City St. Augustine, Florida Branding Newstalk 102.1 FM | Broadcast area St. Augustine, Florida Frequency 1240 kHz | |
Slogan The Voice of St. Johns County Translator(s) W271CJ 102.1 MHz, St. Augustine | ||
WFOY (1240 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a News/talk format. Licensed to St. Augustine, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Phillips Broadcasting. The station is repeated in St. Augustine on an FM translator, W271CJ/102.1.
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History
Considered to be the oldest radio station in St. Augustine, WFOY signed on at 15:45 on Thursday, February 11, 1937 on 1210 kHz at a power of 100 watts, despite claims that the station started July 7, 1936 (more likely the 1936 date is when the construction permit was issued).
WFOY was originally owned by the operators of the Fountain of Youth park, where the station remained until March 12, 2003 (although the park and radio station parted owners). With the NARBA shift of 1941, WFOY shifted from 1210 to 1240 kHz (the new home of all stations formerly on 1210). Over the years WFOY gained power increases to 250 watts (first in the daytime only, then continuously) and then 1,000 watts (again, daytime only at first, then continuously). When WFOY vacated its property to move to the WAOC building, it had to reduce power to 580 watts to avoid interfering with WIYD/1260 in Palatka and other stations on or around 1240.
In August 1965, WFOY added FM service on 97.7 MHz, which was primarily a simulcast of WFOY. With Shull Broadcasting taking possession of WFOY & WFOY-FM in April 1984, the FM became WUVU "View 97.7 FM" with a rock format. WUVU was sold in 1992 when it increased power to 50 kW and shifted frequency to 97.9 MHz. Today, this station is WKSL "97.9 KISS FM" and is owned by iHeartMedia. FM service returned to the site in 1993 when Flagler College's WFCF/88.5 began broadcasting.
Shull Broadcasting bought competing AM station WAOC/1420 in 2002 and sold off WFOY's property at 1 Radio Road in St. Augustine to developers. WFOY moved its studios and transmitter to the WAOC building at 567 Lewis Point Road Extension from where WAOC, WAYL and WSJF transmit. WFCF moved to its own property where it was able to increase power to 10 kW (Class C3) up from the previously authorized 6 kW (full Class A).
Famous alumni
Programming
WFOY had been an affiliate of CBS Radio from 1940 to 2006 and rejoined the network in 2012. Today it broadcasts a news/talk format including Rush Limbaugh, Dave Ramsey, and other talk programming. Local programming is featured throughout the day.
On July 1, 2006, the station began streaming on the Internet.
Also in 2006, an article appeared in the St. Augustine Record about Shull Broadcasting's sale of the station (along with WAOC) to Florida-based Phillips Broadcasting, a minority-owned broadcasting company owned by Kristine Phillips.
On April 16, 2013, Kristine Phillips and Michael Gold, editor of Historic City News, announced that an agreement for Historic City News to become the WFOY Internet news partner.