RECLAIMING ITS VOICE
Veteran broadcasters reunite on Star Radio 93.3 FM
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> The official launch of Star Radio, 93.3 FM on your radio dial, is proof positive Saratoga Springs has its voice back in a big way.
The locally owned and operated station features a who’s-who of local broadcasting on-air talent that will prove immediately recognizable to most Capital area residents.
Anyone who thought video killed the radio star will find themselves dead wrong when they reconnect with local radio icons John Meany, Walt Adams, Jerry Crouth, Tony Izzo and Chris Witting presenting a steady mix of music, local news and relevant information to listeners living in the Saratoga region.
The music focuses hits on classic hits from the 1970’s through the ‘90s, with current hits interspersed.
The station’s target audience is 35 and above. It offers local and national news updates at the top of the hour during prime times on weekdays and weekends, and connects Saratoga area listeners with what’s happening in their community.
The following conversations, beginning with coowner and afternoon host Ricki Lee, and continuing with Meany, Adams, Crouch, Izzo and General Manager Francine Dingeman will serve to reconnect and/or introduce the Star radio presenters to their listeners.
It provides a glimpse into what is clearly a return to tuning in to listen to the direct intimacy and comfort of settling in to the voices of what for many become members of an on-air extended family.
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What led to this convergence of on-air talent all in one place on Star Radio? Why did you decide to begin broadcasting from downtown Saratoga Springs?
Lee: “These radio stations were originally owned by Empire Broadcasting. Empire ran for many years the 101.3 frequency called The Jockey. They decided to exit the radio market about 18 months ago. They sold their radio assets, we picked up what was WAIX, we rebadged it as WSSV which will be Star Radio.
“Our plan was to create a super, locally focused Saratoga Springs radio station. That is what we set out to do. We acquired the radio li
censes which included 1160 AM and an unbuilt construction permit for 93.3 FM.
“We took over programming it, finding it a great niche to do classic hits with a sprinkle of newer tunes from the1960’s up to 2010; nothing more modern than that. It’s scary to think that even that was 10 years ago.”
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What a long, strange trip it’s been.
“Indeed. It’s spanning the creme de la creme of the 70’s and 80’s, that really our core, that’s our base. What an incredible amount of music from those two decades.”
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There are songs people like to drive along to during their commute; for me it’s Bad Company the song, by the band Bad Company. What about the FM-where is that now?
“It’s on the air now; we built the tower on West Avenue, right next to the high school behind the cable company’s building (Spectrum). It’s a very tall telecommunications tower right here in Saratoga Springs. People can listen to 93.3 FM right now.”
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Strong Signal? “Yes; super strong in Saratoga Springs and Northern Saratoga County.”
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Let’s tell the readers, and the listeners in this case, a little about your background. We can hear that you clearly hail from the UK.
“Yeah; guilty as charged. I started our move here with my wife Hanna in 2014 although we arrived in 2015. I own a tech company called Aiir that makes software for radio stations. We were very good at what we do in the UK and we became too busy in the US for someone not to be here, so it fell on me to move here and fly our flag, which we’re doing.
“My ambition in life was never to be a software sales guy. I’ve been in radio all my life, straight out of school. The education system is slightly different in the UK than it is here.
“I was only 16, fresh out of school, the local town launched a local radio station and I got involved with that.”
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Where was that? “In Nottingham shire where Robin Hood is from. My career started there; I was lucky to get poached to go and work for a bigger radio station, ending up in Bristol, in the southwest of England, about an hour from London.
“I programmed two radio stations while I was in that market; it was my first program director’s job. A program director, for those who don’t know what that is, is someone who is in charge of all the audio output that come out of the speaker, so it was a very big responsibility. Funnily enough, at the first station in Bristol I was program director for in Bristol was called Star Radio.
“There is an homage in our branding that throws back to that time. Then we also bought another station called Jack FM and I always had this ambition to own my own station, so when we came over here, I was always looking. The rules in the US at the time meant that I couldn’t actually own a radio station because I was very much British and there were laws about foreign ownership.
“Luckily those rules, while still there, weren’t relaxed as such, but they encouraged investment, so we bought a radio station in the Adirondacks which was WRGR, in Tupper Lake, a little ski town just outside of Saranac Lake and not far from Lake Placid. It’s part of the tri-lakes region and a beautiful part of the world. We petitioned the FCC and we bought that radio station.”
