WZCR (93.5 FM, "Oldies 93-5") is an

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 we ...

radio station licensed to

Hudson, New York Hudson is a city and the county seat of Columbia County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 5,894. Located on the east side of the Hudson River and 120 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, it was named for the rive ...

, and serving Columbia and

Greene Greene may refer to: Places United States *Greene, Indiana, an unincorporated community *Greene, Iowa, a city *Greene, Maine, a town **Greene (CDP), Maine, in the town of Greene *Greene (town), New York **Greene (village), New York, in the town o ...

counties as well as the upper

Hudson Valley The Hudson Valley (also known as the Hudson River Valley) comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in the U.S. state of New York. The region stretches from the Capital District including Albany and Troy south to ...

, the southern

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 politica ...

, and

Berkshire County, Massachusetts Berkshire County (pronounced ) is a county on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded in ...

. The station is owned by

iHeartMedia 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 ...

and broadcasts from a tower located near the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...

in Hudson.

History

WZCR signed on in 1969 as WHUC-FM, sister to

WHUC WHUC (1230 AM) is a radio station broadcasting the country music format of WRWD-FM (107.3). Licensed to Hudson, New York, the station serves the Upper Hudson Valley. The station is owned by iHeartMedia (as iHM Licenses, LLC). WHUC's radio stu ...

and the first FM station between Kingston and Albany. Initially airing automated

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

music, the station would flip to a simulcast of WHUC's successful Top 40 format by 1971, a format it would keep for the next decade. During this time, it was not uncommon for the WHUC stations to appear in the ratings for the Albany market to the point that some Albany businesses advertised on the stations. With The FCC requiring stations to stop simulcasting, the simulcast was broken in April 1981 with WHUC-FM flipping to Automated AC from Drake Chenault and taking the WRVW calls. This format was selected by the station's current General Manager. The station would take several variations of AC before flipping to country in 1988. Country would only last a couple of years before the station went through a variety of formats, including standards, big band, and an oldies format called ''93Gold FM''. WRVW's oldies format was never a winning proposition, with two strong Albany oldies stations,

WGY-FM WGY-FM (103.1 MHz) is a news-talk radio station licensed to Albany, New York. The station broadcasts 24 hours a day at 5,600 watts ERP from a non-directional antenna in North Greenbush, New York located near U.S. Route 4. The station, owned by ...

and WTRY dominating the Hudson market. This would continue until early 1995 when Straus Media, owners of

WCTW WCTW (98.5 FM "98.5 The Cat") is a hot adult contemporary music formatted radio station licensed to Catskill, New York, and serving Columbia and Greene counties as well as the upper Hudson Valley, the southern Capital District, and Berkshire Cou ...

and WCKL in Catskill, bought WHUC and WRVW. Straus had earlier purchased WELV and 99.3 WWWK in Ellenville and all those stations, with the exception of WELV moved to the studios on Route 9G in Hudson. In the Spring of 1995, WRVW and WWWK joined together as ''Thunder Country'', a satellite-fed "Hot Country" format; with this format change, WRVW took the WTHK calls. WTHK struggled against

WGNA-FM WGNA-FM (107.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Albany, New York, and serving the Capital District. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts a country music radio format. WGNA-FM has an effective radiated power (ER ...

to the north and WRWD to the south, however the station did last out the 1990s. It was in 1997 that Straus's Hudson/Catskill stations were relocated to the company's Poughkeepsie headquarters, a move met with some local criticism. The sale of Straus Media to

(then known as Clear Channel Communications) in 2000 led to the divesture of the Hudson/Catskill stations and WBPM in Kingston to Concord Media, an affiliated holding company. With this sale came the relocation of WTHK and its sister stations to its old facility in Hudson along with a format change that November to its current oldies format with the WZCR calls soon following. Clear Channel would later buy the Hudson/Catskill stations (less WCKL) in early 2003 with satellite-fed programming being soon replaced. WZCR would drop satellite broadcasting and go local in January 2005. The station continues to be a strong ratings leader with the oldies format. Oldies93

On two occasions (in 2004 and 2005), WZCR was simulcast on WCKL as filler programming while Clear Channel unsuccessfully tried to sell that station due to market concentration concerns.

External links

Oldies 93.5 WZCR official website
* {{coord, 42.254, N, 73.762, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title Oldies radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1968 ZCR 1968 establishments in New York (state) IHeartMedia radio stations