WRIV (1390 AM) is a radio station licensed to

Riverhead, New York Riverhead is a town in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the north shore of Long Island. Since 1727, Riverhead has been the county seat of Suffolk County, though most county offices are in Hauppauge. As of the 2020 census, the popul ...

. Established in 1955, the station broadcasts an

adult standards Adult standards (also sometimes known as the nostalgia or Big Band format) is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations. Adult standards started in the 1950s and is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly tho ...

format to

Eastern Long Island The East End of Long Island is constituted by the five towns at the eastern end of New York's Suffolk County, namely Riverhead, Southampton (which includes Westhampton), Southold, Shelter Island, and East Hampton. Long Island's North Fork ...

. The station, which has been owned since 1987 by Crystal Coast Communications, has daytime power of 1,000 watts and 64 watts at night.

History

The station, then owned by the Suffolk Broadcasting Corporation, went on the air on June 19, 1955, as a sister station to co-owned

WALK Walking (also known as ambulation) is one of the main gaits of terrestrial locomotion among legged animals. Walking is typically slower than running and other gaits. Walking is defined as an "inverted pendulum" gait in which the body vaults over ...

and

WALK-FM WALK-FM (97.5 FM) is a hot adult contemporary radio station licensed to Patchogue, New York, and serving Long Island. The station is owned by Connoisseur Media, with studios and offices located at Airport Plaza in Farmingdale, New York, and its ...

radio in

Patchogue, New York Patchogue ( ) is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Suffolk County, New York. The population was 12,408 at the time of the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Patchogue is an incorporated community in the Town (New ...

. Its first studio at 29 East Main Street burned within six months in what is listed by the Riverhead Fire Department as one of the worst fires in the town's history. In 1963, WRIV, along with WALK and WALK-FM, was sold to Island Broadcasting System. Island Broadcasting was owned in part by

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

anchorman

Chet Huntley Chester Robert Huntley (December 10, 1911 – March 20, 1974) was an American television newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, '' The Huntley–Brinkley Report,'' for 14 years beginning in 1956. Early life Hunt ...

. In 1965, WRIV applied for a television license for Channel 55. WRIV-TV held a construction permit for the station until the early 1970s. The Channel 55 allocation was dormant until WLIG-TV went on the air in 1985; today Channel 55 is known as

WLNY-TV WLNY-TV (channel 55), branded on-air as New York 55, is an independent television station licensed to Riverhead (CDP), New York, Riverhead, New York, United States, serving the New York City television market. It is owned by the CBS News and Sta ...

and is owned by

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. WRIV was sold again in 1981 to East End Communications and became sister station to now defunct WGLI 1290 in

Babylon, New York The Town of Babylon is one of ten towns in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Its population was 218,223 as of the 2020 census. Parts of Jones Beach Island, Captree Island and Fire Island are in the southernmost part of the town. It borde ...

before being sold to its current owners. Some former personalities on the station include: Ted Brown (following the demise of WNEW) and former WALK morning personality Bob Klein. WRIV is the only commercial AM radio station in the five east-end towns of Long Island. It maintains an adult standards

full-service radio Full-service radio is a type of radio format characterized by a mix of music programming and a large amount of locally-produced and hyperlocal programming, such as news and discussion focusing on local issues, news, sports coverage, interviews, cal ...

format and has local personalities. The station is an affiliate of the ABC Information Network.

References

External links

* * ( Guide to reading History Cards) {{Long Island Radio 1955 establishments in New York (state) Adult standards radio stations in the United States Mass media in Suffolk County, New York Radio stations established in 1955 RIV

History

References

Further reading

External links