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Schenectady station WGY celebrates 100 years

Feb 14, 2022 12:23 pm

Pete DeMola reports in the Times Union that WGY, the 50,000-watt AM Schenectady radio station, turns 100-years-old this year. The 810-AM's station personalities are thinking back to what it was like for people in the area to hear the station for the first time in 1922. “To hear somebody’s voice and how personal it is, I think it must have been incredible to experience this,” said Diane Donato, a news anchor at WGY. Station officials say WGY's shortwave stations were the first to conduct a two-way transmission to England and, in 1922, was the AM station was the first to broadcast the World Series, with the New York Giants defeating the New York Yankees. “It was very exciting, particularly for people in rural areas,” said Rick Kelly, co-author with John Gabriel of “Capital Region Radio: 1920-2011.” “To hear another human voice flying through the air was really a revelation for people back in the 1920s.” Read more about this story in the Times Union.