| City of license | Aurora, Illinois |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Chicago, Rockford |
| Branding | La Ley 107.9 |
| Frequency | 107.9 MHz |
| Format | Regional Mexican |
| Audience share | 2.6 (Sp'08, R&R[1]) |
| ERP | 21,000 watts |
| HAAT | 232.0 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 71282 |
| Callsign meaning | la LEY (Spanish word for "the law") |
| Former callsigns | WYSY-FM (1988-1997) |
| Owner | Spanish Broadcasting System |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | laley1079.com |
WLEY-FM (107.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Aurora, Illinois, USA, the station serves the Chicago, Rockford area. The station is currently owned by Wley Licensing, Inc. and features programing from ABC Radio .[2]
The station has been locally owned since its 1965 sign on as WMRO-FM. They played adult contemporary music of some sort over the years. They did go through various formats over the many years. The station was known as WAUR-FM by 1970. In 1986 WAUR was sold to Beasley Broadcasting. They continued as an adult contemporary station, serving the Aurora area at that time. By the late 1980s, the call letters were changed to WYSY-FM "Y-108 - Doin' It In The 'Burbs!" The AM sister station WMRO (AM) 1280, became WYSY-AM, simulcasting Y-108, and it later became WBIG (AM). For a while in 1993, the station played Adult Top 40 days and hard rock/metal at night.
In late 1993 WYSY was sold to Cox Communications to form a duopoly with classic rock WCKG-FM 105.9. The station switched to an all '70s format in 1994. Initially they played all types of '70s music such as easy listening, soft rock, pop, disco, hard rock, classic rock, soul, novelty, and others. They only played music from the '70s until April 1997, when the station began playing as a stunting format, an approximately 4 hour loop of variety music that was remarkably similar to today's JACK-FM.
By 1995 the station was mixing in big '60s hits and big '80s hits. The music narrowed to a blend of pop rock, pop, disco, soft rock, and soul. In 1996, when the FCC allowed companies to own up to 5 AM and 5 FM stations per market but totaling no more than 8 in all, CBS bought this station, along with its sister station WCKG, on May 16. At the time CBS already owned WBBM (AM) and WBBM-FM. They also acquired WMAQ and WXRT from Westinghouse. This gave CBS 4 FM stations and 2 AM stations.
In 1997 with the merger of Infinity, CBS owned news 780 WBBM, talk/sports WJJD 1160, news 670 WMAQ, WSCR 820 AM (Daytime Sports Talk)AAA 93.1 WXRT, rhythmic/CHR WBBM FM 96.3, Country 99.5 WUSN, 104.3 oldies WJMK, talk WCKG 105.9, and 107.9 WYSY playing '70s hits. This gave CBS 9 stations and one station too many on the FM Band and one station too many with both bands combined. So CBS/Infinity opted to sell the stations with the lowest ratings (and weakest signals) which was WYSY 107.9 (transmitter in Bloomingdale, IL, co-located with WMAQ 670 AM) and WSCR AM 820 (sold to Douglas Broadcasting; WSCR then relocated to the 24-hour 1160 AM signal). CBS sold WYSY 107.9 to Spanish Broadcasting System. On July 4, 1997, WYSY flipped to WLEY and took on a Spanish Adult Contemporary format leaning on Mexican Music. Eventually WLEY evolved into a Regional Mexican Music format focusing on Ranchera.
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