| City of license | Syracuse, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Central New York |
| Branding | "The Score 1260" |
| Frequency | 1260 (kHz) |
| First air date | 1946 (as WNDR) |
| Format | Sports radio |
| Power | 5,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 50515 |
| Callsign meaning | W SKOre |
| Former callsigns | WNDR (1946-1996) WNSS (1996-2010) |
| Affiliations | Yahoo! Sports Radio Buffalo Bills Radio Network |
| Owner | Cumulus Media |
| Sister stations | WAQX, WXTL, WNTQ |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | thescore1260.com |
WSKO is a sports radio station in Syracuse, New York. Broadcasting on 1260 kHz on the AM dial, WSKO covers the Buffalo Bills, Syracuse Crunch AHL hockey, and recently announced that it will air the 2011 Syracuse Chiefs AAA baseball season. The station is owned by Cumulus Media. It formally was branded as ESPN Radio 1260, but, as a part of a programming shuffle it was rebranded as The Score 1260 WSKO on Feb 24th at 3PM. On March 5, 2010, WSKO changed network affiliation to Sporting News Radio.
WSKO signed on in 1946 as WNDR. It was the most popular Top 40-format station in the area during the 1960s. The studio and 5000-watt transmitter were located on Andrews Road in DeWitt, a Syracuse suburb. During the 1950s, the station began its run as a popular music station after beginning as a Mutual Broadcasting System affiliate. Among its 1950s-era staffers was character actor and Golden Globe nominee Aldo Ray, who worked there in 1956 during an extended break in his film career; a publicity photo of him taken at the station surivives and is reproduced on a station tribute website. During the station's heyday in the late 1950s and 1960s, personalities who would later achieve success in major markets including Bud Ballou, Peter C. Cavanaugh, Bob Shannon and Joey Reynolds were among the notable disc jockeys that worked at WNDR.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the station struggled. It adopted the WNSS callsign in 1996[1], after dropping a country music format in favor of all-news under the branding of "W-News".[2] After a brief and ill-fated 2000 change to an all-comedy radio format, the station finally settled on a mostly straight satellite feed from the ESPN Radio network, including ESPN's MLB and NBA broadcasts. The station during most of this period was the flagship station of the Syracuse Orange along with sister station WAQX, until WTKW acquired the rights in 2007.
Effective March 2010, ESPN Radio was dropped from WNSS (being moved to WTLA/WSGO)[3]; Imus in the Morning became WNSS's new morning show, migrating from WHEN.[4][5] WNSS also rebranded as "The Score 1260", switched its network affiliation to Sporting News Radio, and increased its emphasis on local sports[5]. The station also changed its call letters to WSKO (previously heard on a radio station in Providence, Rhode Island) to reflect this.
WSKO currently carries three local weekday programs, On the Block with Brent Axe, 2-6pm. The program was originally heard on WHEN until early 2009. Axe's program was unaffected by the station's March 2010 programming changes[3], with the exception of an expansion by one hour.[5] Bud and the Manchild, another former WHEN program, hosted by Bud Poliquin and Jim Lerch, joined WSKO in May 2010, weekdays 10am-12noon.[6] Danny Parkins was added for the 12noon-2pm weekday shift on June 1, 2010.[7]
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
![[3]](http://tiffent.com/wendi/60sRadio/WNDR-List-1966-06-03a.jpg){kind=link}