WLFK (95.3 FM, "95-3 The Wolf") is a radio station licensed for 6,000 watts at

Gouverneur, New York Gouverneur ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in St. Lawrence County, New York, St. Lawrence County, New York (state), New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 6,551. Th ...

. The station also has a low-power repeater in

Watertown, New York Watertown is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River, about east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the t ...

, which broadcasts with 50 watts. The audio from this station can be heard on

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

in Watertown on channel 96. Time Warner picks up the broadcast from repeater 104.1 which is also in Watertown. Since the FM audio subcarrier for cable channel 96 can be heard on 101.75 FM, cable subscribers in the greater Watertown area can hear WLFK in a much larger area than its low powered Watertown signal can cover. Owned and operated by

Community Broadcasters, LLC Community Broadcasters, LLC is a Watertown, New York based radio holding group that owns radio stations in its own market and surrounding areas. It was founded by media executives Bruce Mittman and Jim Leven, and started out in 2006 by buying st ...

, it broadcasts a country format. The station carries a national news feed from

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at the top of each hour. The station has a local disc jockey, Wolfman Bill, (weekdays 6-9am), and local news courtesy of John Moore at WWTI-TV 50 (Watertown, New York). The remainder of the schedule is filled by satellite, with no local news after that. The station broadcasts

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York. Clarkson has additional graduate programs and research facilities in the New York Capital District. It was established in 1896 and enrolled over 4 ...

hockey. The announcer is Bob Ahlfeld.

Station history

WLFK signed-on for the first time on Monday evening, December 4, 1967, as WIGS-FM on 92.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

. The 3,000-watt station was put on-the-air to provide coverage to areas that were unable to receive the signal of (or received interference with) the 1,000-watt WIGS (1230 AM). The two stations simulcast originally. In the fall of 1976, the FM station changed call letters to WLUF. The callsign was changed back to WIGS-FM on December 18, 1978. According to a story printed in the ''Gouverneur Tribune-Press'', on the evening of March 24, 1977, the three-story building at 40 Church Street, which housed the WIGS-AM-FM studios, plus the Gouverneur Savings & Loan, a law office and real estate office, was totally destroyed by fire. By 1p.m. the following day, the station had moved temporarily to the back of the Brown and Storie building, returning to the air just five hours later. One part of the burned-out studio that owner Robert Hartshorn did not replace was the old automated machine, nicknamed "Fred", which apparently continued to work right up until it was destroyed in the fire. "Fred" was not popular with listeners, who preferred live talent, unlike the system, which used pre-recorded shows from the west coast. Work soon began on new permanent facilities for the station, with Hartshorn serving as part of the construction crew at the new site next to the transmitter on Pooler Road. Just six weeks later, the new building was nearly ready, at four times the cost of what it took to put WIGS AM on-the-air back in 1963. Beginning at noon on February 25, 1981, WIGS-FM began broadcasting at its current frequency of 95.3 MHz in order to make room at 92.7 MHz for WPAC (now WQTK) in

Ogdensburg, New York Ogdensburg is a city in St. Lawrence County, New York, United States. The population was 10,064 at the 2020 census. In the late 18th century, European-American settlers named the community after American land owner and developer Samuel Ogden. T ...

. In later years, the simulcast ended, with the AM side going

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

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

format. The station callsign changed to WGIX-FM on July 1, 1988. In February 1991, both stations suddenly left the air but returned with new owners that fall. The Wireless Works had already owned WSLB and WPAC in Ogdensburg, as well as WZOZ in

Oneonta, New York Oneonta ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#City, city in southern Otsego County, New York, Otsego County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is one of the northernmost cities of Appalachia. Oneonta is home to the State Un ...

. That November, WGIX and WIGS joined WSLB in a new

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

-formatted trimulcast as "FSR - Full-Service Radio". An ad was placed in the Gouverneur newspaper on November 13, 1991, proclaiming "Live radio is back on WIGS and WGIX". WIGS signed off permanently in the mid-1990s, and the two remaining stations continued a simulcast until WSLB became "Talk 1400" in the early 2000s. WGIX became "Oldies 95.3" then "Cool 95.3". In 2003, WGIX-FM added a 50-watt repeater in

, which was formerly used by Majic 103.1. Then in 2008, the station added a 19-watt repeater in Lowville. On Tuesday, March 9, 2010, the station switched formats to country music, re-branding itself as WLFK, "95-3 The Wolf".

References

External links

{{Country Radio Stations in New York Radio stations established in 1967 LFK Country radio stations in the United States 1967 establishments in New York (state) St. Lawrence County, New York