WAXY

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WAXY
City of license	South Miami, Florida
Broadcast area	Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Branding	Sports Talk 790 The Ticket
Frequency	790 (kHz)
Format	Sports/Talk
Power	25,000 watts
Class	B
Affiliations	Fox Sports Radio ESPN Radio
Owner	Lincoln Financial Media
Website	www.790theticket.com

WAXY is an AM radio station licensed to South Miami, Florida broadcasting on 790 kHz with a sports talk format. It is licensed to Lincoln Financial Media (formerly Jefferson Pilot Communications), which also operates WLYF (FM) and WMXJ (FM) in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market.

Contents 1 History 1.1 WFUN 2 After WFUN 3 Current format 4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] WFUN

This station was once WFUN, a legendary Top 40 station that competed with WQAM. Originally, the station was located at 800 on the AM dial, and was a daytime-only operation. In the late 1950's, the station migrated down to 790, and went full-time. The 790 dial position was a moderately directional signal, as there was already a 790 in Havana, Cuba, and another in central Florida (Leesburg-Eustis). Despite coverage limitations, especially to the southwest (in the Florida Keys, toward Havana), WFUN competed vigorously with WQAM throughout the 60's, and even won some of the ratings sweeps. During the early 70's, pop music showed up first on FM at WMYQ, and then on WHYI (Y-100), and the field of top 40 stations (including WQAM-560 and even WINZ-940 for a brief time) became crowded; ultimately many listeners moved to FM for music, and consequently WFUN abandoned their top 40 format. WFUN was used by one of its disc jockeys to create the revolutionary and hybrid Boss Radio broadcasting sound of Swinging Radio England from the coast of southern England during 1966. For a short time in 1965 Morton 'Doc' Downey was a DJ on this Miami legend station.

WFUN was the home of several djs who became famous on both sides of the Atlantic in 1966. They included Ron O'Quinn and Larry Dean. The format of WFUN in Miami was used in part by Ron O'Quinn as the foundation for the hybrid mix of sounds that were heard over the 50,000 watts offshore pirate radio station Swinging Radio England between May and November 1966.

[edit] After WFUN

The station subsequently became WNWS with a news/talk format. Popular talk show host Tom Leykis was heard on WNWS in the early 80's. It changed back to music and became WMRZ on November 28, 1990. It became WAXY on October 12, 1994, initially with a format of brokered programs.

[edit] Current format

Since 2004, it has been an all-sports station. At one point, this station was branded as "ESPN Radio 790", but it no longer carries ESPN Radio programs. It does carry the Fox Sports Radio shows of Jorge Sedano and JT the Brick. Other than that, the lineup is all-local, with such hosts as Jeff DeForrest (5am-7am), ex-Dolphin Joe Rose (7am-10am), Jon "Boog" Sciambi (10am-12pm), Sid Rosenberg (12pm-4pm), Miami Herald sportswriter Dan LeBatard (4pm-7pm), The Dolphins Show (7pm-9pm), Kevin Rogers (9pm-12am), during the week and the Dos Amigos Show, featuring Larry Milian and Alan Strauss, and Jeremy Marks-Peltz on the weekends. The station's program director, StuGotz co-hosts the LeBatard show. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino appears weekly on Rose's morning show.

Play-by-play is highlighted by Miami Dolphins games. It also broadcasted Super Bowl XLI from Westwood One.

[edit] External links

• WAXY web site
• Sportstalk 790 The Ticket web site
• Guest Deejay On WFUN, 1971 -- article from South Florida Radio History web site
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WAXY