City South Paris, Maine Branding The Ox Frequency 1450 kHz | Broadcast area Oxford County, Maine Slogan Maine's Real Country | |
Translator(s) 96.9 W245CQ (South Paris) | ||
WOXO (1450 AM; "The Ox") is a radio station licensed to serve South Paris, Maine. WOXO-FM (100.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to serve Mexico, Maine. Both stations are owned by Gleason Radio Group and licensed to Mountain Valley Broadcasting, Inc. They air a country music format. WOXO's programming is also heard on W245CQ (96.9 FM) in South Paris. WOXO went on the air in 1955 as WKTQ, and WOXO-FM went on the air in 1988 as WTBM; both stations were assigned their present call letters on August 1, 2016.
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WOXO
WOXO signed on October 28, 1955 as WKTQ under the ownership of Oxford Broadcasting Corporation. In its early years, WKTQ's programming included news, music, and sports. The station affiliated with the Mutual Broadcasting System in June 1965, and switched to ABC Radio's Entertainment network in 1972. By this point, WKTQ had a variety format that included 42 hours a week of country music. The call letters were changed to WKTP in 1973.
Richard Gleason, owner of WOXO (92.7 FM) in Norway, bought WKTP for $130,000 in 1976 and changed its call letters to WXIV. The station had a country music format at the time; by 1977, WXIV had changed to a top 40 format, with 80 percent of the programming simulcast on WOXO. WXIV's call letters were changed to WOXO on November 23, 1981; the station continued to simulcast with WOXO-FM, which changed to a country music format that year. Later in the 1980s, the station shifted to religious programming; this programming was simulcast on WTME (1530 AM) in Auburn, which Gleason purchased in 1985. The call letters were changed back to WKTQ on January 15, 1986. The simulcast on WTME moved to 1240 AM in Lewiston in 1990, after Gleason acquired that facility and shut down the 1530 AM transmitter. WLLB (790 AM) in Rumford began simulcasting WKTQ and WTME in 2001, following Gleason's purchase of that station; later that year, WLLB took the WTME call letters from 1240 (which became WCNM and, in 2007, WEZR) and moved to 780 AM.
WKTQ returned to the WOXO call letters on August 1, 2016; at that time, the station began to simulcast on W245CQ (96.9 FM) and took on the country music format previously heard on WOXO-FM, which changed its call letters to WEZR-FM and began simulcasting WEZR's hot adult contemporary format.
WOXO-FM
WOXO-FM signed on September 15, 1988 as WTBM, owned by Tanist Broadcasting Corporation and programming country music, album-oriented rock, and adult contemporary music. Mountain Valley Broadcasting bought the station in 1990 and converted it to a simulcast of WOXO-FM. The station took on the WOXO-FM call letters on August 1, 2016 as part of the move of WOXO's country music programming from 92.7 FM to 1450 AM and 96.9 FM; the 100.7 facility retained the country music format.