Broadcast area Capital District ERP 12,000 watts Class B Frequency 95.5 MHz Format Adult contemporary music Branding B95.5 | First air date 1959 (as WROW-FM) HAAT 312 meters Facility ID 836 City of license Albany Owner Pamal Broadcasting | |
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Area Capital District, New York Slogan One Great Song After Another (primary) | ||
Delilah wyjb fm
WYJB (95.5 FM, "B95.5") is an adult contemporary (with a slight lean towards Hot AC) formatted radio station licensed to Albany, New York and serving New York's Capital District as well as the surrounding areas, including the Adirondacks. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting, and broadcasts at a power of 12 kilowatts effective radiated power (ERP) from the Helderberg Mountains antenna farm in New Scotland.
Contents
Programming
WYJB's adult contemporary format is a direct evolution of WROW-FM's former easy listening format, which began in the early 1960s. The station has had an adult contemporary format since 1991, originally strictly Soft AC, which evolved towards mainstream AC and eventually developing a slight Hot AC lean in recent years. The station has been #1 overall in several books since its launch, and its primary competitors are WRVE (99.5 The River) and WJKE (101.3 The Jockey, a rimshot in the Saratoga/Glens Falls area).
As of September 2012, the station staff is: The B95.5 Breakfast Club with Bill Fox and Suzy Garcia (6:00 am–10:00 am), Lynn Wilson (10:00 am–3:00 pm), Chad O'Hara (3:00 pm–7:00 pm), and the syndicated Delilah weeknight show (7:00 pm–midnight).
1950s–1993: WROW-FM
The 95.5 frequency, originally allocated to the unbuilt WXKW-FM in 1950, signed on in 1959 as WROW-FM, sister to Capital Cities Communications flagship WROW and initially simulcasting the AM's programming. After the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced FM stations to originate their own programming in 1967, it aired a time-delayed variation of the AM's easy listening format. This arrangement remained until after Capital Cities sold the WROW stations in 1983, at which point the FM became the primary station which the AM largely simulcasted.
With the decline of easy listening formats in the late 1980s, WROW-FM evolved to a Soft AC format as EZ95.5 in early 1991, with easy listening moving solely to the AM side. Though with a good signal in comparison to rival WKLI-FM, the easy listening heritage of the 95.5 frequency proved to be detrimental to the growth of the station. In late 1993, the WROW stations were sold to Albany Broadcasting (forerunner to today's Pamal Broadcasting), at which point an overhaul of the station took place.
1994–present: WYJB
On January 3, 1994, EZ95.5 relaunched with a more mainstream AC sound as The New B95.5 with the WYJB calls coming into effect several days prior. Within five years of the launch, the station became the death knell for the weaker WKLI signal's AC format (and also many of its future rival stations, including a K-Lite revival on 94.5 FM and Buzz 105.7).
In 2001, Delilah was added to the station in the evenings after WKLI (then on 94.5 FM) flipped to classic rock; and continued to develop a slight Hot AC lean, even more so with sister station WCPT (now WKLI-FM) changing to a soft AC/standards format. Five years later, the long-time morning show Chuck and Kelly moved to competitor WBZZ (originally on 104.5, later on 105.7), and Ric Mitchell and Laura Daniels (formerly of WFLY) were named Chuck and Kelly's replacements. In 2010, Ric Mitchell left WYJB, with Chuck Taylor returning to the morning show shortly after. After WBZZ dumped adult contemporary that year, it left WYJB and rimshot competitor WQAR (now WJKE) as Albany's only adult contemporary radio stations.
On November 9, 2011, the station flipped to Christmas music for the first time, in response to the flip of nearby oldies station WTRY-FM to all-Christmas the same day. Shortly after Christmas, the station tweaked into more of a Hot AC sound with new slogans and jingles; however, the station still reports as adult contemporary on Nielsen BDS and Mediabase charts.