WQSH (103.5 MHz) is a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

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 ...

licensed A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

to Cobleskill, New York, and serving the

Mohawk Valley The Mohawk Valley region of the U.S. state of New York is the area surrounding the Mohawk River, sandwiched between the Adirondack Mountains and Catskill Mountains, northwest of the Capital District. As of the 2010 United States Census, ...

and the western

Capital District A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any poli ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The station is owned by

Townsquare Media Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

and broadcasts a

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, prim ...

radio format A radio format or programming format (not to be confused with broadcast programming) describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. The radio format emerged mainly in the United States in the 1950s, at a time when radio was compelle ...

, simulcasting WQBK-FM 105.7 Malta. The

radio studio A recording studio is a specialized facility for sound recording, mixing, and audio production of instrumental or vocal musical performances, spoken words, and other sounds. They range in size from a small in-home project studio large enou ...

s and offices are on Kings Road in

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

. WQSH has an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...

(ERP) of 50,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

s, the maximum for this section of the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

. It

transmit Transmit is a file transfer client program for macOS. Developed by Panic, Transmit is shareware. After a seven-day trial period, the product can only be used for seven-minute sessions until it has been purchased. Originally built as an FTP clien ...

s from a

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

on Indian Road in

Palatine, New York Town of Palatine is a town in Montgomery County, New York, United States. It is located on the north side of the Mohawk River in the northwestern part of the county. The population was 3,240 at the 2010 census, the highest since the 1820s. The n ...

History

WQSH

signed on Signing may refer to: * Using sign language * Signature, placing one's name on a document * Signature (disambiguation) * Manual communication, signing as a form of communication using the hands in place of the voice * Digital signature A digi ...

in 1986 as WITU with an

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

format. The

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...

was changed to WACS-FM in 1988. The next year, WACS-FM was sold to the owners of WSHZ and began

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simul ...

ing that station's

format, and later its

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as w ...

music, using the call letters WSHQ. The sale of WSHZ to the owners of WTRY in 1992 led to a return to adult contemporary music (albeit satellite fed) on 103.5 as a stop gap for the station before it was sold to then- WQBK-FM owner Maximum Media in 1994. Maximum Media changed the call sign to WQBJ and used it to simulcast WQBK-FM's then-mainstream rock format (first ''Q-104'', then ''The Edge'' and finally ''Q103''), which would flip the next year to modern rock. Maximum Media was purchased by Radio Enterprises in 1996. Radio Enterprises was bought out by

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...

, which had owned a minority share of the company, in 1997. Then, in 1999, the ''Edge'' stations changed their formats to

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

, a format that remained through Clear Channel divesting the stations to Regent Communications (now Townsquare Media) in 2000. On July 1, 2019, WQBJ and WQBK-FM began directing listeners to WQSH as their longtime rock radio format moved to the 105.7 FM frequency. On August 1, 2019, WQBJ ended stunting and adopted WQSH's former alternative rock format as "Alt 103.5", putting the station in competition with

Pamal Broadcasting Pamal Broadcasting, Ltd. is a family-owned radio group with twenty-three stations in medium-to-small markets in the Northeast. Based in the Albany suburb of Latham, New York, Pamal Broadcasting was founded in 1987 as Albany Broadcasting Company, w ...

WINU WINU (104.9 MHz, "Alt 104.9") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Altamont and serving New York's Capital District. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and airs an alternative rock radio format. WINU has an effective radiated p ...

. WQBK-FM, its former simulcast partner, concurrently launched a

Soft Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

format as "103.9 The Breeze". The WQSH call letters were moved to 103.5 on September 18, 2019. On September 3, 2021, WQSH reverted to classic rock, this time simulcasting 105.7 FM, under the branding of "Q105.7/103.5".Alt 103.5 Albany Switches To Q105.7 Simulcast
Radioinsight - September 3, 2021

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References

External links

* {{Townsquare Media QSH Radio stations established in 1988 1988 establishments in New York (state) Townsquare Media radio stations Classic rock radio stations in the United States