Classic rock, blues and Americana from the Catskills' edge.
WDST signed on from Woodstock in April 1980 as a free-form station, and its eclectic early years under program director Richard Fusco won three Billboard Station of the Year awards before the rock shows won out. Gary Chetkof's CHET-5 Broadcasting bought it in 1993 and steered it toward alternative rock, and in 2005 he marked the station's 25th birthday by starting the Mountain Jam festival. Since 2016 listener members have helped pay for the station, which dropped its Nielsen ratings contract that same year.
The rotation runs on classic rock, folk rock and blues rock, with newer Americana, indie and retro soul worked in. The studios occupy a former Methodist church in West Hurley, and visiting bands play the Steeple Sessions. Shows include Ron VanWarmer's Acoustic Breakfast, Doug Yoel's Blues Break and The Woodstock Roundtable, where Doug Grunther has interviewed writers, teachers and musicians for over forty years.
Woodstock, minus the mud.
