WAQX-FM (95.7 FM) is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting 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 rad ...

licensed to

Manlius, New York Manlius is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town to the south east of Syracuse, New York, Syracuse in Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 33,712, making it the third largest suburb in Sy ...

, United States, featuring an

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

format known as "95X". Owned by

Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc. is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdi ...

, the station serves the

Syracuse metropolitan area The Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area comprising three counties in central New York, with the city of Syracuse as its core. The three counties are Onondaga, Madison, and Oswego ...

Central New York The central region of New York state includes: * Auburn in Cayuga County * Cortland in Cortland County * Oneida in Madison County * Syracuse, the largest city of Central New York, in Onondaga County * Fulton and Oswego in Oswego County ...

. Studios are located in

Downtown Syracuse Downtown Syracuse is the economic center of Syracuse, New York, and Central New York, employing over 30,000 people, and housing over 4,300. It is also one of the 26 officially recognized neighborhoods of Syracuse. History Downtown Syrac ...

, while the transmitter resides in DeWitt. In addition to a standard

analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an an ...

, WAQX-FM is available online.

History

On November 29, 1976, AGK Communications, Inc., a company owned by George Kimble, Craig Fox and Ted Utz applied to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) for a new radio station on 95.3 MHz to serve Manlius. ( Guide to reading History Cards) The application competed against a bid from Manlius Broadcasting Co., which was owned by Craig Fox and Ted Utz, along with a small group of investors. The Kimble and Fox/Utz bids merged and won the construction permit on May 10, 1978. Construction immediately ensued on studios in the Market Place complex on Route 92, including Fox and Utz doing much of the construction Fox as chief engineer, and with an

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US rad ...

(AOR) format, WAQX began broadcasting on August 23, 1978. Fox, then 25, Utz then 24 and two friends of his from

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 ...

felt that Syracuse could support a commercial AOR station; until then,

WAER WAER (88.3 FM) is a radio station in Syracuse, New York. It is located on the campus of Syracuse University, and is a part of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. The station features a jazz music and National Public Radio form ...

at the university and

WOUR WOUR (96.9 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Utica, New York. It broadcasts a classic rock radio format, with occasional recent rock hits, calling itself "The Rock of Central New York". The station is owned by Townsquare Media as ...

in nearby Utica were the only AOR stations serving the market. The small WAQX, which went on the air with 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 ha ...

of 410 watts, had only been on the air a year when format competition came in the form of a much stronger station: WSYR-FM 94.5, which dropped WAQX's ratings by a full point nearly immediately. An attempt at an "adult rock" format proved to be a disaster, but an upgrade to 3,000 watts and the sale of WSYR-FM and its flip to another format helped lead to a rebound. Ratings rose to double-digit shares in 1984 and 1985, a feat the station would only accomplish one other time—in 1994, when it made its lone appearance as the highest-rated station in Syracuse. In 1988, after an upgrade in the station's transmitting facility and power prompted it to relocate from 95.3 to 95.7 MHz, Kimble and Fox negotiated the sale of the station to Atlantic Ventures Corporation, a Massachusetts company formed by former executives of the recently sold American Cablesystems, for $4.5 million. The deal also included a construction permit for a new radio station at 670 kHz which would have required a divestiture of a Fox station anyway; Fox owned WOLF (1490 AM), which for five years had simulcast WAQX on the AM band. New studios on James Street were built for WAQX. However, Atlantic soon unloaded WAQX, selling it at a $500,000 loss to Pilot Communications in 1990 to focus on its stations in Rochester and

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Neither of the partners in Pilot had owned a radio station before; Pilot would own seven stations in Syracuse and

Augusta, Maine Augusta is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Maine. The city's population was 18,899 at the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Maine, 12th-most populous city in Maine, and third ...

, when Broadcasting Partners, a unit of VS&A, invested in the group in 1997. In 1999,

Citadel Communications Citadel Communications Ltd. was an American private broadcasting company. It was based in Bronxville, New York and most recently owned 1 low-power television station on which it operated a regional 24-hour cable news channel. The company wa ...

purchased WAQX and three other Syracuse stations as part of a $190 million purchase of Broadcasting Partners involving 36 stations in 11 markets. Citadel merged with

on September 16, 2011.

References

External links

95X Online
* {{Cumulus Media Alternative rock radio stations in the United States Modern rock radio stations in the United States AQX-FM Cumulus Media radio stations Radio stations established in 1978 1978 establishments in New York (state)