WPDH Rockin’ Hard For 50 Years

• The date was June 1,1976 when New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley got the Rock station it was waiting for when WPDH/Poughkeepsie signed on the air.

Looking back on this amazing half-century of service is WPDH Brand Manager Joe Limardi, who wears several other programming hats for Townsquare Media — VP of Content, NY, Classic Rock Format Lead, and showrunner for Ultimate Classic Rock. “Over the years some legendary talent, concerts, stunts and events have happened here,” he says, “from The Police playing at a downtown Poughkeepsie rock club, to Peter Frampton playing to 10,000 people along the Hudson River, to Dee Snider having PDH play ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ before any other station.”

Limardi added, “For the 50th anniversary we have been running the History of PDH from ‘A to Z’ — A 10-day trek through the PDH library that started Friday, May 22, and will wrap up with Ziggy Stardust sometime today.”

But Wait! There’s More! Limardi says a reunion weekend of past PDH jocks is also in the works, as well as the return of a classic WPDH fundraiser, “Roof-A-Thon,” at its original location, which will close out the station’s birthday month, along with a slate of tribute bands to perform one last show at the legendary Chance Theatre. Limardi notes, “The celebration continues through the summer with the giveaway of a custom 50th anniversary motorcycle and an anniversary concert at the original site of Woodstock, Bethel Woods.”