WDBY (105.5 FM, "The Wolf") is an American country music radio station licensed to Patterson, New York. The station serves the eastern Hudson Valley and Greater Danbury, Connecticut listening areas. The station is owned by Townsquare Media and broadcasts from a tower located in Patterson, New York near the Putnam/Dutchess county line. WDBY also operates a booster, WDBY-FM1 in Brookfield, Connecticut, which broadcasts with 1.2 kilowatts.
Though it is the only FM station in Putnam County, WDBY's primary target market has historically been Danbury, Connecticut. Even though the hills in and around Danbury limits the main 105.5 signal, the Brookfield booster has the ability to cover the primary coverage area. WDBY also targets eastern Putnam County as well as southern Dutchess County, where it regularly rates in the Poughkeepsie market. Due to its tower height, WDBY's signal covers most of the Route 22/I-684 corridor. The WDBY studios and offices are located on Federal Road (U.S. Route 202) in Brookfield.
History
Early days and Majic 105
The 105.5 frequency licensed to Patterson/Pawling first signed on as WRVH. The first license was granted on May 20, 1982. WRVH was a class A facility with 3,000 Watts of effective radiated power. Its studio was located on New York State Route 292 in Patterson, New York.
WRVH was founded by retired IBM engineer Edward Valentine, who also served as the station's General Manager. Valentine was able to find a “gray area” at 105.5, at sufficient distance from WDHA in Morristown, New Jersey as to avoid short-spacing with that co-channel station.
When Valentine ran short of funds to complete building the station, he partnered with Richard Novik, owner of now-defunct WPUT (1510 AM) in Brewster, New York. Novik had always wanted an FM station to accompany WPUT, but was unable to find one until Valentine found the “gray area” at 105.5; Novik filed a competing application for that frequency, but the CP was awarded to Valentine. When Valentine's funding ran short, he partnered with Novik to put WRVH on the air.
The station's format was “Beautiful Music”...a compromise, as Valentine had wanted an all Classical format, and Novik wanted a Contemporary format. Valentine did manage to get SOME Classical music on the station: for an hour a day at 7:00 p.m. weeknights, called “Tableside Concert”; as well as a couple of specialty shows on Sundays. The Beautiful Music format was not a great success, as WRVH (with its Class A signal) was up against 2 giants: WHUD in Peekskill, New York and WEZN in Bridgeport, Connecticut...both with Class B signals and both running Beautiful Music formats.
The original staff consisted of Ron Wilson (from WPUT) in mornings; Jennifer Dudley in afternoons; Kenn Hayes (from WKTU and WTFM in New York City) at night; and Kevin O’Keefe on overnights. Hayes also hosted the station's Classical music on weeknights (“Tableside Concert”) and the Sunday Classical program “The Sound of Things to Come” (featuring then-new CD technology); while also working at WPAT-FM (Beautiful Music) and WQXR-FM (Classical) in New York City.
In the mid-1980s, Beautiful Music began to decline in ratings. Listeners were aging-out of the format; stations began adding more vocals. Valentine and Novik sold WRVH to Ron Graiff, who changed the format to Adult Contemporary, and the call letters to WMJV. The station became “Magic 105” on July 21, 1986. The call letters stood for Majic (MJ) and the Roman numeral for 5 (V). The station's new main competitor was then Contemporary-formatted WVIP-FM and later WHUD and WDAQ.
In the early 1990s, Majic 105's on-air staff included Bob Stanhope, Dick Farrell and Gary Peters (mornings), PD/MD Al Matthews (middays), Flora Whitelaw, Langdon Towne and Cutler Whitman (afternoons), "Rich Andrews" aka talk show host Joe Thomas, Hank Tuttle and Jim Hartman (nights), John Harrison, Cutler Whitman, Langdon Towne and Christian (Chris Chase) Switzer (overnights) and weekenders Joe Rondini, JJ, Jed Taylor, Rob "Robbie" Adams and Rob Deldin.