WPTR-FM in Rotterdam, NY, is finally on the air, thanks to a new tower and lots of legwork from its owners, reported the Times Union. The original station is on the AM band. It reached its hey-day in the 1960s through 1970s. But now, its 10,000-watt signal has been reduced to 1,000 watts on 1240 kHz.
New owners revived the AM in 2020. The AM tower is at the Via Port Rotterdam mall, and reaches Schenectady and the surrounding areas.
But the owners wanted to air the programming on FM too, using the AM tower, reported the Times Union.
That plan didn’t work. According to station co-owner Jeff Clark, “It was a terrible signal because it had to protect the signal of a station in Rutland at 97.1 MHz and one in Johnstown … so it was a very convoluted signal pattern and essentially not worth anything.”
Clark, along with a group of investors, took time to research alternative broadcasting options during the pandemic. They decided to build a tower over the winter, with a signal that reaches southern Saratoga County and into Glenville and the outskirts of Saratoga Springs. The new FM tower is located at the Curtis Industrial Park in Ballston Spa.
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