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| Simulcast ofWWLS-FM,The Village | |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Oklahoma City Metroplex |
| Frequency | 930kHz |
| Branding | The Sports Animal |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Sports |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| History | |
| Founded | January 20, 1920; 105 years ago (1920-01-20) |
First air date | March 16, 1922 (103 years ago) (1922-03-16) |
Former call signs | 5XT (1921–22) |
Call sign meaning | None, randomly assigned |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 23418 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
|
Transmitter coordinates | 35°33′43″N97°30′24″W / 35.56194°N 97.50667°W /35.56194; -97.50667 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live |
| Website | wky930am.com |
WKY (930AM) is acommercialradio station inOklahoma City, Oklahoma, owned byCumulus Media. It is the oldest radio station in Oklahoma and among the oldest in the nation. WKY airs asportsformat which issimulcast with itssister stationWWLS-FM. Thestudios and offices are in northwest Oklahoma City.
WKY'stransmitter and its single tower are located on NE 91st Street in Oklahoma City.[2] WKY is powered at 5,000watts by day, using a 961 foot (293m)non-directional antenna that is the tallest AMradio tower in the United States.[3] It once broadcast at night with a 5,000-wattdirectional signal, using a multipletower array. Ownership decided to switch to non-directional nighttime operation, which allows WKY to need only one antenna, but required the station to drop to 510 watts at night.
AlthoughFederal Communications Commission (FCC) records list WKY's "date first licensed" as March 16, 1922, station histories have generally traced its founding to earlier activities, beginning as early as January 1920 according to WKY co-founder Earl Clement Hull.[4]
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After the end of World War One, Hull was posted atFort Sill in Oklahoma, where he taught radio communication classes. Using a supply of scarce vacuum tubes he described as being "borrowed" from the Signal Corps, he constructed a radio transmitter that was operated from his home at 1911 Ash Street in Oklahoma City.[4] In June 1921, Hull was issued a license for amateur station 5QP, located at his residence.[7]
In the spring of 1921, Hull founded the Oklahoma Radio Shop, initially located at Hull's home, as a partnership with Sherwood Richards.[8] In the fall of 1921, the Oklahoma Radio Shop was issued a license for an experimental station, 5XT.[9]
Eventually theDaily Oklahoman newspaper teamed up with the Oklahoma Radio Company to provide a daily series of broadcasts, from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., beginning on March 5, 1922. A March 8 broadcast ofAlma Gluck singing at the First Christian Church was described by the newspaper as its "first big broadcast",[10] although the microphone had to be hidden behind a curtain, because the singer had refused to consent to making the broadcast.[11]
Beginning in late 1912, radio communication in the United States was regulated by the Department of Commerce. Initially there were no formal standards for which stations could make broadcasts intended for the general public, and after World War One stations under a variety of license classes, most commonly Amateur and Experimental, began making regularly scheduled programs on a limited basis. In order to provide common standards for the service, the Commerce Department issued a regulation effective December 1, 1921, that stated that broadcasting stations would now have to hold a Limited Commercial license that authorized operation on two designated broadcasting wavelengths: 360 meters (833 kHz) for "entertainment", and 485 meters (619 kHz) for "market and weather reports".[12] WKY's first license, as Oklahoma's first broadcasting station, was issued on March 16, 1922, to the Oklahoma Radio Shop in Oklahoma City, for operation on both wavelengths.[13]
The WKY call sign was randomly assigned from a list of availablecall letters. Currently most stations west of the Mississippi River have call letters beginning with "K". However, WKY was licensed before the government changed the dividing line between W and K call signs. Prior to the January 1923 establishment of the Mississippi River as the boundary, call letters beginning with "W" were generally assigned to stations east of an irregular line formed by the western state borders from North Dakota south to Texas, with calls beginning with "K" going only to stations in states west of that line.[14]
In November 1922, WKY announced a "silent night" policy, meaning the station would broadcast only four, and later three nights a week. This was so listeners could have a chance to tune into other stations in neighboring states.
Richards and Hull struggled to keep WKY on the air. In late 1925, Richards left the radio business, but Hull continued to keep WKY going by selling shares of the station to radio dealers in Oklahoma City. The dealers paid Hull a small fee to keep the station broadcasting, but over time, they decided the financial drain had become too much. In 1928, WKY was purchased by the Oklahoma Publishing Company, which also owned theDaily Oklahoman newspaper. The price was $5,000 (about $75,000 today).
The formal opening of the new WKY was set for November 11, 1928, but the station went on the air several days earlier to carry the presidential election returns asHerbert Hoover won in a Republican landslide.
That December, the station became anNBC Red Networkaffiliate and began carrying the network's programs. During the "Golden Age of Radio" that included dramas, comedies, news, sports,soap operas,game shows andbig band broadcasts. By the following year, WKY was attempting to operate like the powerhouse stations in the East. Aside from NBC network shows, everything broadcast by WKY originated locally.
WKY operated from theSkirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City from 1936 to 1951, and was contracted to broadcast live from the Venetian Room from 11:00 to midnight every evening. The opening night performance cost $15 a couple for dinner and dancing.
