Galaxy Media Partners (formerly Galaxy Communications) is a radio broadcasting company with radio stations entirely in the Central New York area. As of 2024, Galaxy owns 13 radio signals in New York.

History

Ed Levine, the company's president, attended the

Newhouse School The Newhouse School of Public Communications (formally S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; also as the Newhouse School) is the communications and journalism school of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. The school was named af ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

where his love for radio began. After serving as program director for the college radio station, Levine and two classmates started Syracuse’s first live

FM radio FM broadcasting is a method of radio broadcasting that uses frequency modulation (FM) of the radio broadcast carrier wave. Invented in 1933 by American engineer Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to transmit high fidelity, high-f ...

station in 1978. On February 12, 1990, the first Galaxy station, WKLL was launched by Levine, and his business partner, Bob Raide. WKLL was named for Ed and wife Pam’s then-19-month-old daughter Lauren. In the 1990s, Galaxy launched additional stations in Syracuse and Utica. In 2001, the headquarters was moved from Bridgeport to a new building in Armory Square, located in downtown Syracuse. WKLL remains owned by Galaxy to this day. The company was originally named The Radio Corporation; it became Galaxy Communications in May 2000 after a $23 million recapitalization. Galaxy divested itself of its

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

, cluster and swapped several stations in a multi-owner deal that included

Clear Channel Communications iHeartMedia, Inc., or 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 founded by ...

in Utica/Rome in 2007. In 2013, Ed Levine became the sole owner after a $13.2 million buyout from the former majority shareholder. In 2016 Galaxy moved their Utica studios (WKLL, WUMX, WTLB and WRNY) from Washington Mills to Downtown Utica inside the brand new Landmarc building (the old

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc ( zh, t_hk=滙豐; initialism from its founding member The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) is a British universal bank and financial services group headquartered in London, England, with historical and business li ...

location) and renamed it Galaxy Media in 2018. In October 2016, Galaxy Communications (through Galaxy II Media, LLC) agreed to acquire Gamma Broadcasting's stations in

Berkshire County, Massachusetts Berkshire County (pronounced ) is the Western Massachusetts, westernmost County (United States), county in the U.S. state, U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its la ...

for $3.15 million: WBEC, WBEC-FM, and WUPE in Pittsfield, WNAW and WUPE-FM in North Adams, and WSBS in Great Barrington. The acquisition was never completed; the Gamma stations were instead purchased 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 wit ...

in 2017. In 2018, Galaxy Communications rebranded to Galaxy Media Company and brought aboard 10 new investors to buy out the shares that had been owned by a private investment firm and help the company reduce debt. The investors included Syracuse University basketball coach

Jim Boeheim James Arthur Boeheim Jr. ( ; born November 17, 1944) is an American former college basketball coach and current Special Assistant to the Athletic Director at Syracuse University. From 1976 until 2023, he was the head coach of the Syracuse Orange ...

. Also in 2018, Townsquare Media acquired WOUR in Utica from Galaxy.

Stations

Syracuse/Oswego

* WTKW/ WTKV -

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

("TK") * WKRL/ WKRH -

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 ...

("K-Rock") * WZUN (Classic Hits) *

WTLA WTLA (1200 AM broadcasting, AM; "ESPN Radio 97.7") is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to North Syracuse, New York, and serving the Syracuse metropolitan area. The station is owned by Galaxy Media Partners and airs a sports r ...

WSGO WSGO (1440 AM broadcasting, AM) is a commercial radio station, city of license, licensed to Oswego, New York, and serving the northern suburbs of the Syracuse metropolitan area. The station is owned by Galaxy Media Partners and airs a sports radi ...

(

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternatively branded platform-agnostically as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the banner "SportsRadio ESPN". The netw ...

) *

WZUN-FM WZUN-FM (102.1 MHz "Sunny 102") is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Phoenix, New York, and serving the Syracuse metropolitan area. The station is owned by Edward Levine's Galaxy Media Partners through licensee Galaxy Syracuse Licens ...

- classic hits ("Sunny")

Utica/Rome

* WKLL - active rock ("K-rock") * WTLB / WRNY (AM) (ESPN Radio) * WUMX - hot

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 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

("Mix") * WIXT - variety hits ("Tony FM")

Former

Several stations formerly in the Galaxy family were sold to the

Educational Media Foundation Educational Media Foundation (formerly EMF Broadcasting, abbreviated EMF) is an American nonprofit Christian media ministry based in Franklin, a suburb of Nashville. EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE and Air1—the world's largest contempor ...

. * WOUR, Now owned by Townsquare Media. * The Bone of Albany, New York: (WOOB and WBOE, now WYAI and WYKV respectively) * WSCP-FM of Sandy Creek/Pulaski, New York (now WGKV) * WRCK in Utica (now WKVU) - Swapped with WOUR * WOKR: Remsen, New York (now WAWR)

Pop culture

In February 2024, Galaxy Media was featured on ''The American Dream,'' a Bloomberg TV series.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Radio broadcasting companies of the United States