WDCD was a news/talk radio station licensed to Albany, New York, United States and served New York's Capital District, Adirondacks, and much of western New England. The station was owned by DJRA Broadcasting, and broadcast on 1540 kHz at 50 kilowatts from a three-tower directional antenna array adjacent to the station's studios in Colonie, New York. The station went off the air in April 2012 and returned to the air on March 27, 2013 simulcasting Christian talk-formatted WDCD-FM 96.7. On July 10, 2013, The NEW 1540 AM was announced with a news/talk format including Laura Ingraham, Bob Dutko, Neil Boron, Jerry Doyle and Andrea Tantaros. On October 16, 2017, WDCD went silent for the final time. The station surrendered its license to the FCC on September 28, 2018. History WDCD signed on August 10, 1948 as WPTR, with 10,000 watts of power from Colonie. The original call sign request of WNYS was denied due to protests, so the WPTR call letters were requested to reflect the original licensee, Patroon Broadcasting Company, which was owned by Schine Chain Theatres. The studios were located in the Hotel Ten Eyck in Albany. In 1953, the station gained the ABC Radio affiliation from exiting WXKW, and primarily programmed a mix of popular and country music along with news & sports. It was during this period that 1540 increased power to 50,000 watts full-time to combat nighttime interference from co-channel stations KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa and ZNS-1 in Nassau, Bahamas (although the official explanation to the Federal Communications Commission [FCC] was the "poor ground conductivity" at the transmitter site). WPTR also had a partnership with a local FM station (W47A/WBCA, the first independent FM radio station in the United States) to produce pre-recorded programming in WBCA's state-of-the-art Schenectady studios. On September 16, 1953, American Airlines Flight 723 flew between the northeast and center towers of the station's 3 tower array. The plane was cleared for a contact approach to Albany Airport's Runway 10. On final approach, while still miles west of the airport, the Convair descended too low, and, at an altitude of , struck two of the set of three -tall radio masts arrayed northeast to southwest. The right wing struck the center tower of the three, then the left wing struck the northeast tower. Seven feet of the outer panel of the right wing including the right aileron and control mechanism from the