WOFX (AM)

Infobox Radio station
name = WOFX


city = Troy, New York
area = Capital District, Adirondacks, Berkshires
branding = FOX Sports Radio 980
slogan =
airdate = 1940
frequency = 980 kHz
format = Sports radio
power = 5 kW day
5 kW night
class = B
callsign_meaning = W OFX= Reversal of FOX
former_callsigns = WTRY (1940-2000)
owner = Clear Channel Communications
website = [http://www.foxsports980.com www.foxsports980.com]

WOFX, known as "Fox Sports 980", is an AM radio station broadcasting on 980 kHz licensed to Troy, New York. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and runs a sports radio format and is affiliated with FOX Sports Radio. The station serves the Capital District, Adirondacks, and Berkshires, and can be heard throughout much of the Northeast United States at night.

Programming

In addition to Fox Sports programming, the station is home to "The Jim Rome Show" in middays. The First Team on Fox is from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM, then "Big Board Sports" from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. (hosted by WNYT sportscaster Rodger Wyland). The Drive on Fox is from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. One other local program, the auto racing show "Racing with Heart" with Kim Hart, airs Sunday evenings at 9:00 p.m during the racing season. Previously, WOFX aired "Imus in the Morning", a program which predated the sports format, however the show was taken off the schedule at the end of 2006 and replaced by Fox Sports Radio's Steve Czaban.

In addition to sports talk, the station clears a sizeable amount of play by play on both the local and national levels. WOFX currently is home to New York Mets baseball, New York Jets football, University at Albany football and men's basketball, some Syracuse University basketball games not heard on WGY, plus Westwood One's coverage of the National Football League and the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship among other events. Previously, WOFX has held the rights to the New York Giants (which were moved to sister WPYX) as well as Albany River Rats hockey (currently on WTMM-FM). WOFX is also the Albany market home to the syndicated Cigar Dave show, currently airing Sunday mornings from 8:00-10:00 a.m.

In the rare case of play by play conflicts, the latter games are usually heard on sister WTRY-FM, a procedure that has become more solidly done in the wake of the mild success of UAlbany football and the success of the Mets in the 2006 season.

Programming Lineup: 2am-6am - Ben Maller 6am-9am - "The First Team On Fox" with Steve Czaban 9am-12pm - "Big Board Sports" with Rodger Wyland 12pm-3pm - The Jim Rome Show 3pm-7pm - "The Drive on Fox" with Chris Myers" 7pm-10pm - "Gametime Live" with Andrew Sicciliano 10pm-2am - "JT The Brick"

Program Director: Steve Bleznyk Chief Engineer: Dave Abdoo

(information from foxsports980.com)

WTRY

From the station's signon in 1940 until 2000, the station was known as WTRY which made an early splash by taking the CBS affiliation from WOKO. When WROW took the CBS affiliation in 1954, they briefly were the ABC affiliate before WPTR took that affiliation several years later. In the early 1960s, the station took a Top 40 format which they maintained in some form until the early 1980s when it went through a long-term evolution which resulted in the station becoming Oldies in 1986. In 1992, WTRY gained a simulcast on 98.3 FM which they lost in 1994, then regained in a mutual arrangement two years later in which the FM became primary and the AM secondary with the AM splitting for alternate programming at points.

After the merger of AMFM Inc. and Clear Channel in 2000, the WTRY stations were permanently split with the AM flipping to sports and becoming WOFX while the oldies format stayed on the FM side. In its 60 years as WTRY, it gave birth or adopted three other stations at varying times.
*WTRI(FM) 102.7 (on-air for a few years in the early 1950s, went dark)
*WTRI(TV) channel 35 (signed on 1954, underwent a major technical overhaul and sold in 1959, today is WNYT)
*WTRY-FM 106.5 (purchased ca. 1970, later became WHSH, today is WPYX)

External links

* [http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/865321 Fox Sports Radio @ FOXSports.com]
* [http://www.foxsports980.com Fox Sports Radio 980 Homepage]
*amq|WOFX