• My Account
  • Your Profile
  • Member Archives
Friday, July 18, 2025
Cart / $0.00

No products in the cart.

Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links
No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

No products in the cart.

No Result
View All Result
Fybush.com
No Result
View All Result

Site of the Week 5/6/2016: A Few Stops Near Home

Scott Fybush by Scott Fybush
May 6, 2016
in Free Content, New York, Tower Site of the Week
0

Text and photos by SCOTT FYBUSH

We spend a lot of time on the road, don’t we? So it’s nice, every once in a while, to check in on stations that don’t require an overnight trip from our home base in Rochester…and there’s rarely a more friendly stop than Bob Savage’s WYSL (1040) in Avon, just half an hour from home if the traffic isn’t too bad.

WYSL's GE board
WYSL’s Gates board

WHEC 1460's old board
WHEC 1460’s old board
Savage and his RCA
Savage and his RCA
WYSL's BE
WYSL’s BE

We paid a visit on Bob and the station in January, right around WYSL’s 29th birthday, in part to say goodbye to an old friend. That BTA-1R1 at left was one of Bob’s original pair of RCAs way back at the beginning – one from WELM in Elmira, the other from WLSH in Lansford, PA – and now it’s headed to a happy retirement at the Antique Wireless Association Museum down the road from us in Bloomfield, NY.

The space the RCA long occupied is now home to WYSL’s night rig, a BE AM 2.5, which slid over to make room for a rack that will now house a solid-state Nautel as WYSL’s backup to the BE and the Nautel Ampfet that powers the station’s 20 kW day signal.

(But fear not – there’s still plenty of Olde Stuph here, including not only the beautifully-restored Gates console that now lives in the production room, as well as the even older RCA console that once belonged to Rochester’s WHEC/WWWG 1460 and was hanging out in the transmitter room when we visited.)

WDNY/WMRV's Main Street digs
WDNY/WMRV’s Main Street digs

Sports studio at WDNY
Sports studio at WDNY

While WYSL has anchored the radio dial in northern Livingston County since 1987, southern Livingston County has belonged to Dansville’s WDNY since 1978. After a brief start at 1600 on the dial, WDNY slid downward to fulltime operation on 1400 and added WDNY-FM (93.9) in the early 1990s.

For the last few years, WDNY has belonged to Brian McGlynn’s Genesee Media, and its Main Street home provides studio space for the AM signal, the FM (now “My 93.9” WMRV, with a heritage Binghamton callsign) and McGlynn’s Rochester-area sports stations, WOKR (1590 Brockport)/WRSB (1310 Canandaigua).

WDNY AM studio
WDNY AM studio

WMRV 93.9 studio
WMRV 93.9 studio
WDNY's transmitter building
WDNY’s transmitter building

If you know where you’re looking, you can see the AM 1400 tower off the east side of I-390 just south of town; the site itself is on Cemetery Road, with a cozy little block building and a tidy Armstrong solid-state kilowatt chugging along inside.

WMRV’s 570-watt class A FM signal comes from a site about a mile to the southeast up on Acomb Road, where there’s a rare TTC FM transmitter powering the station, backed up by a Harris Quest that came from McGlynn’s alma mater, WITR (89.7) at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This hilltop site is also home to translators: across the road from WMRV’s site, Calvary Chapel of the Finger Lakes has W248BC (97.5), relaying WZXV (99.7 Palmyra), while the extensive Family Life Network serves Dansville via W283BR (104.5), relaying WCIY (88.9 Canandaigua).

WDNY 1400
WDNY 1400

WMRV 93.9
WMRV 93.9

WMRV
WMRV

A recent trip on a rainy day took us another 20 miles or so south of Dansville to the outskirts of Bath, where we finally got a peek at the inside of the Family Life operation. Long before there was radio here (FLN’s first station, WCIK 103.1 Bath, signed on in 1982), this building at Campbell Creek Road and NY 415 was home to a Christian youth ministry, founded by the father of current FLN leader Rick Snavely.

Family Life in Bath
Family Life in Bath

Family Life's auditorium
Family Life’s auditorium

Some elements of that ministry still survive here, including a big gym/auditorium that’s used for youth drama programs, sports leagues and the radio network’s share-a-thons.

FLN newsroom
FLN newsroom

FLN air studio
FLN air studio

The radio network itself is anchored at one corner of the building, in two additions that went in as the radio service grew. Family Life is serious about regional news, which comes from a newsroom/studio that occupies the original WCIK air studio. The current FLN air studio, with a spiffy Wheatstone console, sits at the back of the building, down the hall from several small production rooms.

FLN production room
FLN production room

FLN rack room
FLN rack room

Down the hall, there’s a spacious production room that’s used for youth productions and radio drama – and in the other direction, the Family Life IT racks were being expanded when we visited, though we caught a glimpse of some of the IP networking that now sends FLN programming out to some of the full-power stations that carry the network on HD2 and HD3 subchannels. (A more extensive IP network will soon replace much of the satellite uplinking that carries Family Life to its owned signals across New York and Pennsylvania.)

Holy Family in Williamsville
Holy Family in Williamsville

Holy Family rack room
Holy Family rack room

On the Catholic side of the religious spectrum, the region’s main service comes from a tidy office building in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, just off the busy intersection of Transit Road and Sheridan Drive.

