WOKY
Encyclopedia
WOKY is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin
, radio station
. They broadcast a classic country
radio format
emphasizing country from the 50s-80s. WOKY is owned by Clear Channel Communications
.
The Bartell family had modest success with other stations in Wisconsin markets as LaCrosse and Sturgeon Bay
. They also had a station near San Diego, California
(El Cajon
).
best-seller charts and on local record sales. WOKY soon became Milwaukee's second official Top 40 music station after WRIT
.
WOKY served as the city's premier Top 40 station during most of the 1960s and early 1970s, and was known as the "Mighty 92". Along with Chicago-based giants WLS
and WCFL
, The station was also a favorite of teenagers in western Michigan
who were beyond the signal reach of Top 40 stations in larger west Michigan cities such as Muskegon and Grand Rapids.
Popular disc jockeys on WOKY during the Top 40 years, from the 50's through the 70's, included Bob White, "Mad Man" Michaels, "Lucky" Logan, Mitch Michael, Sam Hale, Ron Riley, Bob Barry, Carl Como, Paul Christy, Michael Lee Scott, Jim Brown, Jack McCoy, Johnny Dark, Jack Lee, Robb Edwards, and the late Bob Collins (later of Chicago's full-service giant WGN
). A popular station catchphrase during the early '70s 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."
format in 1981. It became a full-time affiliate of Al Ham's 'Music of Your Life
' format, based in Connecticut
.
To keep up with demographic trends, WOKY tweaked their format over the years, gradually shifting to a middle of the road/oldies hybrid that mixed uptempo 1950s-1970s oldies with classic and current adult contemporary music, with artists such as Frank Sinatra
, Neil Diamond
and The Carpenters
being mainstays of the format. On Fridays, starting in 2005, WOKY began programming oldies for the entire day, complete with 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.
WOKY was briefly the Milwaukee outlet for the syndicated Delilah
love songs show, previously heard on the late (and Clear Channel sister station) WLTQ. Delilah was later heard in Milwaukee on WMYX-FM
.
The station was famous for pioneering marathons of Christmas music
beginning on Thanksgiving Day and continuing through the holiday season, beginning in 1993.
WOKY also carried Milwaukee Panthers basketball game broadcasts from 2003 to 2007 when they moved to sister station WISN. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball games can be heard on WOKY.
format emphasizing hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s. The "Mighty 92" name returned full-time, as did many of the classic jingles 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
) service.
With the new format, and to keep up with the baby boomers, WOKY did not flip to all-Christmas music in 2007. Instead, like sister WRIT
, they played a few Christmas tunes every hour.
(106.1)'s HD Radio
subchannel as an automated station to one featuring several of WOKY's airstaff . The combined classic-current country stations were sub-branded as MIL-WOKY, Milwaukee's Country Connection.
The former Mighty 92 format can currently be heard in Milwaukee on WRIT
95.7-HD2.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
, radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
. They broadcast a classic country
Classic country
Classic country is a music radio format that specializes in playing mainstream country hits from past decades.This genre generally follows one of two formats: those specializing in hits from the 1920s through the early 1970s, and focus primarily on innovators and artists from country music's Golden...
radio format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...
emphasizing country from the 50s-80s. WOKY is owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
.
Beginnings: WEXT
The history of WOKY can be traced back to WEXT (1430 AM), a 1,000-watt, daytime-only radio station in Milwaukee founded by Lee, David, Gerald, and Rosa Bartell (later Evans) which began operations on August 31, 1947. WEXT, the Milwaukee market's fifth radio station, did fairly well with a broadcast schedule that included popular music and ethnic programming, including a polka show hosted by local radio legend John Reddy. Gerald Bartell and Rosa Bartell met Ralph Evans II while the three worked at the University of Wisconsin, Madison's student station. Gerald and Rosa worked on programming, and Evans was an electrical engineering student.The Bartell family had modest success with other stations in Wisconsin markets as LaCrosse and Sturgeon Bay
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin
Sturgeon Bay is a city in and the county seat of Door County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,437 at the 2000 census. It is located at the natural end of Sturgeon Bay, although the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal was built across the remainder of the Door Peninsula.-Geography:Sturgeon Bay is...
. They also had a station near San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
(El Cajon
El Cajon, California
-History:El Cajon is located on the Rancho El Cajon Mexican land grant made in 1845 to María Antonia Estudillo, wife of Miguel Pedrorena. In 1876 Amaziah Lord Knox , a New Englander who had recently moved to California, established a hotel there to serve the growing number of people traveling...
).
WOKY/The Mighty 92
In the wake of WEXT's success, the Bartell family applied for 24-hour broadcast operations, and the result was a move down the dial to 920 AM and a new call sign, WOKY. The new station launched in September 1950. WOKY initially aired a full-service variety format similar to WEXT's, including popular music shows and programs oriented toward housewives and children. In time, pop music became the primary component of WOKY's schedule, with disc jockeys choosing the songs they played based on the Billboard and Cash BoxCash Box magazine
Cashbox magazine was a weekly publication devoted to the music and coin-operated machine industries in the USA which was published from July 1942 to November 16, 1996...
best-seller charts and on local record sales. WOKY soon became Milwaukee's second official Top 40 music station after WRIT
WJYI
WJYI is a radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It runs a Christian format with Contemporary Christian Music from Salem Radio Network's Today's Christian Music network. It also features brokered teaching and preaching programs from both local Churches and national ministries. It also airs...
