WPDH

History

WPDH signed on as WEOK-FM in 1962 as the sister to WEOK and Poughkeepsie's second FM station after WKIP-FM (today's WSPK). The main purpose of the station at the outset was to provide Muzak programming to area offices and businesses via its subcarrier; as a result the on-air programming was limited to simulcasts of the AM's middle of the road format and block programming between the AM's sign off and 10:00 p.m.

In 1972, WEOK AM and FM were sold to the Dyson family (also owners of Dyson Racing) and with the sale came key changes to the FM side. The transmitter moved from a site in Milton (now used by WVKR) to the current Illinois Mountain site, upgrading to a full Class B and adding stereo capabilities in the process, and at the end of these upgrades relaunched as country music formatted WPDH. At the time, this format was largely unproven and given the newness of FM at the time struggled to the point of being beaten by New York City signal WHN after that station flipped to country. At this time, the hole for an album-oriented rock (AOR) station in the Hudson Valley (where WPLJ and WNEW-FM were had multiples of WPDH's ratings with marginal signals) was seen and in 1976 WPDH abandoned country for rock which lasts to this day.

Formatic evolution

In its three decades in rock radio, there have been several variations of WPDH's format. At the outset, it was a very progressive rock station for the period and the occasional jazz track. That format evolved through the 1980s as the station slowly tightened its focus. The splintering of rock in the 1980s and early 1990s had varying effects on WPDH, they were quick to integrate heavy metal into the playlist as well as early alternative music alternative rock and European imports. Nevertheless, the station remained successful and was a solid #1 in the market in the early 1980s, and by the 1990s was alternating the #1 spot in the market with WSPK though the station's reluctance to incorporate much alternative into the playlist had an effect on its future.

In 1994, WPDH owners Crystal Radio Group (the Dyson family spinoff headed by now-family head Rob Dyson) purchased Middletown-based WKOJ and WALL from Orange & Rockland Utilities. With this purchase came an opportunity to both solve the new rock dilemma and to strengthen WPDH by taking out its only direct competition. WPDH spent the latter part of 1994 and early 1995 evolving to Classic rock while WKOJ flipped to alternative WRRV in April 1995.

WPDH's ratings went through some instability in the early years as classic rock, however being with no competition they became the regular #2 to WSPK's #1 by the turn of the 21st Century. It was at this time, amid consolidation, in which Rob Dyson sold the Crystal Radio Group to Aurora Communications in 2001 which, in turn was bought out by Cumulus Media in 2002. Amid an extended drop in ratings, WPDH was relaunched as a mainstream rock station over Labor Day Weekend 2003. Gary Cee, formerly of WLIR, was hired as Program Director, and the station stabilized at the top of the ratings in both Dutchess and Orange counties.

In January 2012, Andrew Boris, program director of sister station WRRV, became the new Program Director of WPDH. No formula changes in the programming have been announced due to this yet.

On August 30, 2013, a deal was announced in which Cumulus would swap its stations in Dubuque, Iowa and Poughkeepsie (including WPDH) to Townsquare Media in exchange for Peak Broadcasting's Fresno, California stations. The deal is part of Cumulus' acquisition of Dial Global; Townsquare, Peak, and Dial Global are all controlled by Oaktree Capital Management. The sale to Townsquare was completed on November 14, 2013.

Current air staff as of 2015

Full-time

Part-time

Notable alumni

HD radio

Cumulus Broadcasting began upgrading its stations to HD Radio broadcasting in 2005. One of the first ten stations to be upgraded was WPDH.