WCKY (AM)
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WCKY is an AM radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, broadcasting at 1530 kHz with 50,000 watts. Its' studios (along with all other Clear Channel Cincinnati stations) are in the Towers of Kenwood building next to I-71 in the Kenwood section of Sycamore Township and its transmitter is located in nearby Covington, Kentucky.
WCKY carries a sports talk radio format as "1530 Homer: The Sports Animal," with simulcasts on WONE in Dayton and WIZE in Springfield. WCKY is the flagship station of the Cincinnati Bengals, along with WOFX. (After Cincinnati Reds baseball season ends, Bengals games are also simulcast on WLW.) The station broadcasts football and basketball play-by-play of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, and is affiliated with Fox Sports Radio.
History
WCKY dates back to the late 1920's, and achieved a 50,000 watt signal in the early 1940's. It was founded by L.B. Wilson, a longtime broadcaster in the region. Originally, WCKY was licensed to Covington, Kenucky, and was treated as a Kentucky-based station. This status helped WCKY's case before the FCC to increase power to 50,000 watts by the late 1930's - even though it was literally across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio and fellow 50,000 watt station WLW. During the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s, WCKY was used to broadcast news and information to the area, due to its southerly directional signal pattern. WCKY's city of license moved to Cincinnati by the early 1960's.
By the early 1970's, the L.B. Wilson estate sold WCKY to The Washington Post, who in turn sold it off to Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Federated Media. Looking at the success of WMAQ radio in Chicago, WCKY had a country format installed. Eventually, WCKY moved into a news/talk format of its' own, going against WKRC and WLW. (All three stations today are now under common ownership).
In the 1990's, a swap of call letters by then-owner Jacor Communications turned 1530 AM to WSAI, while the WCKY talk format and call sign were merged with WLWA 550-AM. The "new" WSAI featured a standards format, and eventually switched to an oldies format in early 2003. "Real Oldies 1530 WSAI" played the Top 40 hits of the 1950s and early 1960s and featured personalities from the WSAI Top 40 era including Dusty Rhodes, Dan Allen, Marty Thompson, Tom Cat Michaels and Jack Stahl.
Despite critical acclaim, the station ended up switching to a liberal/progressive talk format, with the WCKY call sign returning in 2005. The WSAI call sign quietly returned to its previous frequency on the AM dial as sports/talk "1360 Homer" (which first appeared on-air in 1997 under the WAZU calls). The REAL OLDIES format is also being streamed on the internet and running on some Clear Channel HD (High Definition) stations.
On July 7, 2006, WCKY and WSAI switched programming once again, with WCKY carrying the sports/talk programming as "1530 Homer", and WSAI airing the liberal/progressive talk format.
Due to its clear channel status, WCKY can be heard at night as far away as Chicago, Detroit, Wichita, Kansas, and Miami, Florida. It has leased out much of the overnight hours to religious ministers since the early 1970's because of this signal, a practice that has survived numerous format and call sign changes to this day.
Logos
Programming
Monday - Friday
- 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: The Two Angry Guys, Tom Gamble and Richard Skinner
- 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Jeff Piecoro
- 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.: Jim Rome
- 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.: Lance McAlister
- 6:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.: Fox Sports Radio
- 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.: Fox Sports Radio (Monday-Tuesday only)
- 12:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m.: Paid Programming (Wednesday-Friday only)
- 1:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m.: Paid Programming
- *Paid programming usually includes Overcomer Ministries with Brother Stair (1:00 a.m. - 3:30 a.m.) and Roy Masters Advice Line (3:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m.)
- 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.: Fox Sports Radio
Saturday
- 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: The Regular Guys Handicapping Hour, Ed Meyer and John Engelhardt
Sports Play-by-play
- Flagship station for:
- *Cincinnati Bengals football (shared with sister stations WOFX and WLW)
- Cincinnati affiliate for:
- *University of Kentucky Wildcats football and basketball.
- *NFL football (from Westwood One)
- *NCAA college basketball (from Westwood One)
- *Major League Baseball (from ESPN Radio)
- *NBA basketball (from ESPN Radio)
External links
- [Official Website]
- [Jim Hawkins' WCKY Transmitter Page]
- [Scott Fybush's WCKY Transmitter Page (under the WSAI heading)]
- [WCKY at the Greater Cincinnati Radio History Page]
- [Query the FCC's AM station database for WCKY]
By Frequency: 550 | 700 | 740 | 910 | 1050 | 1160 | 1230 | 1320 | 1360 | 1450 | 1480 | 1530 | 1560
By Callsign: WDJO | WCIN | WCKY | WCVG | WCNW | WDBZ | WKRC | WLW | WMOH | WNOP | WPFB | WSAI | WTSJ
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