WKIP (AM)
| City | Poughkeepsie, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Poughkeepsie and vicinity |
| Branding | "NewsRadio 1450 WKIP" |
| Slogan | Hudson Valley's News, Traffic and Weather |
| Frequency | 1450 kHz |
| First air date | June 6, 1940 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 73163 |
| Callsign meaning | W PoughKIPsie [sic] |
| Affiliations | Fox News Radio |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia (CC Licenses, LLC) |
| Website | 1450wkip.com |
WKIP is a talk radio station licensed to Poughkeepsie, New York and serving the immediate Poughkeepsie area. The station is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts on 1450 kHz at 1 kilowatt daytime and nighttime from a two tower array adjacent to its studios in the Arlington section of the Town of Poughkeepsie.
It is unique from most AM radio stations in the US as it broadcast with a directional antenna daytime, non-directional antenna night time.
Originally owned by Poughkeepsie Newspaper Incorporated, WKIP signed on in 1940 with 250 watts of power, the first radio station in Dutchess County since the move of WOKO in Beacon to Albany a decade earlier. Like many other "local" frequency stations the FCC approved in the period leading to and after the NARBA treaty and realignment, WKIP began its life with a full-service locally based format and from the outset had an affiliation with the NBC Blue network which later evolved into today's ABC. WKIP's involvement with ABC would last for the remainder of the 20th Century.
Like similar stations, WKIP would evolve to a local news-heavy Middle of the Road format in the 1950s, a time where WKIP also added FM coverage when they purchased the former WHVS at 104.7 MHz in 1958. Rechristened WKIP-FM, the station would see many upgrades and was sold a decade later and is now WSPK.
WKIP maintained its original format and ownership until late 1967 when the station was sold to Star Broadcasting which saw the imminent flip of ABC Radio into four sub-networks as a new beginning for the station. Affiliating with the Top 40-leaning American Contemporary Network feed, WKIP would flip at the start of 1968 to a Top 40 format. The station was not successful with its new format against competitor WHVW and that October returned to its prior MOR format. In 1970, WKIP would be sold again to Olympian Broadcasting (to whom Star had sold WKIP-FM to two years earlier and who would resell that station to WBNR owner Lance Broadcasting). Modifying the format to a forerunner to adult contemporary, WKIP would rise from being last place to first place with a combination of increased local involvement and help from format changes at WHVW and WEOK that had it at or near the #1 position until the mid-1980s.
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