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Is Hanna also into radio? “No; this is very much a forced into the business relationship. Hanna is originally from Poland ands loves listening to the music and she does get heavily involved into everything from music selection to building technical equipment and everything.She’s amazing.
“So here is how Saratoga happened. This is the fun part. We lived in Brooklyn, and we were driving to the Adirondacks to our radio station, taking six hours to do that drive.
“For those who travel the Northway on a regular basis, you’ll know that when you get on the Northway in New York and you leave, there is nothing. Then all of a sudden, you kind of get to Malta where they’ve built the new hospital and the hotels start to appear-I said one day to my wife, this was a few years ago, “What is this?”, because as soon as you pass like Exit 15, there is nothing until you get to like Plattsburgh.
“I said we need to venture into here. I’m a big coffee fan; I love decent coffee. We found on the map Kru Coffee, just off the Northway, beautiful coffee. So we started to explore Saratoga. At the time, we were looking for somewhere to move out of the City, to potentially raise a family and to be closer to the radio station in the Adirondacks.
“We explored Saratoga and decided to move here. In months, the opportunity arose that Empire was taking down their AM station, keeping it silent for a while, so we started the negotiations of buying that frequency.
“Fourteen months later we got that deal done, it was over the line and here we are, ready to launch with super local talent and we’ve taken on the Star Radio Branding because it’s a homage to what was the Star, the radio station here many years ago.
“Unlike the predecessor, we’re not going after the Albany market; we want to be locally focused. We believe that it is about time that Saratoga-it really shocked me when I was first researching Saratoga before I actually moved here that there was a mass exodus in the 80’s and 90’s and they all left and went to Albany to try and get the advertising revenue that was very ripe down there.
“A community of this magnitude needs its local voice and I’m delighted to be part of that story of bringing radio back here.”
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Let’s touch on the schedule and playlist.
“On a day to day basis, we’ll play the best of the best from the 1960’s up through the hits in 2010. In the evening on weeknights we’ll do the ‘70’s at 7 p.m. and the 80’s at 8 p.m., with an hour dedicated to those two decades. Then Jerry will play the best of the oldies from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s on Saturday morning.
“Walt Adams is back with his Sunday Jazz Brunch Show. John Meaney will be waking everybody up from 6-10 a.m. every weekday morning. And they are going to have to get used to my British accent because I will doing my show afternoons on the station. Tony’s show will cover local, state and national games, he’ll have guests on a weekly basis for interviews and it’ll be a fun show.
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You’ll also have news, so something for everybody.
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You’re both broadcasting veterans and immediately recognizable voices in local radio. Let’s reconnect the listeners with John Meaney and where you’ve been hosting from over the years.
Meaney: “I’m from here. Born and raised in Saratoga Springs. After graduating from Ithaca College in 1985, I came back to my home town to work for the local radio station. In the early days, it was WKAJ and WASM, which soon changed ownership to become 102QQ. I think that’s where things got underway, with people recognizing who I was.”
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What kind of format was 102QQ ?
“102QQ was a hot adult contemporary hits format spread out with some oldies.
“The disk jockeys from our station would make appearances at clubs, like at Rascals at the Holiday Inn. That was 102.3 on the dial. Later I would go to 101.3 when the other Star began, for about seven years.
“There were a lot of clubs back, The station went through ownership changes, I did brief stints in Amsterdam and Glens Falls, then came back with the start of The Jockey, 101.3, centered in Malta, where the studios were.
“Worked there a few years, came back to an AM station in Saratoga Springs and started my new venture into big bands and adult standards for a few years, mostly doing morning shows, because I was willing to get up at 3:30 in the morning.
“I enjoy doing mornings conversing with the local audience who know me or
my parents from town. I worked for some 12 years there, along with Francine Dingeman. That changed owners after 12 years; we did The Jockey for a bit, then I left.”
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Ricki was sharing about the original Star Radio and what a complete circle it is to have most of the same crew back.
“I was in a room with Ernie Anastos, who was very known in the New York City market, the new owner of the Station and came up with the name Star. I think we made it into a good product and we enjoyed the ride.”
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Walt, please fill us in on what led up to your being back on the air.
