History
The station signed on January 20, 1952 as WHIL, a daytime-only station based in Medford, Massachusetts. After an attempt to program pop music, the station flipped to country music in the 1960s, and added an FM station (WHIL-FM 107.9), which simulcast the AM during the day and continued with similar programming at night.
In 1972, the FM was changed from WHIL-FM to WWEL-FM, and the format of both was changed to beautiful music, mostly a simulcast. A couple of years later, WHIL became WWEL, but with no format change.
In early 1979, after the stations were sold, the call letters were changed to WXKS and WXKS-FM. Both stations launched a disco format (mostly, but not completely, simulcast), but while the FM ("Kiss 108") soon became one of Boston's most popular radio stations, the AM had very few listeners. The FM side eventually made a very successful transition from disco to "pure" top 40; by that time, however, the AM no longer had the same format as the FM.
From December 1979 until late 2004, WXKS was an adult standards-format station, which at first carried the Music of Your Life format, with the music played by local personalities. For a time in the 1980s WXKS became quite successful, especially among older listeners, in spite of its daytime status. Later, WXKS went to 24-hours-a-day operation and broadcast programming from both the Music of Your Life and AM Only/America's Best Music satellite networks, along with a local morning show during the early 2000s.
In late 2004, WXKS made a format change to liberal talk, for the most part carrying programming from Air America. Since WXKS' nighttime signal is very directional, sister station WKOX in Framingham also broadcast the same programming.
At noon on December 21, 2006, the stations dropped the progressive talk format in favor of a Spanish tropical format called "Rumba."
On September 4, 2009 WXKS split from the simulcast with WKOX and flipped to the current Spanish Top 40 format. The two stations then swapped call letters on March 1, 2010, as part of 1200 AM's transition to a conservative talk format.
Read more about this topic: WKOX (AM)
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