WCKY (AM)
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| WCKY | |
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| Broadcast area | Cincinnati, Ohio |
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| Branding | 1530 Homer |
| Slogan | The Sports Animal |
| First air date | September 16, 1929 |
| Frequency | 1530 (kHz) |
| Format | sports/talk |
| Power | 50,000 watts |
| Class | A |
| Callsign meaning | Covington, KentucKY |
| Affiliations | Fox Sports Radio Premiere Radio Networks Bengals Radio Network Westwood One ESPN Radio |
| Owner | Clear Channel Communications |
| Website | www.wcky.com |
WCKY is an AM radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, broadcasting at 1530 kHz with 50,000 watts, and its transmitter is located in nearby Villa Hills, Kentucky. It is a class A clear channel station, sharing the frequency with KFBK in Sacramento, and can be heard, particularly at night, over most of the eastern U.S. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and uses the on-air nickname "1530 Homer: The Sports Animal," with simulcasts on WONE in Dayton and WIZE in Springfield.
WCKY carries a sports talk radio format, and is the Cincinnati affiliate for Fox Sports Radio and The Jim Rome Show. The station also features local sports talkers Richard Skinner in the morning, and Lance McAlister in the afternoons. 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 also broadcasts football and basketball play-by-play of the University of Kentucky Wildcats.
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.
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[edit] 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, Kentucky, 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 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.
By the early 1970s, the L.B. Wilson estate sold WCKY to The Washington Post, who in turn sold it off to Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Federated Media, and later to Jacor Communications, now Clear Channel along with sister station WOFX (then WWEZ.). 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 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 1960s.
Despite a loyal audience, advertisers and Clear Channel, like most radio companies, lost interest in having a station that appealed mostly to people over 50 years of age. 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 still being streamed on the internet and running on some Clear Channel HD (High Definition) stations. It continues to be programmed by the 1530 WSAI Program Director, "Dangerous" Dan Allen.
On July 7, 2006, and after abysmal ratings which were about half of the previous Real Oldies format, 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 1360 in favor of syndicated talk appealing to a largely female audience.
Due to its 50,000 watt 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 1970s because of this signal, a practice that has survived numerous format and call sign changes to this day. While the station is owned by Clear Channel Broadcasting it is not a Clear Channel station as many other stations are located on the 1530 dial position.
[edit] Logos
 "1530 WSAI" (1994) |
 "Real Oldies" (2003) |
 "1530 WCKY: The Revolution" (2005) |
 "1530 Homer" (2006) |
[edit] Programming
[edit] Monday - Friday
- 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Richard Skinner
- 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: Tony Bruno
- 12:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.: Jim Rome¹
- 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.: Lance McAlister
- 6:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.: The Drive with Chris Myers²
- 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.: Andrew Siciliano²
- 10:00 p.m. - 1:00 a.m.: J.T. the Brick²
- 1:00 a.m. - 5:00 a.m.: Paid Programming
- 1:00 a.m. - 3:30 a.m.: The Overcomer with Brother Stair
- 3:30 a.m. - 4:30 a.m.: Roy Masters Advice Line
- 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 a.m.: Jorge Sedano²
¹ From Premiere Radio Networks ² From Fox Sports Radio
[edit] Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.: Costas on the Radio¹
- 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.: Reel in the Outdoors Radio with Joe Foley
- 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.: The Regular Guys Handicapping Hour, Ed Meyer and John Engelhardt
[edit] 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)
[edit] 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
| AM Radio Stations in the Cincinnati, Ohio Market (Arbitron #28)
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 |
