| City of license | Jackson, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| Branding | 540 ESPN |
| Slogan | All you really wanna hear is sports! |
| Frequency | 540 AM kHz |
| First air date | May 1, 1964 |
| Format | Sports Talk |
| Power | 400 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 10824 |
| Callsign meaning | WAUKesha (city of license for the 1510 frequency) |
| Former callsigns | WYLO, WZER, WRRD |
| Affiliations | ESPN Radio |
| Owner | Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC (Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WRRD |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | espnmilwaukee.com |
WAUK (540 AM ESPN) is a radio station licensed to Jackson, Wisconsin, serving the Milwaukee area. It is known on-air as 540 ESPN. WAUK airs a blend of ESPN Radio talk and sports play-by play, along with local sports talk and play-by-play programming.
The station is owned by Beaver Dam-based Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC, and owned by Craig Karmazin, son of legendary radio executive and current Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin. It is the local rival of Entercom's all-sports station WSSP (1250).
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The station signed on in 1964 with the call sign WYLO, which stood for "Way Low" (the station's position on the AM dial). WYLO ran a country format for many years before switching to Christian programming. From 1995 to 2001, the WZER call sign was used, prior to briefly returning to WYLO and finally, WRRD.
Prior to the sale to current owner Good Karma Broadcasting, Salem Communications owned the property and programmed a Christian-oriented religious format. The station's now-former WRRD calls come from Salem's branding of the station, "The Word".
Good Karma Broadcasting took over operation of the signal on February 7, 2008, moving the format of the former WAUK (1510) from that daytime-limited signal to the full-time 24/7 signal of WRRD. Formerly, ESPN Radio was heard on WAUK during the day, and WMCS (1290) from 6pm-6am since January 1, 2005 under the branding Milwaukee's ESPN Radio - 1510 Days/1290 Nights. On February 12, 2008, WAUK's call letters were switched to the 540 frequency, with the WRRD calls moving to 1510.
The new "540 ESPN" simulcasts continued with 1510 AM[1] until May 5, 2008, when Good Karma converted the new WRRD to ESPN Deportes Radio, a Spanish language sports talk format [2]. WMCS's time brokering arrangement with WAUK ended on June 30, 2008, when the station reclaimed their nighttime hours for the music and community talk format the station airs the rest of the day [3].
Programming includes syndicated content from ESPN Radio, including Mike and Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd with Colin Cowherd and Doug Gottlieb. WAUK also airs a good deal of locally-oriented programming from hosts Steve "The Homer" True, Jason Wilde, Bill Johnson, Drew Olson and Dan Needles. The station also features a weekly segment with Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
WAUK is the flagship of Marquette Golden Eagles college basketball and carries Wisconsin Badgers college hockey. The station also airs ESPN Radio play-by-play coverage of Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL football from Westwood One, college basketball, and the Bowl Championship Series. The station had also been the Milwaukee home of NASCAR radio coverage from all three NASCAR radio networks, as well as the LTN Hour radio show since its inception in 1985 and the Racing Roundup show. On the November 27th edition of the LTN Hour, it was announced that WAUK would be dropping all racing programming by the end of 2011.
The station also airs Wisconsin Badgers football and basketball games pre-empted by WTMJ (620) due to rights conflicts.
The station also has had a branding alliance since September 2008 with WISN-TV (Channel 12), including a co-marketed spotlight high school sports "game of the week" (in men's basketball or football, depending on season) under Hearst's "Operation Football" high school sports branding, which airs live Friday evenings on WAUK. As part of this, a Saturday evening program called The Big 12 Sports Show with 540 ESPN hosted by Olson and Needles airs on WISN-TV before ABC primetime on that evening, which analyzes the next day's Packer game and acts as a post-game or pre-game for that day's Badger football game, along with coverage of other sports[4].
Other local programming airs throughout the weekend, including an independent Wisconsin Badgers college football pregame show and a Packers-focused Sunday morning show hosted by Karmazin and former Green Bay Packers player Mark Chmura.
WAUK only operates at 400 watts, largely to protect the signal of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Saskatchewan station for CBC Radio One, and their French station in Windsor, Ontario, both also carried on 540, though the signal does cover a relatively substantial area due to its low dial position.
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