The original WTRY was a highly popular Top 40 station in the Albany market through the 1960s and 1970s, moving over to oldies in the 1980s and 1990s, and today is sports radio 980 WOFX.

However, permit owner Dennis Jackson (now a noted community broadcaster in smaller towns throughout the Northeast) was forced to sell the station before it hit the air.

Under new owners, another set of call letters (WERV) came and went before the frequency signed on as adult contemporary WNYQ on December 15, 1986.

[5] Being a new frequency, completely satellite-fed, and going up against a popular AC station 100.9 WKLI-FM, the format on 98.3 was changed in late 1988 to oldies as Cruisin' 98.3, still keeping the WNYJ call sign.

In mid 1989, WNYJ was sold and returned to adult contemporary music as WSHZ SHO-FM, adding a simulcast on 103.5 WACS-FM in Cobleskill (which became WSHQ).

Looking for a boost, then-WTRY owner Liberty Broadcasting entered into a local marketing agreement with WSHZ in late 1991 and flipped 98.3 to a simulcast of 980, both stations playing oldies.

This arrangement proved successful, outlasting WGY-FM (which switched to a hot adult contemporary format as WRVE in 1994).

After Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) purchased AMFM in 2000, the simulcast ended in September of that year, when 980 flipped to sports as WOFX.

[6] In 2005, WTRY-FM upgraded to IBOC digital radio along with the rest of Clear Channel's Albany stations.