Christian radio WGNA originally was not slated to take the country format it has long dominated. The 107.7 frequency had been awarded to the owners of
Christian radio station
WHAZ. WGNA was due to
sign on with an alternate Christian format. WHAZ would concentrate on Christian talk and teaching, while the FM station would play Christian music. The GNA in the
call sign would stand for "Good News Albany". These plans went on hold when WHAZ's owner died several weeks prior to the planned sign-on of WGNA. In a pinch, his children took over the station. The station signed on with a country music format on December 5, 1973, at 6:00 p.m.
Country radio For its first five days, the country music played uninterrupted. On December 10 at 6:00 a.m., disc jockeys began hosting the country sound. Going against established country station
WOKO, WGNA became a success, even though not all radios could receive FM signals in that era. WHAZ was eventually sold off and, in 1978, WOKO left the country format. In 1988, then-WGNA owner Barnstable Broadcasting purchased WOKO and turned it into an AM
simulcast of WGNA (with the FM taking the WGNA-FM call sign as a result). WGNA 1460 AM would occasionally break away from the simulcast for sports coverage. In 1990, noted Albany broadcaster Fred Horton became program director at WGNA. He led the station to become #1 in almost every
Arbitron ratings book. On April 13, 1994, Barnstable sold WGNA to the radio group headed by TV host
Merv Griffin. Griffin's group later sold its stations to Capstar Broadcasting in 1996. Two years later, the WGNA stations ended up as part of AMFM, Inc., a forerunner to today's
iHeartMedia.
Change in program directors In 1997, longtime program director Fred Horton left the station to program
WYNY in New York City and was replaced by former MTV executive, Ronald E. "Buzz" Brindle, who programmed Country 107.7 until April 2007. Brindle had previously programmed
WGY and had launched
WYJB "B95.5" in the Albany market. Under Brindle's leadership, WGNA broadened its listener base by replacing its country-focused morning show with the more mass appeal "Sean & Richie Show" in order to attract non-country fans from WFLY, WPYX, and WYJB and then convert them into country listeners. During Brindle's 10-year tenure at WGNA, the station strengthened its reputation within the country music industry and garnered several CMA awards and nominations.
New ownership After AMFM merged with
Clear Channel Communications in 2000, WGNA-AM-FM was sold with
WPYX,
WABT,
WTRY (AM) and
WTRY-FM to Clear Channel Communications which, in turn, sold WGNA-AM-FM, WABT,
WQBK-FM,
WTMM and
WQBJ to Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) due to market concentration concerns. The
Federal Communications Commission does not want one company to dominate too large a portion of a
radio market. In February 2002, the simulcast with 1460 AM ended when Regent sold that station to
ABC Radio. ABC used it to bring its
Radio Disney format to the Capital Region under the call letters WDDY. It now broadcasts
Catholic religious programming as
WOPG. ==Personalities==