Holy Family studio
Holy Family studio

Holy Family master control
Holy Family master control

Holy Family Communications now broadcasts “The Station of the Cross” on signals that stretch from Boston (WQOM 1060 Natick) to northeastern Ohio (WMIH 89.5 Geneva), with stops along the way in Syracuse, Rochester (WHIC 1460) and Buffalo (WLOF 101.7 Elma), all coming from a talk studio and master control on the ground floor of this building, which also houses founder Jim Wright’s dental lab upstairs.

Adjoining the studio and lobby, a rack room is packed with automation and the IP networking that sends Station of the Cross programming out to each local station along the chain.

Rand Building, Buffalo
Rand Building, Buffalo

HSBC Building, Buffalo
HSBC Building, Buffalo

And we leave you with a few images from another day trip to Buffalo: on a clear day from the observation deck high atop Buffalo’s majestic Art Deco City Hall, radio fans can get nice views of several of the Queen City’s downtown transmitter sites. To the west off Lafayette Square, the Rand Building’s mast is home to Townsquare’s WBLK (93.7 Depew), WMSX (96.1 Buffalo) and WYRK (106.5 Buffalo); to the southwest, the former 1 HSBC Center building is now called “One Seneca Tower,” and a careful view of its roof shows the antennas on the left side for W227BW (93.3 Cheektowaga, another WZXV Calvary Chapel relay) and Dick Greene’s W275BB (102.9 Cheektowaga), relaying AC WECK (1230).

Thanks to WYSL’s Bob Savage, Mark Humphrey, WDNY/WMRV’s Brian McGlynn, FLN’s Rick Snavely and Holy Family Communications’ Jim Wright for the tours!

SPRING IS HERE…

And if you don’t have your Tower Site Calendar, now’s the time!

If you’ve been waiting for the price to come down, it’s now 30 percent off!

This year’s cover is a beauty — the 100,000-watt transmitter of the Voice Of America in Marathon, right in the heart of the Florida Keys. Both the towers and the landscape are gorgeous.

And did you see? Tower Site of the Week is back, featuring this VOA site as it faces an uncertain future. 

Other months feature some of our favorite images from years past, including some Canadian stations and several stations celebrating their centennials (buy the calendar to find out which ones!).

We still have a few of our own calendars left – as well as a handful of Radio Historian Calendars – and we are still shipping regularly.

The proceeds from the calendar help sustain the reporting that we do on the broadcast industry here at Fybush Media, so your purchases matter a lot to us here – and if that matters to you, now’s the time to show that support with an order of the Tower Site Calendar. (And we have the Broadcast Historian’s Calendar for 2025, too. Why not order both?) 

Visit the Fybush Media Store and place your order now for the new calendar, get a great discount on previous calendars, and check out our selection of books and videos, too! 

 

And don’t miss a big batch of western NY IDs next Wednesday, over at our sister site, TopHour.com!

Next week: Pittsburgh

Share this:

  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • More
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
Tags: Family Life NetworkHoly Family CommunicationsW227BWW275BBWBLKWDNYWECKWHICWLOFWMRVWMSXWOKRWRSBWYRKWYSL
Previous Post

NERW 5/2/2016: Unpacking the Repack

Next Post

NERW 5/9/2016: The Struggle for Small-Market Radio

Scott Fybush

Scott Fybush

Editor/Publisher, NorthEast Radio Watch and Tower Site of the Week

Related Posts

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/14/2025: Townsquare Cuts Continue
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/14/2025: Townsquare Cuts Continue

In this week’s issue… Budget cuts hit Townsquare markets - WBEN rearranges schedule - WPDH's Taylor steps down - K-Love prepares for PA additions - "Swan" preens in VT

by Scott Fybush
July 14, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 7/7/2025: Boston Mourns LB

In this week’s issue… Remembering Boston's Lyndon Byers - CRTC approves Rogers, Evanov spins - Towers come down in PA, and might go up in NY - More FM moves in Ontario

by Scott Fybush
July 7, 2025
NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine
Free Content

NorthEast Radio Watch 6/23-30/2025: Another Great Day in Alpine

In this week’s issue… Honoring radio's greatest inventor - Maine morning vet retiring - Buffalo names new HOF inductees - PA's Loftus retires

by Scott Fybush
June 30, 2025
Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer
Free Content

Top of the Tower Podcast #65: Back and Forth With PA’s Jason Togyer

In this week's episode - Top of the Tower is back with a new spring/summer season of conversations with some of the most interesting people in radio! This week, it's another joint episode, a two-way chat with my good friend Jason...

by Scott Fybush
June 22, 2025
Next Post
NERW 5/9/2016: The Struggle for Small-Market Radio

NERW 5/9/2016: The Struggle for Small-Market Radio

Log In

Join Now | Lost Password?

Get Fybush.com Updates

Get Fybush.com updates emailed directly to your inbox!

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Store
    • Cart
    • Checkout
  • About/Contact
    • Scott Fybush
    • Copyright Information
    • Privacy Policy
  • Fybush Media
  • Links

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

 

Loading Comments...
 

You must be logged in to post a comment.