In February 1993, another of the FCC’s Docket 80/90 Class A additions to the FM radio dial began serving a portion of the Mid-Hudson Valley. Seven months later, it would come under the ownership of Will Stanley.
Together with his wife, the Stanleys created a heralded and unique offering replete with Adult Alternative, Americana and folk music — most of it produced at the station’s Northern Dutchess County offices and studios.
On June 22, Stanley passed away at the age of 73.
But, WKZE-FM 98.1, licensed to Salisbury, Conn., and based in Red Hook, N.Y., will live on.
With David O’Neil of Rini O’Neil, PC serving as its legal counsel, Stanley’s Willpower Radio LLC is requesting Commission approval to shift Will Stanley’s 50% equity interest in the company to his wife, Barbara Stanley.
Mrs. Stanley holds the other 50% interest in the station, and this move gives her full control of WKZE and FM translator W290BZ in Red Hook, N.Y. That facility, at 105.9 MHz, i designed to offer better reception in towns such as Rhinebeck and on the left bank of the Hudson River, in the city of Kingston.
According to local media reports, Stanley’s passing was unexpected.
So was the arrival of a radio station 28 years ago that was perhaps the next incarnation of “The Bulldog of the Hudson Valley,” the original WDST-FM in Woodstock, N.Y. When that station launched in the early 1980s, it was closer to a free-form, Americana-based FM than in 1993, when Nic Harcourt shifted it toward Modern Rock, making WDST a tastemaker with a national reputation — one that would lead him to Los Angeles.
WKZE was the antithesis, and its programming hasn’t swayed since those days.
Stanley’s career in radio dates to 1979, at a radio station in Hanover, N.H. In 1984, he bought his first radio station. From 1997-2004, he was the owner of WRSI-FM in Northampton, Mass., serving the Greenfield, Mass., area known industry-wide for Saga Communications’ presence in the small community due north of Springfield.
WRSI had a format almost identical to WKZE. As stated on the WKZE website, “Will and his wife, Barb, made it their goal to prove that this very eclectic and wildly diverse musical format could be a financial, as well as an esthetic, success.”
Under Barb and Will Stanley, WKZE’s studios in April 2006 relocated from Sharon, Conn., to Dutchess County.
Barbara Stanley is no stranger to the radio business herself. In 1988 she started selling for a local Vermont radio station. Within a short period of time, she met Will. They’d been together ever since.
Outside of WKZE, Will Stanley was known for his songwriting hobby. Barb Stanley practices Parelli Natural Horsemanship, and is a licensed Parelli instructor.
Recently retired Red Hook Village Mayor Ed Blundell, who now resides in the Boston area, told local news organization The Daily Catch, “I’m still shocked at the news that Will died. [In mid-June], I was speaking with him on the phone talking music and radio news. I told him I need a KZE-like station here. He seemed fine and pointed out he’d graduated from Boston College… so he knew the area fairly well.”
A pinned post to the WKZE Facebook page thanks Will Stanley for “bringing us all the great music.”
Under it appear promotional announcements for the August 1 Emerson Resort & Spa Car Show, and an event held Saturday at the Sharon Theater.
WKZE lives on, with much of that possibility thanks to Will Stanley’s vision, now entrusted with his wife.
Radio + Television Business Report Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson is a native of Kingston, N.Y.
