radio station
Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...
New York metropolitan area
The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass, at , and one of the list of most populous metropolitan areas, most populous urban agg ...
. It has studios in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
, and the
transmitter
In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...
is located at the
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from " Empire State", the nickname of the ...
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
. Its frequency of 93.1 MHz had previously been assigned to
Edwin Howard Armstrong
Edwin Howard Armstrong (December 18, 1890 – February 1, 1954) was an American electrical engineer and inventor, who developed FM (frequency modulation) radio and the superheterodyne receiver system. He held 42 patents and received numerous awa ...
's Alpine, New Jersey station,
KE2XCC
KE2XCC, first authorized in 1945 with the call sign W2XEA, was an experimental FM radio station located in Alpine, New Jersey and operated by inventor Edwin Howard Armstrong. It was located at the same site as Armstrong's original FM station, W2XM ...
, until it went off the air in 1954. This was the second station to hold the WPAT-FM call sign, as an earlier WPAT-FM, originally WNNJ, had operated on 103.5 MHz from 1949 until its deletion in early 1951.
WPAT-FM eventually moved to studios on Church Street in Paterson, and later moved to studios at the four-tower transmitter site of its AM sister station at that time, 930 WPAT (AM), at 1396 Broad Street in
Clifton, New Jersey
Clifton is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Criss-crossed by several major highways, the city is a regional commercial hub for North Jersey and is a bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York Metropolitan Area. A ...
. WPAT AM & FM were purchased by
Capital Cities Communications
Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...
in 1961. In 1985, Capital Cities announced that it would buy ABC. As a result of
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
regulations at the time, the company decided to sell WPAT AM & FM because ABC already owned 770 WABC and 95.5
WPLJ
WPLJ (95.5 FM) is a non-commercial Christian adult contemporary music radio station licensed to New York City. It is owned by the Educational Media Foundation (EMF) and broadcasts EMF's flagship programming service, K-Love. WPLJ's transmi ...
in New York City. The WPAT stations were sold to
Park Communications
Roy Hampton Park (15 September 1910 – 25 October 1993) was an American media executive and entrepreneur. He is known for creating the Duncan Hines brand of packaged food products, and for his television/radio/newspaper conglomerate, Park Commun ...
.
On January 19, 1996, at 11:59 pm, WPAT-FM ceased being an English-language station when control was switched over to current owners Spanish Broadcasting System. WPAT-FM DJ Karen Carson did the last air shift for the station's adult contemporary format that day,Hinckley, Davi IT'LL BE MULLER TIME AT WYNY IF CHI DEEJAY JOINS A.M. BREW ''New York Daily News'' January 23, 1996 and operations director Ken Mackenzie gave a farewell speech right before the station signed off. Immediately after the station signed off from Clifton, a new Spanish-language adult contemporary format signed on from
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
with the branding "Suave 93.1" ("Smooth 93.1"). Eventually, on February 4, 1998, the station's branding was changed to "Amor 93.1" ("Love 93.1") and in January 2002, returned to "93.1 Amor" ("93.1 Love").