Radio WAJZ-FM (Jamz 96.3 Hip Hop and R&b)

WAJZ is a Rhythmic Contemporary station serving the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area. The station is owned by Pamal Broadcasting and operates at 96.3 MHz with an ERP of 6 kW and is licensed to Voorheesville, New York. The station is one of the few Class A FM signals based on the Helderberg Mountains antenna farm used by higher powered FM's and most TV stations in the market.

The station signed on May 24, 1991 as WCDA, running a full-service, locally programmed Adult Contemporary format, calling itself 'CD96.3'. The format ran for three years, featuring live, personality-driven programming that included a full-time news staff. Unfortunately, the market was over-served by Adult Contemporary stations, and three years later the format was changed to a contemporary country format, initially using programming from Jones Satellite to target dominant country station WGNA-FM. Eventually, WCDA brought back in more locally-produced programming. Like most locally-owned and operated "single" stations, WCDA found itself competing against ownership groups that had acquired multiple stations. The Albany market, like most radio markets in the nation, saw all of its individually-owned stations eventually sold to larger group broadcasters, WCDA among them.

In August 1996, Albany Broadcasting (forerunner to today's Pamal Broadcasting) purchased WCDA, put the WPTR calls the company retained from their sale of 1540 AM, and relaunched the station under a classic-heavy country approach. After 18 months of struggling ratings, the station relaunched on November 3, 1997 as new country Power Country 96.3 after a weekend of Halloween-related stunting. The relaunch had no effect on its ratings as the station languished at the bottom of the ratings even with rights to Siena College men's basketball and New York Yankees baseball.

On December 23, 1998, WPTR changed its format to Urban Contemporary, the first such station in the market, as Jamz 96.3 with the WAJZ calls following several weeks later. For its first half-decade, the station maintained very good numbers but increased competition from rivals WVCR-FM (Siena College) and WKKF-FM forced the station to reevaluate its stance. In September 2005, it started shifting its direction towards a Rhythmic Contemporary approach.