Broadcast area Columbus, Ohio ERP 22,000 watts Class B Frequency 92.3 MHz Format Country music Area Columbus | First air date 1948 HAAT 230 meters Facility ID 25037 City of license Columbus Owner iHeartMedia Inc Branding 92.3 WCOL | |
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Slogan Continuous Country Favorites | ||
WCOL-FM (92.3 FM) is a country music radio station in Columbus, Ohio owned by iHeartMedia. Its brand identifier is Columbus' Country, 92.3 WCOL. The call sign represents the city of license (W-Columbus). The country format has been in place since February 14, 1992, when it transitioned from an oldies format (known as "Cool 92"). Its studios are located in West Columbus at 2323 W. 5th Ave., and the transmitter site is northwest of downtown on the WBNS-TV tower.
History
WCOL-FM first came on the air in 1948. In the early 1970s, it carried religious programming in the daytime and rock music in the evening. During the 1970s, WCOL-FM was known as "Stereo Rock 92, The New WCOL FM" and largely played Rock 'N' Roll, from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, the station used the WXGT call letters and reborned as "The New 92X FM". During this period, then-locally famous Suzy Waud anchored evening broadcasting. When the country format was ushered in, the station stunted over the course of several days by broadcasting a computerized numeric countdown.
92X launched the careers of several major market disc jockeys during the 1980s, including Joseph "Smokin' Joe" Dawson (later at B96 in Chicago), Gary Spears (also later at B96 and then at KIIS-FM in Los Angeles), Baltazar (who went to WQHT a.k.a. Hot 97 in New York after that, and then he went to WJMN, & now he's on WBQT both in Boston), and Douglas Ritterling, whose on-air name was Doug Ritter (who later went to KITS a.k.a. Live 105 in San Francisco), WXGT dominated the CHR/AOR a.k.a. the Rock/40 hybrid format in Columbus, Ohio during most of the decade.
The WCOL call sign had also been used on an AM band station, which was the area's primary Top 40 station in the 1960s and early 1970s and was branded as "The New WCOL" and "Super 'COL" It briefly returned to its Top 40 roots in the early 1990s simulcasting "Cool 92" and in automated form as "Real Oldies 1230 AM WCOL" from 2003 to 2004. That station is now known as WYTS and is an affiliate of the Fox Sports Radio network.
WCOL became country format in 1992 stunting 5,000 songs in a row
WCOL-FM is one of three country music outlets in Columbus, the most of any radio in the market in Ohio, as it faces competition with WHOK-FM and WCLT-FM for country music listenership in Columbus. However, WCOL-FM is the only country station in Columbus that covers the entire metropolitan area with a full powered signal.