Power couple Andy Gladding and Kathleen Berghorn have undertaken a new radio venture: station ownership. After a serendipitous turn of events last May, the duo recently completed the purchase of WKZE(FM) in Red Hook, N.Y.
It all started when Gladding — a radio engineer who is no stranger to Radio World readers — was pursuing his doctorate in education at Hofstra University, where he also serves as the chief engineer for the university’s student-run radio station WRHU(FM).
“My doctorate focused on what Gen Z thinks about FM radio, and how they interact with it, and looked for data that would show whether or not they felt there was a future for it,” said Gladding. “And there was an overwhelmingly positive response about the benefits of being involved with FM radio from an educational perspective.”
With 300 staff members — primarily students along with a number of community volunteers — Gladding said WRHU is the largest student organization on campus, which made for the perfect focus group for his doctoral research.
His research found that getting involved with a college radio station helped students successfully enter careers in media and become better leaders. Even more importantly, Gladding said this student involvement helped improve college retention rates.
Gladding’s research concluded that bringing in younger employees would bring in younger listeners, which is a big goal for many stations across the U.S. as station managers look to remain competitive with emerging media.
[Read Gladding’s Commentary “College FM Licenses Matter“]
When his doctoral research findings were released in May 2024, Gladding said he never expected to receive a call from a local Hudson Valley intermediary asking if he was interested in buying WKZE. The station was put on the market by Barb Stanley, who took control of WKZE in 2021 after her late husband, and former station owner, Will Stanley passed away.
Nine months after receiving that phone call — and a $515,000 investment to obtain the station’s license and equipment — Gladding and Berghorn sealed the deal in March 2025 and immediately got to work.
In the first 30 days of their leadership, Gladding and Berghorn put the station into the black, fixed the signal and added new programming.
“The model I proposed in my doctoral research is working,” said Gladding.
One of the first things they did was upgrade the 51-year-old CCA transmitter that had been dutifully serving WKZE since its inception in 1987. A new Nautel VS2.5 FM transmitter was installed because, according to Gladding, “electronics don’t age like wine. They don’t get better with age.”
He continued: “From an RF perspective, the station was not in stereo when we bought it. It was still in mono because of signal issues. That is no longer the case.”
Gladding said, on paper, WKZE is primed for technological success with its “beautiful Class A signal” sitting pretty atop a big hill. Outdated technology, however, hindered the station’s RF performance.
“So we have focused initially on making sure that the infrastructure of the station, including the FM itself, is in the best possible working order.
“We noticed that, in a lot of ways, the station was built as an analog facility,” said Gladding. “So I’ve put a digital backbone into it so now we can be more flexible with the kind of remotes we’re doing. We’re giving the DJs the ability to generate content outside of the studio.”
Gladding said WKZE is also upgrading to an Aiir PlayoutONE automation system and using Telos Axia hardware for the consoles and routing system. “We also have some ‘custom’ and experimental audio processing we’re trying out,” he said.
Broadcasting on 98.1 MHz from its longstanding transmitter site in Salisbury, Conn., the Class A FM has an ERP of 1.8 kW with an additional FM translator on 105.9 MHz near its studios in Red Hook, N.Y. The station format is described as a carefully-curated mix of Adult Album Alternative (AAA), with a lot of local artists thrown in.
With Gladding tackling the technical aspects of the station revamp, Berghorn manages the marketing and digital aspects of the job, in addition to overseeing station staff and sales. Both, of course, have a strong passion for community radio.
“It’s lucky because, as business partners, we’re together all the time, so I never have to wait for her to call me back or shoot me an email,” Gladding said of his wife. “I guess you could say my business partner and I are pretty tight.”
Gladding is quick to tell whoever will listen that Berghorn owns 51% of the station and is a strong advocate for women working in male-dominated spaces. She is particularly focused on incorporating more female voices into WKZE’s programming.
“We currently have a female afternoon drive host and a weekend host, but we definitely want to include more female voices in general,” said Berghorn.
Gladding said, while he’s “in the dusty back corner doing engineering,” Berghorn is “on the front lines of modern selling.”
As WKZE already had a well-established business model with live shows galore, community-focused programming and a locally-targeted music format that is “the most eclectic you’re likely to hear” (according to its website), Gladding and Berghorn focused on building on top of what was already there. All eight WKZE employees were retained during the change of ownership, with two more having since been added to the team.
“Each one of the DJs is a musician, so they’re performers, first and foremost, in front of the microphone in the studio and in front of the microphone in the community playing on stages,” said Glading. “They know, when you introduce new material to an audience, what the audience will think of it and how the audience will interpret it.
“We saw that as a strength,” he said. “So the first thing we said was, ‘Look, let’s not upset the apple cart here and go in and start demolishing the format,’ which is what a lot of new owners do. They want to go in and put their signature on it.”
Instead, Berghorn is focusing on ways to further engage local advertisers. One of the ways they’re doing that is by having local bands record the jingles for WKZE’s clients. She said the Hudson Valley has a terrific local music and arts scene and they want to highlight that.
Click on the link to listen to an ad spot WKZE recorded for a Hudson Valley oil company: Mazzola Fuel Oil – Oil That Rocks. Gladding said that particular WKZE-produced jingle was recently nominated for a Mercury Award.
“This model we’re using here of going hyper-local and treating the station more like a community station as opposed to a commercial station … I think there’s some teeth here,” said Gladding. “And my real hope is it will inspire other younger investors, such as myself and my 32-year-old wife, to go out on a limb and say, ‘You know what, we can make this work.’”
[Related: “New Music Video Shines Light on Community Radio“]
