Albany Medical Center WAMC
signed on the air in October 1958. Albert P. Fredette served as the first general manager. WAMC was put on the air by the local hospital and medical school,
Albany Medical Center and
Albany Medical College. Albany Medical Center is a large
tertiary-care hospital serving the upper
Hudson Valley, and the medical school is one of the country's ACGME-accredited medical schools. The affiliation with Albany Medical College was the source of the
call sign WAMC. In 1981, the station became an independent institution, no longer associated with the medical school. In its early days, WAMC had a mostly
classical music radio format. The earliest years also included broadcasts of health information and lectures from visiting medical professors. Early on, part of WAMC's regular programming was the broadcast of live concerts by the
Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) from
Tanglewood and Boston. When the NPR network was founded in 1970, WAMC became one of NPR's original 90 "charter" members.
Separating from the medical school Around 1980, financial pressures caused the hospital and medical school to begin divesting the station. In 1981, the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license on 90.3 FM was transferred to a 501c3 tax-exempt entity, WAMC, Inc., which had been set up by a group of five corporators, including
Alan S. Chartock, who became longtime CEO and President, until his retirement in 2023. WAMC was initially affiliated with the
State University of New York and
New York State government. In the years since the transfer, the station has eliminated classical music, except for live BSO concerts. It has become a producer of information-based, non-music programming, providing a variety of interview-format programs to radio stations across the country via the station's in-house subsidiary, National Productions. (
WMHT-FM in nearby
Schenectady and its network of repeater stations continues to program classical music in the region.)
Expanding the network Listener contributions (often obtained during periodic pledge drives) and corporate contributions have helped the original single station grow over the years into a network of 22 facilities with large primary
service contours covering the
Capital District, the
Adirondacks section of New York, the outer northern suburbs of New York City,
Western Massachusetts, Southern
Vermont, and parts of
New Hampshire,
Connecticut,
Pennsylvania and
New Jersey. It has been a custom on WAMC to play two songs to mark the end of every fund drive:
Kate Smith's "
God Bless America" and
Ray Charles' rendition of "
America the Beautiful". The station's February 2017 fund drive raised over $1,000,000 in less than one day. The main 90.3 MHz signal has an
effective radiated power (ERP) of 10,000 watts, which on paper is somewhat modest for a full NPR member on the FM band. However, its
height above average terrain (HAAT) of gives it one of the largest coverage areas of any NPR station in the Northeast. It provides at least grade B coverage to most of east-central New York (including the Capital District), southwestern Vermont, western Massachusetts, southwestern New Hampshire, and northwestern Connecticut.
Mount Greylock While WAMC-FM is based in Albany, its
transmitter is actually in
Massachusetts. WAMC-FM's
antenna tower is atop
Mount Greylock in
Adams, in the
Mount Greylock State Reservation. It is the tallest mountain in Massachusetts. The transmitter had formerly been a tenant on the tower, which was built and maintained by the Albany
ABC-TV affiliate
WTEN (channel 10) for its
satellite station for the Berkshire region and Pittsfield, WCDC. WCDC had broadcast on channel 19 but that signal was shut down in 2017. The tower also features a radio facility for the
Massachusetts State Police and a translator station for the Albany
NBC affiliate,
WNYT (channel 13). On December 22, 2017, WAMC entered into an agreement to purchase the Mount Greylock WCDC transmitter and tower from the owner of WTEN/WCDC,
Nexstar Media Group, for just above $1 million. WCDC-TV had gone permanently
silent on November 19, 2017, two weeks ahead of a planned December 1 shutdown amid declining over-the-air viewership, following damage to the station's transmission line in a storm. The TV station license was surrendered for cancellation on February 12, 2018, as a result of the FCC's 2016 spectrum auction for $34.5 million in compensation. Due to the tower sitting on
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation land, as well as WTEN's lease on the land having expired two years prior, WAMC-FM could have been taken off the air if it had not purchased the facility. WAMC now owns the tower itself, but not the land beneath, which is under lease with the MDCR until 2025.
Accusations of bias NPR's official news policy says its affiliate stations should be "fair, unbiased, accurate, honest, and respectful of the people that are covered". A Washington-based NPR news producer, who requested anonymity, stated that Chartock, the station's then-president and a frequently heard voice on the station, presented politically biased commentary.
First Amendment Fund In 2005, WAMC's board of trustees established a "First Amendment Fund" to promote and preserve
the First Amendment and the right of
free speech by providing a source of funding "to support WAMC if special situations or needs should arise". The contributions in this "unrestricted, board designated" fund reported on WAMC's 2006
IRS tax forms was $482,577.
Syndicated programs WAMC
syndicates many of its shows to other public radio stations. These programs include •
Legislative Gazette about NY State politics •
The Capitol Connection about NY State politics • Women's news show
51% with Jesse King • Environmental news show
Earth Wise •
Person Place Thing with
Randy Cohen •
The Academic Minute with
Lynn Pasquerella • Ideas show
The Best of Our Knowledge with Bob Barrett (not to be confused with
To the Best of Our Knowledge syndicated by
Wisconsin Public Radio) • Author interview program
The Book Show with Joe Donahue • Media criticism show
The Media Project ==WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network==