From November 1941, through June 1942, WKY broadcast its own original supernatural thriller series calledDark Fantasy. All 31 episodes can still be heard today.
WKY-FM was launched on July 1, 1947, at 98.9 MHz, programming mostlyclassical music. An effort was made to minimize duplication of WKY AM programs and make WKY-FM a true second station. In 1949, a TV station, WKY-TV (nowKFOR-TV) was added, as the first television outlet in Oklahoma.
Few people owned FM radios in the early 1950s. By 1952, WKY management had to make a decision about keeping the FM station on the air or increasing the power of the company's new television tower. Since WKY-FM was not showing a profit, it lost out. The station shut down, and its transmitter and associated equipment were donated to the Oklahoma City Public School District. The discontinuation received only one letter of protest, from a music lover inNorman, Oklahoma. In 1969 the vacated 98.9 MHz frequency was assigned to a new station, KBYE-FM, which is now sister stationKYIS.
WKY has featured many formats over the years, including Contemporary Hits,Oldies,Country music,Adult Contemporary,Easy Listening,Christian talk and teaching,Talk,Hot Talk,Sports andRegional Mexican as a simulcast of then-sister stationKINB.
In 1958, WKY became the secondTop 40 station in Oklahoma City after KOCY (nowKGHM). During the 1960s and 1970s, WKY fended off serious challenges from 50,000 watt rivalKOMA. Although KOMA was very famous outside Oklahoma City, due to its large nighttime signal, WKY was usually the ratings leader in the city itself. WKY continued to top manyArbitron ratings sweeps into the 1970s, even as young people began seeking hit music from the FM dial. Ironically, WKY's topdisc jockeys during that time, Danny Williams, Ronnie Kaye and Fred Hendrickson, later became "KOMA Good Guys" when KOMA flipped fromadult standards tooldies.
WKY changed its format to country music on May 25, 1984, shortly after station ownerEdward Gaylord purchasedNashville radio powerhouseWSM and theGrand Ole Opry. WKY simulcasted live Grand Ole Opry broadcasts from WSM for a short time.[15][16]
WKY dropped its country format to become aneasy listening station on June 30, 1990, shortly after longtime FM easy listening stationKKNG moved toSoft Adult Contemporary music.[17][18] Bus benches throughout Oklahoma City had the purple and white logo declaring "Easy Listening is back, 930 WKY."
Although it took a bit of time to grow the format, within a year, WKY had beaten KKNG in the ratings. As a result, KKNG shifted to Mainstream AC and rebranded as "Mix 92.5," which barely lasted a year.
Ironically, WKY's taking stewardship of the easy listening format ended up helping former rival KOMA, as its oldies format took over the 92.5 frequency in the summer of 1992. Despite getting high ratings, WKY had trouble getting advertisers to buy in.
WKY switched to atalk radio format in 1994. In the process of flipping, it hired back many of the news staff it let go when it became an easy listening station in 1990.
The station stumbled out of the starting gate and struggled to compete againstClear Channel Communications'KTOK. KTOK already had the top names insyndicatedconservative talk on its schedule, includingRush Limbaugh andSean Hannity. Often, WKY had to choose lesser national talk hosts to compete with KTOK for ratings. In its first year, WKY failed to cover its operational costs. In 1995, OPUBCO turned over operation of WKY to Clear Channel, who operated the station through alocal marketing agreement (LMA) after several continued months of operating in the red.
Finally, in 2002, OPUBCO sold the station toCitadel Broadcasting after 74 years of ownership. WKY, along with WSM-AM-FM in Nashville, had been the last vestiges of the once-vast Gaylord broadcasting empire, which at its height included eight radio stations and seven television stations.
From 1994 to 2002, WKY was a talk station.[19] It flirted with anall-sports format, with two local sports talk shows in thedrive time periods. "SuperTalk 930 WKY" was launched in March 2003. The format featured local-oriented talk shows throughout the day with some syndicated talk during the evening and weekend.
"SuperTalk" ended on January 9, 2006. In an effort to target Oklahoma City's growing Hispanic population, WKY began airing a simulcast ofKINB.[20] Because KINB was divested as part of the Citadel–ABC Radio merger, the simulcast on WKY was dropped June 12, 2007, and the station beganstunting for several days.[21]
On June 20, 2007, at 9:01 a.m., Oklahoma City MayorMick Cornett, a former sports, and later news anchor onKOCO-TV, signaled the start of "JOX 930 WKY." It was the fifth station in the market with a sports radio format.[22]
After struggling in the ratings, WKY announced on December 22, 2008, that it would change formats from sports programming. On January 7, 2009, WKY flipped back to "La Indomable." From February 2017 to September 8, 2019, WKY was a full-time affiliate ofESPN Deportes Radio, offering all sports programming in Spanish. After that network ended operations, WKY returned to sports in English, simulcasting sister stationWWLS-FM. WKY was the home ofBishop McGuinness Catholic High School Football for several seasons.
On March 10, 2011, Cumulus Media announced that it would purchase Citadel Broadcasting. After receiving conditional regulatory approval from the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, the deal was approved by Citadel shareholders on September 15, 2011. The merger of the two companies closed on September 16, 2011, and Citadel became an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Cumulus Media.
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