WCKY (AM) - History

History

WCKY dates back to the late 1920s, and achieved a 50,000 watt signal in the early 1940s. It was founded by L.B. Wilson, a longtime broadcaster in the region. The station went on the air on September 16, 1929 at a frequency of 1480 kilocycles on the AM dial. Originally, WCKY was licensed to Covington, Kentucky, and was treated as a Kentucky-based station. This status helped WCKY's case before the FCC to increase power from the original 5,000 watts to 50,000 watts by the late 1930s - even though it was literally across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio and fellow 50,000 watt station WLW. WCKY's city of license moved to Cincinnati by the early 1960s. During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, WCKY was used to broadcast news and information to the area, due to its southerly directional signal pattern. During the mid-1960s, it was the flagship station for the Cincinnati Reds, identifying itself as "your 50,000 watt Big League Baseball Station".

By the early 1970s, the L.B. Wilson estate sold WCKY to The Washington Post, who in turn sold it off to Elkhart, Indiana-based Federated Media. WCKY switched to News & Talk and became the first all News/talk radio station in Cincinnati. The line-up included local host Mike McMurray and for a short time now national host Doug Stephan. Syndicated personalities included Bruce Williams and Larry King. WCKY was the local home for Rush Limbaugh when he debuted.

Sold to Jacor Communications in 1994, now Clear Channel along with sister station WOFX-FM (then WIMJ.). WCKY's format changed with the times, from easy listening in the 1960s, to a country format in the '70s and '80s, to a news/talk format in the '80s and early '90s.

In the 1990s, 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. Nick Clooney returned to the station as afternoon host starting September 13, 1999, moving to mornings in November to replace Bob Braun, who left for health reasons. WSAI eventually switched to an oldies format in early 2003. "Real Oldies 1530 WSAI" played the Top 40 hits of the 1950s and 1960s.

Because of poor ratings, the station ended up switching to a liberal/progressive talk format, with the WCKY call sign returning in 2005. The new WCKY was nicknamed "The Revolution of Talk Radio" and became one of Air America's few 50,000 watt affiliates in the east. The station introduced listeners from states all over the region to Air America personalities like Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, Marc Maron and Mike Malloy. As such it attained a loyal following outside of Cincinnati but ratings in the conservative Cincinnati market never materialized. 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).

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. A short while later the liberal talk format was eliminated on WSAI in favor of syndicated talk and consumer advice shows that appealed to a largely female audience. WSAI went back to a sports format in July 2007, this time as an 24-hour ESPN Radio affiliate to complement WCKY. WCKY and WSAI would switch network affiliations again on February 15, 2010, with Fox Sports Radio moving to WSAI and ESPN Radio moving to WCKY, dropping the "Homer" nickname on-air in favor of "ESPN 1530."

Due to its 50,000 watt status, WCKY can be heard at night as far away as Chicago, Detroit, Ludington, Michigan, Wichita, Kansas, and Miami, Florida. The station has a long history of a powerful night-time signal. Its country music programming of the 1950s and 1960s brought listener responses from many points even outside the United States. In 1964, in connection with WCKY obtaining the Cincinnati Reds games, the station held a contest for the farthest listener. The winner was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Japan. The runner-up was in West Berlin. Dating back to the early 1970s, the station leased out much of the overnight hours to religious ministers because of the signal's overall reach. It is a practice that has survived numerous format and call sign changes to this day, although with a reduced presence following the most recent change to sports talk.

While the station is owned by Clear Channel Communications, WCKY enjoys clear channel status on the East Coast of the United States, as well as much of the Midwestern United States, during the nighttime hours. Its west coast counterpart is KFBK in Sacramento, California (which is also owned by Clear Channel Communications). KFBK And WCKY are both Class A broadcast facilies on this channel in the United States. KFBK and WCKY both alter their signals at night to limit their signals interference towards each other at night. And being Class A they receive higher protection than most others on this channel. This also explains why WCKY does not have to alter their signal to directional till 3 hours past local sunset. The only station they are required to protect is KFBK, and since it does not get dark on the West Coast till 3 hours later than in Cincinnati the signal will not travel toward KFBK until after dark. Thus the later protection time.