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WOKY (920 Hertz, "Fox Sports 920") is a commercial radio AM radio radio station in Milwaukee, owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. It is one of two sports radio stations owned by iHeart in Milwaukee. WRNW focuses on Wisconsin-based sports shows, while WOKY mostly airs national programs from Fox Sports Radio, including Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd. WOKY's studios and offices, which became the home of all iHeart Milwaukee stations in 2000 after a building expansion, are on West Howard Avenue in Greenfield.
By day, WOKY is powered at 5,000 . To protect other stations on 920 AM from interference, it reduces power at night to 1,000 watts. It uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. The transmitter site is behind the studios in Greenfield. Radio-Locator.com/WOKY WOKY broadcasts using HD Radio technology.http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=32 HD Radio Guide for Milwaukee
In the wake of WEXT's success, the Bartell family applied for full-time broadcast operations, and the result was a move down the dial to AM 920 in September 1950 and a new call sign, WOKY. (The 1430 frequency was reassigned in 1951 to WBEV in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee.) WOKY initially aired a full-service variety format similar to WEXT's, including popular music shows and programs oriented toward housewives and children.
WOKY served as the city's premier Top 40 station during most of the 1960s and 1970s. It was known for much of that time as the "Mighty 92." Along with Chicago Top 40 giants WLS and WMVP, the Mighty 92 was also a favorite of teenagers in Western Michigan who picked up the signal from across Lake Michigan.
Popular disc jockeys on WOKY, during the Top 40 years, included Bob White, "Mad Man" Michaels, "Lucky" Logan, Mitch Michael, Sam Hale, Ron Riley (later with WLS Chicago), Bob Barry, Carl Como, Paul Christy, Michael Lee Scott, Jim Brown, Pat McKay, Jack McCoy, Ronnie Knight, Johnny Dark, Craig Roberts, Jack Lee, Robb Edwards, Gary Price, Gene Johnson, Jon "Rock 'n Roll" Anthony, Big Ron O'Brien, Barney Pip (later with WCFL Chicago) and Bob Collins (later with Chicago's full-service giant WGN). A popular station catchphrase during the early 1970s was "WOKY Plays Favorites". WOKY is also noteworthy for being the first station in Milwaukee to broadcast traffic reports from a helicopter, courtesy of air personality Art Zander and his feature "The Safer Route".
To keep up with demographic trends, WOKY tweaked the format over the years, gradually shifting to a middle of the road-oldies hybrid that mixed 1950s–1970s pop hits with classic and current adult contemporary music, with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond and The Carpenters being mainstays of the format. Starting in 2005, WOKY began programming oldies all day on Fridays, complete with the station's old jingles and other elements. For many years, WOKY was a success in the ratings, though many of its listeners were older than the demographics that many advertisers actively seek. Starting in 1993, the station was known for pioneering marathons of Christmas music beginning on Thanksgiving Day and continuing through the holiday season.
In 1997, WOKY and co-owned WMIL-FM were bought for $40 million by Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner of iHeartMedia. Broadcasting Yearbook 1999 page D-496
WOKY was briefly the Milwaukee outlet for Delilah Rene in a burning off move after sister station WLTQ (now WRNW) converted to a classic rock format (Delilah was later heard in Milwaukee on WMYX-FM). WOKY also carried Milwaukee Panthers basketball game broadcasts from 2003 to 2007 when the team moved to WISN. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball games can be heard on WOKY.
On January 2, 2007, after concluding its Christmas holiday programming, WOKY came back with a new approach: an oldies format emphasizing hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s. The "Mighty 92" name returned full-time, as did many of the classic the station played in its Top 40 heyday. On nights and weekends, the station used Dial Global's satellite-delivered "Oldies Channel" (now Kool Gold from Westwood One). With the new format, WOKY did not flip to all-Christmas music in 2007. Instead, like sister station WRIT-FM, WOKY played a few Christmas tunes every hour. Today, the former Mighty 92 format can be heard in Milwaukee on WRIT-FM 95.7-HD2.
On December 1, 2011, the station announced it would become the Milwaukee home of NASCAR radio coverage from all three NASCAR radio networks and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network for the Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400. NASCAR moved to WOKY from ESPN Radio outlet WAUK, which days before announced the removal of all auto racing programming to focus on solely on traditional sports. In September 2012, WOKY also added nationally broadcast college football and NFL from the Westwood One Network, including "The NFL on Westwood One."
On December 2, 2013, Learfield Sports and the University of Wisconsin–Madison announced that WOKY would become the Milwaukee station for Wisconsin Badgers broadcasts, replacing longtime affiliate WTMJ, effectively making the team exclusive to iHeartMedia in the two largest cities in Wisconsin, with iHeart's WIBA-AM-WIBA-FM in Madison acting as the flagship stations of the Badgers. As part of the deal, WOKY will air all Badgers sports broadcasts. Football and men's basketball are simulcast with WRIT-FM due to WOKY's weak nighttime signal.
In 2018, Milwaukee got two FM sports stations. On November 1, WKTI (94.5 FM), owned by Good Karma Brands, became "ESPN 94.5 Milwaukee." Four weeks later on November 27, iHeart flipped WRNW from Top 40 to sports radio as 97.3 The Game. All of WOKY's local programming was moved to 97.3 FM, with 920 AM mostly carrying Fox Sports Radio's daily lineup.
In 2018, WOKY acquired the rights to the Milwaukee Admirals. The team had previously been heard on sports talk rival WSSP 1250 AM (then known as “105.7 The Fan”).
The station became known as "Fox Sports 920" on November 18, 2024, as the station dropped its remaining local programming from WTSO for all-national content. WOKY Rebrands as Fox Sports 920 Radioinsight - November 18, 2024
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