WNYQ Queensbury After the passage of
Federal Communications Commission Docket 80–90 in 1983, several broadcasters considered putting a new FM station in the
Glens Falls-
Lake George region. Around 1990,
WENU owner Donald Heckman successfully petitioned the FCC to grant a 25,000-watt radio station to his hometown of
Queensbury. Heckman-owned Bradmark Communications won the allocation in 1993, using the
call sign WWAZ for the
construction permit until 1995. It was WSRQ until June 1996, when its call letters became WNYQ. The station officially
signed on the air in October 1996. Bradmark acquired the station in November 1996, one month after the sign-on. WNYQ took over the
adult contemporary format previously heard on WENU, using the branding
Wink 105.7. From its launch, it aired local programming from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. weekdays, with satellite programming fed from
Westwood One nights and weekends. In 2000, Bradmark Communications was sold to Vox Media, a growing owner of radio stations in small markets throughout New York and
New England. Vox ended all satellite programming and decided to take WNYQ to a
Hot AC approach, initially keeping the Wink 105.7 name. In early 2002, WNYQ rebranded as
Q105.7, moving closer to
Adult Top 40. Though initially successful, the station began to see its ratings decline due to competition from new rival
WKBE and several out-of-market Top 40 stations, including
WFLY and
WZRT, with usable signals in WNYQ's signal area. In 2004, Vox applied to move WNYQ's signal into the more lucrative Albany market, making it the second Bradmark/Vox station to do so. (
WYAI, formerly WHTR in
Corinth, was the first.) In December 2004, WNYQ flipped to a satellite-fed
Classic Hits format while keeping the Q105.7 name, as Vox prepared for the station's relocation. The Classic Hits format remained on the 105.7 frequency until it signed off in May 2006, ahead of its relocation. The same format returned in September 2006 at
101.7 MHz (the former WENU, then WQYQ) in
Hudson Falls.
Move to Malta The move of 105.7 into the Capital District, originally applied for in 2004, went through several complications. Originally, the station had an FCC
construction permit with a lease to broadcast from the
Clifton Park tower used by
WDCD-FM,
WKKF, and
WTMM-FM. When finally built, the present Bald Mountain site was selected with an upgrade to Class B1 status, even amid concerns that Bald Mountain might provide less-than-optimal coverage of some growing suburbs to the north of Albany. When Vox sold the firm's remaining Glens Falls stations to
Pamal Broadcasting in mid-2004, initially there was a clause that would allow Pamal to get the first rights to buy the 105.7 station as a move-in. This plan was slowed down by regulatory concerns with Pamal's revenue share in the adjacent Capital District and the potential that the signal that would have been sold if purchased (
WZMR) would not able to find new ownership in the required amount of time.
Acquisition by Regent Communications In June 2006, Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) purchased the license of WNYQ to put it on the air. In preparation of the move, Vox applied for the call letters WBZZ; that call sign took effect on September 21, 2006. After some delays, the station finally returned to the air from the Bald Mountain tower site on November 28, 2006, initially
simulcasting WABT. It was during this time that the station began to refer to itself as
Buzz 105.7. For the following week, DJs were frequently heard informing listeners to "make the switch," explaining that the old 104.5 frequency would no longer broadcast the format by the coming week. The station relaunched exclusively on 105.7 on December 4, 2006, with WABT flipping to
ESPN Radio two weeks later as
WTMM-FM.
Tweak to adult contemporary On December 6, 2007, WBZZ changed its
Hot AC format (which violated Regent-Clear Channel's non-compete agreement;
WRVE also had a Hot AC format) to
Mainstream adult contemporary. The call letters and the name
Buzz 105.7 remained. While most of the jingles and imaging initially stayed from the previous format, WBZZ began airing new jingles in January 2008, better suited for an Adult Contemporary station. In August 2008, the station changed its slogan from "Bright, Fresh, and Upbeat" under the Hot AC format, to "The Best Variety from Yesterday and Today" under the new Adult Contemporary format. By the end of 2009, the station began to lean a little bit more Hot AC than
WYJB but still was mostly an Adult Contemporary station.
105.7 Crush FM On November 1, 2010, at Midnight, the station began
stunting with
Christmas music, WBZZ had been a Christmas music station in years past, and it is not unheard of for stations to change to Christmas music as early as November 1, so it was not initially obvious that WBZZ was planning a new format. The station announced a format change about a week before the launch of
105.7 Crush FM at midnight on January 3, 2011, with a 1990s hits format (similar to Clear Channel's Gen X Radio format) and the WQSH calls. The first song on "Crush FM" was "
Get the Party Started" by
P!nk. In early October 2011, an
FM translator on 99.1 FM, W256BU, went on the air. It began airing an
urban contemporary format, branded "Hot 99.1," fed from the
HD-2 subchannel on 105.7. On September 7, 2012, at 5 pm, the station flipped to an
Adult Top 40 format, branded as "PopCrush 105.7."
Rewind 105.7 On March 4, 2015, WQSH dropped its adult CHR format and began
stunting with
Christmas music as "Santa 105.7," using the same bumpers that had been used in 2010. On March 12, 2015, at 7 am, the station flipped to a
Generation X-based
classic hits format (similar to the former "Crush FM" format), branded "Rewind 105.7." With the shift of WQSH to alternative, sister stations WQBK-FM and WQBJ moved to classic rock. Starting in the 2018
NFL season, WQSH began airing
New York Jets football games whenever co-owned
WTMM-FM had a conflict due to
New York Yankees baseball. In the 2019 season, WQBK-FM became the primary
New York Jets Radio Network affiliate in the Capital District.
Q105.7 On July 1, 2019, at noon, WQSH changed its format to mainstream rock, which moved over from WQBK-FM and WQBJ, and rebranded as "Q105.7." The "Alt" format would return a month later on WQBJ, and would rebrand as "Alt 103.5." On August 9, 2019, WQSH changed call letters to WQBK-FM, which were used since on 103.9 FM since 1972; subsequently, the call sign for 103.9 became WPBZ-FM, reflecting its new
soft adult contemporary format, dubbed "The Breeze." Just over a month later, WQBJ would take on the WQSH call letters. The classic rock format and "Q" branding would return to 103.5 FM on September 3, 2021, with both WQBJ and WQSH continuing to simulcast. ==HD Radio==