The history of WOKY can be traced back to WEXT, a 1,000-watt daytimer radio station at 1430 kilocycles in Milwaukee. It was 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 music show hosted by local radio legend John Reddy. Gerald Bartell and Rosa Bartell met Ralph Evans II while the three worked at the student radio station of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Gerald and Rosa worked on programming and Evans was an electrical engineering student.
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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 and a new call sign, WOKY. (The 1430 frequency was reassigned in 1951 to WBEV in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 50 miles northwest of Milwaukee.) AM 920 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 Box best-seller charts and on local record sales. WOKY soon became Milwaukee's second Top 40 music station after 1340 WRIT.
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Popular disc jockeys on WOKY during the Top 40 years, from the 1950s through the 1970s, 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, 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".
As FM stations became the choice for radio listeners looking for contemporary music, WOKY shifted to an adult standards format in 1981. It became a full-time affiliate of Al Ham's Music of Your Life format, based in Connecticut.
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Here's 8 minutes of Big Ron O'Brien behind the mic on October 9, 1976. [ LISTEN ] (8:09)
Big Ron is back at the turntable, playing the Top 100 of 1976. [ LISTEN ] (12:28)
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.WOKY was briefly the Milwaukee outlet for the syndicated Delilah love songs show, previously heard on sister station 97.3 WLTQ (now WRNW). (Delilah was later heard in Milwaukee on 99.1 WMYX-FM.) WOKY also carried Milwaukee Panthers basketball game broadcasts from 2003 to 2007 when the team moved to sister station 1130 WISN. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's basketball games can be heard on WOKY.
In 1997, WOKY and co-owned 106.1 WMIL-FM were bought for $40 million by Clear Channel Communications, the forerunner of iHeartMedia.
On January 2, 2013, Clear Channel Milwaukee announced that WOKY would drop its classic country format and adopt a sports radio format on January 7. (In reality the branding launched on January 5 during the station's broadcasts of Wild Card Weekend games from Dial Global.) Branded as "The Big 920," the new WOKY schedule became a near-simulcast of its Madison sister station, WTSO ("The Big 1070"), featuring Wisconsin-based local sports shows hosted by Brian Posick, Mike Heller, Matt Lepay and Mike Lucas. Also heard were national shows featuring Jay Mohr, The Dan Patrick Show, and NBC Sports Radio, along with live event broadcasts that have been airing previously on WOKY, notably football, NASCAR, and the UW-Milwaukee Panthers. The move made WOKY the third English-language all-sports station in the Milwaukee market, joining 540 WAUK, 1250 WSSP, along with news/talk-formatted 620 WTMJ's commitment to evening sports talk and play by play coverage of Milwaukee Brewers baseball and Green Bay Packers football.
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-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 sister station WRIT-FM due to WOKY's weak nighttime signal.
