tertiary-care hospital serving the upper Hudson Valley, and the medical school (with which it is affiliated) is one of the country's ACGME-accredited medical schools. The affiliation with Albany Medical Center was the source of the call letters "WAMC".

The station's 24/7 non-commercial classical music format served a large listener base and was popular among music aficionados. The earliest years also included broadcasts of health information and lectures from visiting professors. Early on, part of WAMC's regular programming was the broadcast of live concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra from Tanglewood and Boston. When the NPR network was founded in 1970, WAMC signed-on as one of NPR's original 90 "charter" members. Around 1980, financial pressures caused the hospital and medical school to divest the station. In 1981, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license on 90.3 FM was transferred to a 501c3 tax-exempt entity, WAMC, Inc., which had been set up by a group of five corporators (amongst them the current CEO and president, Alan S. Chartock) affiliated with the State University of New York and New York State government. In the years since the transfer, the station has cut back on most classical music programming (live BSO concerts are still broadcast) while becoming a producer of information-based, non-music programming, providing a variety of interview-format programs to radio stations across the country via the station's in-house subsidiary, National Productions. (WMHT-FM in nearby Schenectady, New York and its network of repeater stations continues to program classical music in the region.)

Community and corporate contributions (often obtained during regular fund drives) have helped the original single station grow over the years into a network of 22 facilities with large primary service contours covering New York's Capital District, Western Massachusetts, southern Vermont, and parts of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New Jersey. WAMC-FM's main transmitter and antenna are atop Mount Greylock in Adams, Massachusetts, the highest mountain in the state, giving the flagship 90.3 MHz signal a large radius for a transmitter of its size.

It has been a custom on WAMC to play two songs to mark the end of every fund drive: Kate Smith's "God Bless America" and Ray Charles' rendition of "America the Beautiful".

Criticism and views

Accusations of bias

NPR's official news policy says its affiliate stations should be "fair, unbiased, accurate, honest, and respectful of the people that are covered".[6]

A Washington-based NPR news producer, who requested anonymity, stated that Chartock, the station's president and a frequently heard voice on the station, presents politically-biased commentary.[7]

Chartock responded that WAMC’s editorial neutrality is maintained by "including as many conservative commentators on the air as liberal ones".[7]

Network expansion

WAMC has grown into a network of twelve stations and sixteen translators serving portions of seven states in New England and Mid-Atlantic States, bringing news, information and cultural programming. The station's fund drive in October 2016 raised over $1,000,000 in three and a half days.

Miscellaneous

First Amendment Fund

In 2005, WAMC's board of trustees established a "First Amendment Fund" to promote and preserve the First Amendment and the right of free speech by providing a source of funding "to support WAMC if special situations or needs should arise". The contributions in this "unrestricted, board designated" fund reported on WAMC's 2006 IRS Form was $482,577.[8]

Original programming

WAMC produces many programs of its own. These include:

  • 51%
  • The Academic Minute
  • The Best of Our Knowledge
  • The Book Show
  • The Capitol Connection
  • Hudson River Sampler
  • The Legislative Gazette
  • Live at the Linda
  • The Media Project
  • Midday Magazine
  • Northeast Report
  • Performance Place
  • The Power of Words
  • The Roundtable
  • Tim Coakley Jazz
  • Vox Pop
  • WAMC Bluegrass Time

Former programs

  • The Environment Show—name was dropped, format changed, and program morphed into "In Our Backyard," with NYS wildlife expert Ward Stone.
  • The Health Show
  • Knock on Wood—with Steve Charney and Harry
  • Me and Mario
  • Music Through the Night—Midnight to 5 A.M.
  • Rachael's Place
  • Weekly Rundown
  • Zucchini Brothers show

National productions

WAMC also produces programs that are distributed under the name "National Productions". These include:

Podcasts

WAMC also podcasts their original programs.

Stations

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

Template:RadioSimulcast

Translators

Broadcast translators for WAMC-FM
Call sign Frequency City of license FID ERP (W) HAAT Class FCC info
W226AC 93.1 FM Rensselaer, New York 80 44.3 m (145 ft) D
W246BJ 97.1 FM Hudson, New York 200 0 m (0 ft) D
Broadcast translators for WAMK
Call sign Frequency City of license FID ERP (W) HAAT Class FCC info
W271BF 102.1 FM Highland, New York 10 255.4 m (838 ft) D
W280DJ 103.9 FM Beacon, New York 10 332.8 m (1,092 ft) D
W299AG 107.7 FM Newburgh, New York 10 115 m (377 ft) D
W292ES 106.3 FM Dover Plains, New York 39 m (128 ft) D
Broadcast translators for WOSR
Call sign Frequency City of license FID ERP (W) HAAT Class FCC info
W215BG 90.9 FM Milford, Pennsylvania 10 71.2 m (234 ft) D
W296BD 107.1 FM Warwick, New York 10 107.8 m (354 ft) D
W243BZ 96.5 FM Ellenville, New York 6.5 457.9 m (1,502 ft) D
Broadcast translators for WCAN
Call sign Frequency City of license FID ERP (W) HAAT Class FCC info
W247BM 97.3 FM Cooperstown, New York 10 147.9 m (485 ft) D
W257BL 99.3 FM Oneonta, New York 250 1.5 m (5 ft) D

See also

References

  1. ^ "Coverage Map | WAMC". Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. ^ "Arbitron Winter 2012 Top-Line Estimates". Winter 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  3. ^ "Frequencies". Retrieved 2016-09-22.
  4. ^ "Coverage Map | WAMC". Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  5. ^ "GuideStar Exchange Reports for WAMC". GuideStar. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  6. ^ "NPR Ethics Handbook | How to apply our standards to our journalism". NPR. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  7. ^ a b Dechter, Gadi (13 July 2005). "Locally Grown | Baltimore City Paper". Baltimore City Paper. Retrieved 7 May 2012.
  8. ^ "WAMC's IRS Form 990 for Fiscal 2006 (page 35)" (PDF).

Other station data

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