WKIP (AM)

History

Originally owned by Poughkeepsie Newspaper Incorporated, WKIP signed on in 1940 with 250 watts of power, the first radio station in Dutchess County since the move of WOKO in Beacon to Albany a decade earlier. Like many other "local" frequency stations the FCC approved in the period leading to and after the NARBA treaty and realignment, WKIP began its life with a full-service locally based format and from the outset had an affiliation with the NBC Blue network which later evolved into today's ABC. WKIP's involvement with ABC would last for the remainder of the 20th Century.

Like similar stations, WKIP would evolve to a local news-heavy Middle of the Road format in the 1950s, a time where WKIP also added FM coverage when they purchased the former WHVS at 104.7 MHz in 1958. Rechristened WKIP-FM, the station would see many upgrades and was sold a decade later and is now WSPK.

WKIP maintained its original format and ownership until late 1967 when the station was sold to Star Broadcasting which saw the imminent flip of ABC Radio into four sub-networks as a new beginning for the station. Affiliating with the Top 40-leaning American Contemporary Network feed, WKIP would flip at the start of 1968 to a Top 40 format. The station was not successful with its new format against competitor WHVW and that October returned to its prior MOR format. In 1970, WKIP would be sold again to Olympian Broadcasting (to whom Star had sold WKIP-FM to two years earlier and who would resell that station to WBNR owner Lance Broadcasting). Modifying the format to a forerunner to adult contemporary, WKIP would rise from being last place to first place with a combination of increased local involvement and help from format changes at WHVW and WEOK that had it at or near the #1 position until the mid-1980s.

When Richard Novick purchased WKIP from Olympian in 1987, assorted changes started to take place starting with Novick allowing veteran morning host Van Risthie to leave for WHVW. This move plus the imminent decline of full-service AM formats led WKIP to go through a short-lived Fun and Games (hybrid oldies/talk) format with the station going to a talk radio format in 1989. At that time, Novick launched FM station WRNQ, which had the spirit of WKIP's former format, as well as Van Risthie. WRNQ was an automated station.

The talk radio format would last for the entire 1990s, surviving a simulcast attempt with the Novick-controlled 96.9 MHz which also sported the WKIP-FM calls. After Straus Media purchased Novick's stations in November 1996, elements of WKIP's programming began to be heard on sister stations in Ellenville, Hudson, and Catskill. WKIP and all of Straus's stations would be sold to Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) in June 2000 with Clear Channel taking control of the stations that October. With the ownership change came a new format, the Music of Your Life adult standards format, as part of the Hudson Valley Nostalgia Network (a simulcast, minus commercials, with WELV in Ellenville, WGHQ in Kingston, and WHUC in Hudson). The "Nostalgia Network" was dismantled in 2004 with WKIP keeping the standards format until October 2007 when the station returned to talk radio programming.

On June 10, 2008 WKIP dropped Quinn and Rose and began running controversial jock Don Imus until October 1, 2012 when he was replaced by Hudson Valley Focus Live with Tom Sipos.

WKIP's current programming includes Hudson Valley Focus Live with Tom Sipos, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, America Now with Meghan McCain and on Sunday mornings, Café Italia. Assorted local programs air during the weekend with local news and weather all week long.