WRVE (99.5 MHz) is a commercial FM radio station licensed in Schenectady and serving the Capital District and Upper Hudson Valley New York. It broadcasts a Hot Adult Contemporary radio format and calls itself "99.5 The River," referring to the Hudson River. The station is owned by iHeartMedia as one of seven radio stations owned by the company in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy radio market. Studios and offices are at Riverhill Center on Troy-Schenectady Road (NY Route 7) in Latham, New York. The transmitter is on Pinnacle Road in Helderberg Escarpment tower farm in New Scotland, amid the towers for other Albany-area TV and FM stations. WRVE is among the nation's oldest FM radio stations, and was the first to broadcast full-time in stereo. Programming Though classified by Arbitron and Mediabase as a Hot AC station, WRVE has a slight lean towards adult contemporary music. Its main competitor is WYJB (B95.5). WRVE broadcasts using HD Radio technology, with its HD2 digital subchannel airing country music branded as "Wild Country 99.9". That format is also heard on 250 watt translator station W260CH 99.9 MHz in Albany. History Experimental broadcasts The station's original owner was General Electric (G.E.), which had a long history as a radio pioneer. In 1922 it founded one of the first AM broadcasting stations, WGY, which in 1925 became the first to operate with 50,000 watts. The company later started one of the first TV stations, WRGB-TV. General Electric was the first major manufacturer to promote FM radio. WRVE traces its history to G.E.'s experimental FM station W2XOY, originally in New Scotland, New York, which began test transmissions on March 9, 1937. Additional experimental work was conducted by W2XDA in Schenectady. In 1938 these two stations were the first to demonstrate FM's "capture effect", a phenomenon where, when two stations with overlapping coverage operate on the same frequency, only the stronger signal is heard. The capture effect thus allowed co-channel FM broadcasting stations to be located somewhat closer to each other than AM ones, without causing mutual interference. In August 1939 G.E's Schenectady operations were listed as one of only four FM facilities "in actual operation". On November 20, 1940 W2XOY began a regular service on 43.2 MHz, initially operating seven hours daily from 3 to 10 p.m. A month later, the frequency was changed to 45.7 MHz as the FCC closed the 43 MHz band. Commercial operation In May