Adams: “Talking about clubs, I remember spinning vinyl at the Rafters, the very successful club on Saratoga Lake in the late 70’s.”
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Tucked in the pine forest and everyone danced.
“I will never forget being there with a full dance floor of 300 people. I had turntables with two pieces of vinyl going. I picked up the one that was playing instead of the next one in due and everything stopped and everyone was looking at me. Back then you had to be quick on your feet, so I said “License plate number 457your lights are on.”
“We would supplement our income by working various clubs in Albany and Saratoga.
“There were probably 50 successful dance clubs in this region that we did radio station promotions at.
“I’m going back to the ‘70’s when I worked at WGNA, WTRY, PYX106, and KLite 101.7 Radio, with Ric Mitchell. And The River 99.5 after that. Then Star Radio, where I worked with John Meaney for the first time. We did a morning show together and one of the best things was no matter what question came up about Saratoga, he knew the answer.
“He was this wealth of local knowledge. He got to know everyone as a good neighbor, and that was our philosophy on the morning show.
“Fast forwarding to today, with Ricki Lee coming in with this idea to do a really local, home grown radio station for one of the most robust cities in New York State, we were both excited to get back in the saddle again.”
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Your show focuses on sports.
Izzo: “This is a great community for sports; always has been. I started back in 1975 and if you recall, I was at WKAJ in the mid ‘70’s. I was doing public access television, televising basketball to show on TV. I called it Tony Izzo Productions or TIP Sports. I did a video talk show where we interviewed the people of Saratoga.”
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That experience sounds ideal in that Star Radio is all about Saratoga Springs.
“Covering sports is learning a whole other language.
“Are you aware that Mike Veitch will be our first guest on the Saturday morning show on October 26?”
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Mike is the father of the Veitch family known for their service throughout thepolice department and in City government.
“He’s been honored for being the Hall of Fame historian. We’ll have coach Rich Johns, the former school teacher that started the Act with Respect Always initiative on the second show.
“When this became available, Ricki Lee and I met, he asked if I’d want to do this and I said “Absolutely. This city has not had a radio station for years.”
“I worked as the audio visual technician at Saratoga High School. John Meany was one of my student helpers. We had a three camera television operation in the ‘80’s. He became involved in TIP Sports Productions. He was the director. He helped me, we trained him, but he’s phenomenal on his own.”
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What’s going on in Saratoga sports?
“Starting with Skidmore all the way down to youth basketball, we’ll get young athletes and coaches on. I was there 30 years ago when the Saratoga Blue Streaks basketball won the sectional. Another 30 years went by and I was there this past March when they finally won again.
“Kevin Holmes was on the team 30 years ago and this year his son was on the team when they won at the Glens Falls Civic Center.” He got all choked up.
“We think radio is something to highlight the good people do.”
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Star Radio General Manager Francine Dingeman and Jerry Crouth:
Dingeman: “I started with Star Radio in 1998 when Ernie Anastos purchased the station and we started Star Radio 101.3-Anastos Media and very quickly went from knowing nothing about radio to learning everything about it.
“I’ve had a long career of 16 years in radio account sales and management, five of which I was General Manager. I’ve learned that radio is not a job; it’s in you. It’s a calling. I believe that’s why we’re all back in one place again. It’s that love of community and each other.”
“It’s here, the official launch of Star Radio. I’m thrilled to be working with a great team of familiar talents who I am certain will exceed expectations in super-serving the area with everything local listeners need and want to hear.”
Crouth: “I have to thank John Meany, who has been a tremendous voice in this community since the early ‘80’s. I started with John at WKAJ voice tracking music and have been on the radio almost 20 years on WABY playing the music I grew up with from the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. I’m also an ad salesman. I have seven children.Two of by grandchildren have bought record players and are raiding my vinyl LPs. It’s coming around again.”
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Star Radio 93.3 can be live streamed at https:// www.starsaratoga.com/
Star Radio will launch daily programming on Friday, October 18. This event will directly follow an official ribbon cutting ceremony commenced by Mayor Meg Kelly beginning at 11:30 a.m. at the Star studios located at 34 Congress Street in Saratoga Springs.
Star Radio is owned by Saratoga Radio LLC, an equal partnership between Border Media LLC and A&J Radio LLC.