.
WOKY served as the city's premier Top 40 station during most of the 1960s and early 1970s, and was known as the "Mighty 92". Along with Chicago-based giants WLS
WLS (AM)
WLS is a Chicago clear-channel AM station on 890 kHz. It uses C-QUAM AM stereo and transmits with 50,000 watts from transmitter and towers on the south edge of Tinley Park, Illinois....
and WCFL
WMVP
WMVP is the callsign of a commercial radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is owned by ABC. Its transmitter is located in Downers Grove. The station broadcasts live sports talk, both locally and nationally. Daily programming consists of talk shows that are both national and local...
, The station was also a favorite of teenagers in western Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
who were beyond the signal reach of Top 40 stations in larger west Michigan cities such as Muskegon and Grand Rapids.
Popular disc jockeys on WOKY during the Top 40 years, from the 50's through the 70's, included Bob White, "Mad Man" Michaels, "Lucky" Logan, Mitch Michael, Sam Hale, Ron Riley, Bob Barry, Carl Como, Paul Christy, Michael Lee Scott, Jim Brown, Jack McCoy, Johnny Dark, Jack Lee, Robb Edwards, and the late Bob Collins (later of Chicago's full-service giant WGN
WGN (AM)
WGN is a radio station in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is the only radio station owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the flagship television station WGN-TV, the Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago magazine locally. WGN's transmitter is located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois...
). A popular station catchphrase during the early '70s 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."
Adult Standards Era
Due to competition from FM stations, WOKY shifted to an adult standardsAdult standards
Adult standards is a North American radio format heard primarily on AM or class A FM stations.Adult standards is aimed at "mature" adults, meaning mainly those persons over 50 years of age, but it is mostly targeted for senior citizens...
format in 1981. It became a full-time affiliate of Al Ham's 'Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life is a satellite-delivered radio network featuring the Adult Standards music format. Created by record executive and jingle writer Al Ham, and now under the direction of Marc Angell, Music of Your Life has more than 50 AM, FM and HD-2 radio station affiliates, and has been in...
' format, based in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
To keep up with demographic trends, WOKY tweaked their format over the years, gradually shifting to a middle of the road/oldies hybrid that mixed uptempo 1950s-1970s oldies with classic and current adult contemporary music, with artists such as Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
and The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
being mainstays of the format. On Fridays, starting in 2005, WOKY began programming oldies for the entire day, complete with 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.
WOKY was briefly the Milwaukee outlet for the syndicated Delilah
Delilah Rene
Delilah Rene Luke , almost always known mononymously as Delilah, is an American radio personality, author, and songwriter, best known as the host of a nationally syndicated nightly U.S...
love songs show, previously heard on the late (and Clear Channel sister station) WLTQ. Delilah was later heard in Milwaukee on WMYX-FM
WMYX-FM
WMYX-FM is a Hot AC formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Identifying themselves on the air as "The Mix", WMYX-FM was the first station in the U.S. to use the "Mix" moniker. WMYX-FM has been airing roughly the same format since late 1981. The station is owned by Entercom, along with...
.
The station was famous for pioneering marathons of Christmas music
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music normally performed or heard around the Christmas season, which tends to begin in the months leading up the actual holiday and end in the weeks shortly thereafter.-Early:...
beginning on Thanksgiving Day and continuing through the holiday season, beginning in 1993.
WOKY also carried Milwaukee Panthers basketball game broadcasts from 2003 to 2007 when they moved to sister station WISN. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball games can be heard on WOKY.
The Mighty 92 Returns
On January 2, 2007, after concluding their Christmas holiday programming, WOKY came back with a new approach, an oldiesOldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format emphasizing hit songs from the 1960s and 1970s. The "Mighty 92" name returned full-time, as did many of the classic jingles the station played in its Top 40 heyday. On nights and weekends, the station used Dial Global
Dial Global
Dial Global is a radio syndication company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is a sister company to Townsquare Media, both of which are owned by Oaktree Capital Management....
's satellite-delivered "Oldies Channel" (now Kool Gold
Kool Gold
Kool Gold is a 24-hour music format produced by Dial Global. Its playlist is composed of oldies music from the mid 1960s to mid 1980s, from artists such as Billy Joel, The Beach Boys, The Supremes, Rod Stewart and dozens more artists mainly targeted at listeners 45-54...
) service.
With the new format, and to keep up with the baby boomers, WOKY did not flip to all-Christmas music in 2007. Instead, like sister WRIT
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
, they played a few Christmas tunes every hour.
AM 920 The Wolf
The station changed on September 18, 2008 to their current classic country format, which was transferred from sister station WMIL-FMWMIL-FM
WMIL-FM is a country music-formatted radio station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, licensed to Waukesha, Wisconsin. They are known on-air simply as "FM 106.1". WMIL is owned by Clear Channel Communications....
(106.1)'s HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...
subchannel as an automated station to one featuring several of WOKY's airstaff . The combined classic-current country stations were sub-branded as MIL-WOKY, Milwaukee's Country Connection.
The former Mighty 92 format can currently be heard in Milwaukee on WRIT
Writ
In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court...
95.7-HD2.
External links
- WOKY official website
- Bartell family biography with mentions of the radio stations the family owned, including WOKY
- Milwaukee radio: a retrospective
- Vintage WOKY Media