 | |
| |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Oklahoma City metropolitan area |
| Frequency | 98.1MHz |
| Branding | The Sports Animal |
| Programming | |
| Format | Sports |
| Affiliations | ESPN Radio Oklahoma City Thunder |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| KATT-FM,KKWD,KYIS,WKY,KWPN | |
| History | |
First air date | June 28, 1962 (63 years ago) (1962-06-28) |
Former call signs | KWHP (1962–1978) KCFX (1978–1979) KKLR (1979–1988) KTNT-FM (1988–1999) KCYI (1999–2000) KKWD (2000–2006) |
Former frequencies | 97.7 MHz (1962–1999) 97.9 MHz (1999–2008) |
Call sign meaning | former owner Larry Steckline |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 37435 |
| Class | C1 |
| ERP | 31,000watts |
| HAAT | 470 meters (1,540 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 35°33′37″N97°29′7″W / 35.56028°N 97.48528°W /35.56028; -97.48528 |
| Repeater | 930 WKY (Oklahoma City) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | www |
WWLS-FM (98.1MHz) is acommercialradio stationlicensed toThe Village, Oklahoma, and serving theOklahoma City metropolitan area. It is owned byCumulus Media and airs asportsradio format, calling itself "The Sports Animal."[2][3] Local hosts are heard weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings, as well as weekends. WWLS-FM is theflagship station for theOklahoma City Thunder in theNational Basketball Association.
Thestudios and offices are on NW 64th Street in Northwest Oklahoma City.[4] Thetransmitter is on the Northeast side on Ridgeway Road off NE 78th Street.[5]
Programming on WWLS-FM issimulcast onWKY inOklahoma City. Many of the shows are also heard on "Sports Animal" stations inTulsa (FM 99.9 and AM 1550),Muskogee (FM 97.1 and AM 1490),Elk City (1240 AM) andWoodward (AM 1450).
On June 28, 1962, the station signed on as KWHP.[6] Thecall letters came from the owner's name, William Haydon Payne. He also served as the station manager and chief engineer. KWHP broadcast on 97.7 MHz and the originalcity of license wasEdmond, Oklahoma. Theeffective radiated power (ERP) was only 410 watts, a fraction of its current output. In 1964, the station moved to Kelly street.
The station was put on the air in a small house on 1305 South Boulevard Street in Edmond. The radio station was in the owner's home, the transmitter in the bedroom and the studio in the garage. His wife threatened to leave unless the radio station was moved out of the house. In 1964, the station moved to Kelly street. In 1978, call letters change to KCFX, representing the change to country and the station mascot "The Fox." In 1979, Payne sold the station.*PAYNE website
It later became KKLR and then KTNT. Porter Davis, whose family owned Davis Foods distributors, bought the station, switching it toSmooth Jazz in 1993 as KTNT "97.7 The Trend".
Citadel Broadcasting purchased the station, along with "SportsRadio 640"WWLS and "Sports Talk 1340"KEBC, in 1998.
In February 1999, the station changed its call letters to KCYI, moved to 97.9 FM, and became "The City 97.9", retaining theSmooth Jazz format.
On January 24, 2000, at noon, KCYI dropped its smooth jazz format and beganstunting with a Microsoft robotic countdown (similar to Willow Pond's text-to-speech male voice), counting down until 6:45 a.m. on January 27. At that time, KCYI flipped toRhythmic CHR as "Wild 97dot9." The first song on "Wild" wasWild Thing byTone Lōc.[7][8][9]
On October 23, 2006, WWLS (then at 104.9 FM) switched signals with sister stationKKWD and moved to the 97.9 frequency. On July 9, 2008, WWLS upgraded its signal to 31,000 watts ERP and moved from 97.9 to 98.1 FM.
In addition, WWLS is the hub for the "Sports Animal Network" that simulcasts selected programming on stations throughout Oklahoma including: 930 AMWKY inOklahoma City, 1550 AMKYAL and 99.9 FM inSapulpa andTulsa, 97.1 FMKYAL-FM inMuskogee and Tulsa, 96.1 FMKITO-FM inVinita, 101.1 FMKEOJ inCaney and Bartlesville, 1470 AMKGND inVinita, 1240 AMKADS and 98.1 FM inElk City, 1450 AMKSIW inWoodward, Oklahoma, and 1240 AMKVSO and 107.5 FM inArdmore.
WWLS is also the radio home ofOklahoma City Thunder of the NBA, and the market's affiliate forESPN Radio.[10]
While nearly all radio and TV stations in Oklahoma havecall signs beginning with at "K," WWLS-FM is linked to an AM station that dates from the earliest days of broadcasting,KWPN. That station signed on in 1922 as WNAD inNorman, Oklahoma, owned by theUniversity of Oklahoma. At that time, Oklahoma was in "W" territory.
When WNAD switched call letters to WWLS, it got to keep its historic W call sign. To give WWLS an FM simulcast, 98.1 became WWLS-FM. That made WWLS-FM the only FM station in Oklahoma with a call sign starting with a W. When the owners decided to focus the local sports programming on the FM station and switch the AM station to mostly national ESPN Radio shows, the AM station's call sign flipped to KWPN, leaving WWLS-FM with its unique W call letters. Sister station WKY is the other station in the market with a "W" call sign.